Risk is the boogeyman of all IT projects. There are schools of thought in technology project management which state that risk management is the number one key determiner of success. Not that you can ignore everything else, but if you maintain a single minded focus on burning down your exposure to risks and remedying risks that materialize as soon as absolutelypossible, you will have the very best chance of success.

There is some logic to this in that, if you take risk out of an IT project, it becomes straightforward. And your management becomes a mathematical implementation focused in managing to the triple constraint.

To research IT or technology projects that have failed or hit some significant struggles due to unaccounted for risks materializing and not being addressed. Answer these questions:

1. What was the situation?
2. What was the risk?
3. How did it materialize?
4. When was it recognized?
5. Whether it was dealt with successfully or not, what might have been done differently to better address the risk?