Yellow Team
Risk Management Plan
December 10, 2010
Risk Management Plan
Authors
Last Updated
Document Purpose
Version
Status
Jay Winborne
December 12, 2010
Risk Management Plan for uRaise
1.0
Final
Yellow Team
Risk Management Plan
December 10, 2010
Risk Management Plan
Abstract
This document details the various risks associated with developing the uRaise product and
contains information on how we plan to mitigate those risks. All risks are defined as being
either a customer risk, a technical risk, a financial risk, or a legal risk, and an associated
probability and impact level is given to each one.
Risk Matrix
I
M
P
A
C
T
5
T1,
L1
4
C1,
T2
F1
3
F2
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
PROBABILITY
Fig 1.1 – Risk Matrix
Financial Risks
F1 – Not enough
customers to cover
expenses
F2 – Unwillingness of
organizations to use
the tool
Legal Risks
L1 – Credit card
information stolen
Technical Risks
T1 - App Engine
servers fail
T2 – Mobile
donations
Customer Risks
L1 – Credit card
information stolen
Yellow Team
Risk Management Plan
December 10, 2010
Risk Analysis
Financial Risks
F1 - Not enough customers to cover expenses
Probability: Low
Impact: Very high
Explanation: When developing a product like uRaise there is always the possibility of not being
able to get enough customers to maintain operations, and as a result, the impact for this risk is
very high. The probability is low because the uRaise team has developed a very thorough
funding plan and we believe we can keep our expenses low enough to remain operational.
Mitigation: Covering expenses will be an ongoing process that will require a good marketing
plan and informed financial decisions. One way in which we plan to mitigate this risk is by
decreasing the fundraising overhead by automating various processes and reducing manual
work.
F2 - Unwillingness of organizations to use the tool
Probability: Low
Impact: Low
Explanation: It is possible that organizations will either not take note of the product or simply
not see how they may benefit from it (and subsequently, not use the product at all). Both
impact and probability for this risk are low, however, because the innovative features of uRaise
should attract organizations to the product.
Mitigation: Ease of use/reduction of overhead will provide incentive for organizations to use
uRaise, and social network integration will make it easier to reach more people.
Yellow Team
Risk Management Plan
December 10, 2010
Legal Risks
L1 - Credit card information stolen
Probability: Very low
Impact: Very high
Explanation: All donations will be handled electronically, and as a result there is an inherent risk
of credit card information being compromised. This risk has the potential to be very dangerous
for uRaise, but the probability of it becoming an issue is very low. This is because there are
known ways in order to deal with this issue, and this is elaborated on in the mitigation section.
Mitigation: Complying with PCI standards will help to keep credit card information secure and
reduce legal liability for the customers.
Technical Risks
T1 - App Engine servers fail
Probability: Very low
Impact: Very high
Explanation: An app engine server failure will make users and customers unable to utilize the
uRaise application. The probability is very low because Google app engine is very reliable and
fault tolerant. The impact is very high because a failure would make the application stop
working entirely.
Mitigation: To alleviate this issue, the uRaise developers will need to make sure that the system
architecture can be ported to any platform. This will make an app engine failure far less
devastating.
Yellow Team
Risk Management Plan
December 10, 2010
T2 - Mobile donations
Probability: Very low
Impact: High
Explanation: It can be tricky handling donations with mobile devices, and in order to enable this
capability, plans need to be made to cooperate with cell phone providers. The probability that
this would create problems is very low, but the impact is high because it involves one of the
more innovative aspects of the uRaise project.
Mitigation: A common practice is to contract with various cell phone providers so the donated
amount can be paid through the cell phone bill. In order to enable mobile donations the uRaise
developers will be required to do this.
Customer Risks
C1 - Customer data being compromised
Probability: Very low
Impact: Very high
Explanation:
Mitigation: Plans have been made to purchase a VeriSign certificate to enable powerful SSL
encryption for all customers and potential users. This will ensure that all incoming and
outgoing information will be encrypted so that it cannot be tampered with.