| Risks | Type | Degree | Mitigation |
| Developing on a Linux platform | Technical | Medium | Not all developers will be familiar to developing on Linux. However, we have planned to use very generic programming languages like C++ and QT(C++ like) for our user interface development. This should ease the shift of moving to a new platform. We also have at least one person on this group who is very familiar with developing commercial software on linux. He should be able to pass on his experience especially during pair-programming in an XP process and even get the rest of the team jump started by giving them a short crash course in using Linux.We have also been able to procure Linux expert who will serve as an outside Linux guru/guide. |
| Using Wi-Fi On Linux | Technical | Medium | Linux kernels 2.2 and 2.4.x come with a wirless tools package that hide all the Wi-Fi related details from the developers and relegates using wi-fi to a matter of making a bunch of system calls. |
| Installing Linux and a Wireless n/w with atleast 2 PC's | Project | Medium | We need to find a driver for the Wi-Fi card that we would like to use for the development. A number of Wi-Fi cards are available that are supported very well under both linux and windows. The idea would be to buy your Wi-Fi card from the same vendor who makes your base-station(e.g. CISCO, Agere, D1etc.) Plus we plan to have only one such set of linux based PC's available at start so that the rest of the developers do not have to rush to get a Wi-Fi card or for that matter even install linux to do development and testing. We have agreed on one of the project members to set up such a system with accounts for each of the developers on the pair of linux running PC's. |
| Team's lack of experience using QT to develop user interface | Technical | Medium | Most programmers taking CS327 have a working knowledge of C++. QT is a set of C++ libraries and development tools. http://www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/development/story/0,10801,71215,00.html |
| Scope of project is too large to complete in 2 semesters | Project | Medium | XP should be beneficial if team needs to scale back or change the scope. The idea is to build the most useful thing first. This should give the customer good value for the time spent developing. |
| New people on the project for the next semester will need to catch up quickly. | Project | Low | In XP's case, the assumption here is that we'll have some returning team members who will help the new members to get started during pair-programming where the new team members shall get a chance to get themselves familiarised with the code by starting off first by refactoring the code and eventually adding new code. |
| Using XP for software development | Project | Low | There is a very good probability that most of the developers have not used XP for software development. However, we do have one person on the team who has worked on an XP project so that should help. Also, we already have someone ready to serve as an external customer, and that should definitely help us in using XP more thouroughly. |
| File transfer is too slow for today's busy user | Technical | Low | Checked Wi-fi specs and transfer speed should be acceptable(11Mbps) |
| No external users will want to use our software | Business | Low | Not a concern because we are not investing money into this project |