Information flows and risk management in innovation-driven, collaborative ventures

Abstract

Risk management intertwines with information exchange in any collaborative venture. We consider four aspects of risk management (standard, compliance, security and disaster/catastrophe) with very different types of handlers, and often with different teams being responsible. Comprehensive assurance requires satisfaction of the criteria for each aspect, but each has its own perspective and knowledge base, and these are not always well-aligned or easily integrated. Creating a comprehensive risk management plan requires correlation of these aspects, and we therefore examine the information flows needed between their handlers and their respective teams. We then analyze the interaction of information flows and risk analysis in collaborative projects involving innovation, knowledge-rich environments, and knowledge-generating products such as software-intensive systems. In particular, we focus on inter-organizational ventures, in which organizational interests and perspectives form another obstacle to effective risk management, and consider other impacts on collaboration.