This is the digital version of the printed book (Copyright 2003). If There's No Risk On Your Next Project, Don't Do It. Greater risk brings greater reward, especially in software development. A company that runs away from risk will soon find itself lagging behind its more adventurous competition. By ignoring the threat of negative outcomesin the name of positive thinking or a can-do attitudesoftware managers drive their organizations into the ground. In Waltzing with Bears, Tom DeMarco and Timothy Listerthe best-selling authors of Peoplewareshow readers how to identify and embrace worthwhile risks. Developers are then set free to push the limits. The authors present the benefits of risk management, including that it makes aggressive risk-taking possible, protects management from getting blindsided, provides minimum-cost downside protection, reveals invisible transfers of responsibility, isolates the failure of a subproject. Readers are armed with strategies for confronting the most common risks that software projects face: schedule flaws, requirements inflation, turnover, specification breakdown, and under-performance. Waltzing with Bears will help you mitigate the risksbefore they turn into project-killing problems. Risks are out thereand they should be therebut there is a way to manage them.