SLA: A legal assurance process model for software engineering management

The legal assurance activities and measures are a key element for the viability of information systems projects because nowadays there can arise legal risks in some cases, which can be a serious threat for project commercial and financial success. In spite of this, there does not exist in the main evaluation and improvement processes models a process of legal assurance that systematizes and orders the activities and measures precisely by to manage such legal risks. On the other hand, the professional practice does not generally incorporate standardized processes in order to discipline the legal assurance activities and measures. This circumstance can generate the appearance of deficits in the project's legal security. This work proposes to consider the legal assurance activities and measures as a process to implement more in the evaluation and improvement processes models, with the objective to provide a suitable instrument for the management of inherent legal risks to any information systems project. This concept of the legal assurance activities and measures as a process allows the exceeding of the present reactivity characteristic of the effective professional practice and elevates it to proactive management, suitable for avoiding the legal risks that can threaten the project. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.