List of Tables List of Figures Executive Summary

Contents Executive Summary 4 Introduction 6 1 Risk in a broader concept: a high-level review of definition 9 1. In assessing a project, both an inside and an outside view is required in order to get the 360 • perspective that allows a correct assessment. The inside perspective is included in the project's plan, since stakeholders require a project plan before committing. However, the outside perspective is equally as important and the success of the project depends on it as well. Therefore, this thesis proposes a framework for analysing external risk factors that may hinder the outcome of a project. It helps identify risks and the probability of them occurring, thus setting the starting point for risk management, which will also include the potential impact and mitigation actions. Given the current global context, this thesis focuses on Information Communication Technology (ICT) related projects and aims to provide a reliable framework for their external risk analysis. The proposed approach for such an analysis is the STEEP-M framework, which gathers six dimensions of the operating environment: Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political & Legal, and Military. With this approach to external risk analysis, the scope of this thesis is to answer the research question: Is the STEEP-M risk analysis framework a reliable tool for identifying external risks for an e-Participation project? The Puzzled by Policy project was selected to evaluate the validity of the framework. The results of the analysis will be compared with the official Evaluation Report in order to determine if the STEEP-M framework could have correctly assessed the risks that threatened the project when it started, in 2010. Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to the director of my master's and second supervisor Prof. Dr. Hans Le Fever for his guidance throughout my program and for his trust in the path I have chosen for my thesis. I would also like to thank my first supervisor Prof. Dr. Stephan Pickl for his support and for making it possible for me to have done my thesis research at the University of Bunderswehr from Munich. He launched his invitation to go to Munich for my master's research during the Management Science course from February 2013; one year later I was there. Thus, I would like to also thank the studies coordinators of the ICT in Business, Ms. Judith Havelaar and the international office coordinator of the Faculty of Science, Mr. …