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Information systems development (ISD) project management involves planning, organizing resources, measuring and controlling progress against plans with an overall goal of achieving a set of project objectives, including schedule, cost, and quality. The purpose of project control is to provide an understanding of project¡¦s progress so that appropriate corrective actions can be taken when the project¡¦s performance deviates significantly from the plan. Because the management of ISD is nonroutine and difficult, it provides a classic example of the issues associated with structuring control mechanisms for complex tasks. For the rapid development of information technology and the quick change of environment, companies are increasingly outsourcing all or part of their IS activities, including IS development. Become a partnership of strategic alliance between the client and the vendor is the trend of IS outsourcing activities. The truly critical success factors associated with successful outsourcing are those associated with vendor governance. An important aspect of this governance is how the client exercise control over the vendor. Outsourced ISD projects pose unique problems that make the task of controlling them particularly challenging. This research views control broadly, in a behavioral sense. The behavioral view of control implies that the controller uses certain devices, or control mechanisms, to promote desired behavior by the controllee. These control mechanisms help implement control modes, which may broadly be divided into formal controls and informal controls. Two types of formal controls have been commonly considered in prior literature, including outcome control and behavior control. Informal controls are also of two types: clan control and self-control. This study employs control theory to establish the research model, and examines the factors influencing the choice of control modes, the dynamics of control, and evolution of portfolio of controls over the duration of outsourced ISD projects. The differences between the internal ISD and the outsourced IS projects are also examined. Drawing from the case study, it concludes that some findings from research on control of internal ISD projects apply to the outsourced context as well, but with some interesting differences¡G (1)At the choice of formal controls, there is no distinction between the internal ISD and the outsourced ISD projects. (2)At the choice of informal controls, there is obvious distinction between the internal ISD and the outsourced ISD projects. (3)In a strategic alliance context, it is expected that informal controls could be exercised in the outsourced ISD projects, as well as in the internal ISD projects. The degree of informal controls could be exercised is determined by the role expectations and the long-term cooperation between the client firms and the vendors.

This thesis deals with project management and methodologies for information systems implementation, particularly for IS of SAP AG. The first part of the work describes basic problems of project management and introduces certain project management methodologies. ASAP and ASAP Focus methodologies are described in more detail. The second part of this work uses these fundamentals to analyze frequent problems on projects of real company that implements pre-customized IS of SAP AG. Solutions for these problems are proposed and a brief methodology is created as a result of the work.

Yes / Information systems (IS) project failure has been a recurring problem for decades. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine the key factors that influence project failure and an analysis of the major areas that can have a significant impact on success; and second, to explore some of the key aspects that have an impact on project management performance from the practitioner perspective and discusses the problems faced by organizations in the closer integration of change and project management. Design/methodology/approach: This study critically reviews the IS failure literature developing a synthesized view of the key issues and common reasons for projects to fail. The approach taken in this study is one that focuses on a number of key questions that pull together the relevant themes in this genre of research whilst highlighting many of the implications for practitioners and organizations alike. Findings: Key questions remain on the underlying causes of instances of poor project management as an IS failure factor. The literature has omitted to develop a deeper analysis of the associations between failure factors and the potential causal relationships between these factors. The realization of project benefits relies on the success of both change and project management yet the formal integration of these two disciplines is constrained by separate standards bodies and an immature body of research. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited by its theoretical nature lacking an empirical element to provide a deeper analysis of IS failure factors and their interrelationships. This specific area is a recommendation for future research, where causal relationships between failure factors could be developed via a mathematic-based method such as interpretive structural modeling. Practical implications: With failure rates of IS projects still unacceptably high after decades of attempts to significantly change outcomes, a deeper analysis of this topic is required. The research gaps and recommendations for practitioners highlighted in this study have the potential to provide valuable contributions to this topic of research. Originality/value: The intent of this study is to present a new perspective of this genre of IS research that develops the main arguments and gaps in the literature from the practitioner viewpoint.

Software development is notorious for failure, typically defined as over budget, late delivery and/or poor quality of new information systems (IS) on project completion. The consequences of such failure can be enormous, particularly financially. As such, there is consensus by practitioners and academics alike that this practice is unacceptable. Yet with a variety of accepted development methods and tools available for use by software developers and project managers, there is still no significant reduction in the size or frequency of failure reported. In an attempt to understand the conflicts which arise in the development environment in which developers and project managers must operate, the research area is the role and value of ethics in the development of managed software projects. A definition of ethics in this context was provided by the IEEE/ACM Code of Ethics. Research was additionally conducted to understand how other professions and business areas define and enforce ethics in their respective working environments. These were (UK) Law, Finance, Retail and, law practice in the European Union. Interpretive research was then conducted to enable software development practices to be understood from the view of developers and project managers in industry. Unethical practices were then identified in a large IT company based in west London via a single, six month in-depth case study, with the data collected analysed via a series of repertory grids. Analysis and triangulation of the data collected via interviews, document analysis and observations led to an improved understanding of the causes of the unethical practices found. Conclusions and recommendations are then provided relating to implications for (a) the company participating in the research, (b) the application of the IEEE/ACM Code in industry (c) theory for ethicists.

Yes / This research critically analyzes the Interpretive Ranking Process (IRP) using an illustrative empirically derived IS project failure related case study to articulate a deeper understanding of the method. The findings emphasize the suitability of the method for a number of practical applications, but also highlight the limitations for larger matrix sized problems. The IRP process to derive the dominance between IS project failure factors is judged to be methodical and systematic, enabling the development of clear dominating interactions.

This research addressed the need for in-depth investigation of what actually happens in the practice of risk management in software package implementation projects. There is strong 'official' sanction in the IT literature for the use of formal risk management processes for IT projects but there is a confused picture of their application in practice. While many potential risk factors for IT projects have been identified, and formal procedures have been prescribed for the management of these risks, there has been little work investigating how project managers assess these risks in practice and what countermeasures they employ against these risks in their projects. In particular, the study used an interpretive critical decision interview approach to focus on those areas of risk management knowledge that project managers have acquired through experience, i.e. tacit knowledge. A new categorization of risk factors emanating from three sources -- vendor, client, and third party -reveals risk factors not previously identified. Some of these new factors arise from the three sources noted, while others arise from the package implementation focus of the projects and from aspects arising from the location of the projects in Hong Kong. Key factors that cause problems even when anticipated and mitigated, and the most often unanticipated problems are also identified. The study further presents an examination of the studied managers' risk management practices, and the strategies they use to address both potential and actual problems. This examination revealed close conformance with recommended literature prescriptions at some stages of projects, and significant variation at other stages, with strategies applied being broad and general rather than risk specific. A useful categorization of these strategies into four broad groups relating to different sets of risk factors is presented, reflecting the actual practice of respondents. Tacit knowledge was revealed throughout these investigations in the variances observed between prescribed and actual practice, and particularly from an examination of project managers' decision-making practices from two different perspectives - rational and naturalistic. A hybrid decision-making model is proposed to capture the actual processes observed, and to provide prescriptive guidance for risk management practice. The investigation makes a contribution to the field of IT project risk management in three ways. First, the investigation has addressed the need for empirical studies into IT risk management practices and the factors influencing project managers in their choice and application of strategies to manage risk. Second, by examining how experienced IT project managers approach the task of managing risk in software package implementations, the study has extended our understanding of the nature of the knowledge and skills that effective IT project managers develop through experience. Third, the study makes a theoretical contribution to our understanding of IT project risk management by examining the decision-making processes followed by IT project managers from the perspective of two contrasting theories of decision-making - the rational method and the Naturalistic Decision Making theory.

Information systems (IS) development represents a significant area of research interest in the IS discipline. Despite this interest, IS development projects consistently fall short in delivering anticipated outcomes within time, quality and cost constraints. Attempts by researchers to uncover contributors to high failure rates are complicated by fragmented views of the nature of the problem. These range from challenges to the validity of performance reports to contesting the conceptualization of success. Furthermore, there is a tendency in practice to address immediate symptomatic problems of IS project failure rather than resolve the fundamental issues. Consequently, recent measures indicate that 48% of IS projects fail to meet time commitments, 33% exceed their budget, 32% don’t achieve their business objectives and 15% fail outright. This PhD thesis presents research to explore and offer explanatory theory of how culture and leadership are implicated in the performance of IS development projects. Importantly, IS development is positioned as a form of social interaction. Thus, an understanding of the social context and the situated meanings that arise through social interaction are necessary conditions to effectively explore this research topic. Within this context the study reveals the performative nature of IS development work and offers explanations for the actions of organizational leaders and IS technical specialists involved in IS development. An interpretive research paradigm and inductive reasoning were adopted for this research and understanding is developed through a hermeneutic mode of inquiry. Two IS projects responsible for delivering strategic benefit to an organization in the financial services sector are the two cases in this study. Qualitative data were collected through interviews, observation and documentary evidence between January 2017 and June 2017. The nature of the relationships between culture, leadership and performance in the course of IS development work was revealed through two analytical iterations. The first iteration used the theory of Cultural Implications in Information Systems Development as a structural framework to support a thematic analysis of the data. A second iteration used frame analysis as a theoretical foundation to examine the interplay of culture, leadership and performance through a within-case and cross-case analysis of the two cases. Key contributions from this research include the development of a conceptual model explaining cultural implications in IS development, the development of an explanatory theory of the entangled nature of culture and leadership and the performance of IS projects, and 11 propositions that offer a basis for testing the emergent theory in future empirical studies. The findings from the research also reveal the performative nature of IS development work and identify concepts important to organizational managers and IS technical specialists. While the theory emerged in the context of IS development projects and the concepts in the emergent theory are central to the practice of IS development, each could be equally relevant to other IS phenomena where culture, leadership and performance are implicated, such as IS management and offshoring. The grounding of theoretical concepts to empirical data enabled the application of the theory to practice; practical guidelines are offered in respect of the influences of culture and leadership on the performance of IS development projects. This research supports the suitability of the Cultural Dynamics Model as a sensitizing lens for data collection in interpretive studies where culture is implicated.

Information system projects are gaining immense popularity among the manufacturing organisations across the globe. Due to the challenges associated with the information system project management with the manufacturing organisation, organisations have started focusing on technology-oriented solutions such as Information system (IS) projects. However, the success or failure of these projects is ultimately dependent on a range of critical success factors. The purpose of the research was to investigate the Critical Success Factors (CSF) in an Information System (IS) project using the case of Wartsila, a manufacturing organisation operating in marine and energy sector. For this purpose, a qualitative research method was adopted with semi-structured interviews carried out with the IT manager, the Integration Manager (Int. M), and the project teams involved in the project. Thematic analysis, which was chosen as the appropriate data analysis method, assisted in the identification of several codes that were categorized and finally guided to the extraction of seven (7) key themes. A conceptual framework was drawn from the secondary literature review containing CSF within the two major categories such as subjective and objective CSFs. The set of subjective CSFs included project management and team member, commitment and management support, training, change management perceptions, communication, and project planning and management. On the other side, the set of objective CSFs included the process of redesigning, technological difficulties in system design, costs, time engineering, and quality.   These literature-based factors were simultaneously analysed by the responses of the interviewees, ultimately ending up in the development of a modified and comprehensive framework for the manufacturing organisation. The findings revealed the significance of subjective factor in shaping the accomplishment of objective factors, drive the project towards the success. These findings have further recommended the need for culturally sensitive ‘training’ and integration of formal and informal ‘communication’ methods for the success of the projects in the manufacturing organisations.

This dissertation investigates how executives engage in information technology projects and how organizational control of IT projects forms and evolves over time. It contains an in-depth account of a large, multi-year IT project in a financial company. The story of the “New Deposit System” project provides insights into the dynamics of IT projects in organizations and the challenges facing executives engaging in the governance of these complex undertakings. Several characteristics of IT projects, such as their abstract nature, technological complexity and non-repetitiveness, render several of the manager’s trusted forms of control impracticable. Even the ideal of “strong top management support” is found to be problematic: it is an extraordinary measure unlikely to translate well into regular organizational practice. What we find instead are actors in search of means and ways to exercise influence. We find control to be reciprocal and dynamic, influenced by the organization and its history, by the principles and practices of corporate IT management and by the values and norms of the IT profession. In this environment, selection of key people, evolving trust, other people’s assessments and the construction and reshaping of a project image become important parts of the managerial repertoire for IT project governance. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2002