Uppsatsen inleds med att olika definitioner och kategoriseringar av bristfälliga och misslyckade informationssystem behandlas. Olika tidigare identifierade anledningar tillbrister och misslyckanden presenteras sedan. Några bristande informationssystem hos en kommun undersöks för att finna vad som brister. En modell har tagits fram för att undvika framtida brister och misslyckanden. Tydliga brister som har framkommit inkluderar dålig användarinvolvering och dålig projektstyrning från kommunen. / The essay starts with defining and categorizing of information systems with flaws or failure. Flaws and failures identified from previous studies are then presented. A few informationsystems with flaws in a municipality are then examined to find what in them that flaws. To avoid future flaws and failure a model has been developed. Some significant flaws that has emerged include poor involvement of users and the lack of project management in the municipality.

Problem: While the multinational teams consisting of members from different nationalities,backgrounds and cultures have advantages of diversity in the workplace, the differencesbetween team members can also pose the challenges. Our study focuses on InformationTechnology (IT) project teams in organizations located in Sweden. The rapid growth oftechnology and IT sector, increasing demand in IT professionals, and the knowledge ofwriting universal code allow people to work internationally regardless of citizenship.Therefore, the workforce in the IT sector is rapidly growing and diversifying — it ischaracterized by teams consisting of different nationalities. However, these differences incultures, languages and nationalities can complicate the communication processes betweenthe team members. Therefore, efficient cross-cultural communication within a team isessential for team collaboration and performance. Purpose: The study aims to find the significant issues in the process of adaptation to the newculturally diverse environment faced by immigrant professionals in IT project teams. Thestudy mainly focuses on an individual level, consequently expanding it to a collective level,as the related challenges refer to collaboration among the team members. Method: The study was conducted by interviewing immigrant professionals who have beenworking in IT project teams in the companies, located in Sweden. The participants belong tosix different nationalities and have worked in Sweden for approximately 2-8 years. They areall male aged between 30-33 years old. After the interviews, we can present findings, whichdemonstrate the points of similarity and difference. Conclusion: Technology, which is a significant factor in IT projects, constantly changes, andtherefore, IT project teams that work with innovation require high adaptability to explore newopportunities. That makes effective coordination and communication essential. In theculturally diverse team, managers should manage global mindset and cultural intelligence forindividuals to help team members in adaptation process. Cross-cultural training should beprovided to the migrant professionals in the team to avoid miscommunication based oncultural differences, hence overcoming challenges.

Com o objetivo de manter a competitividade frente às mudanças, as organizações estão estruturando-se por projetos. Isto ocorre porque o projeto é um processo único, com início, meio e fim determinados, para atingir um objetivo específico, de acordo com escopo, custo e prazo, e que permite maior flexibilidade em um ambiente em transformação. Este movimento gera um incremento na demanda por indivíduos capazes de realizar a gestão destes projetos e, consequentemente, evidencia a importância de conhecer as competências relevantes para este profissional. Com o objetivo de identificar as competências requeridas para o exercício do cargo de gerente de projetos de TI em empresas da grande Porto Alegre, realizou-se uma pesquisa de abordagem qualitativa e caráter descritivo, mediante entrevistas semiestruturadas com roteiro prévio. Através de amostragem não probabilística, os sujeitos são profissionais que exercem o papel de gerente de projeto de TI na região metropolitana de Porto Alegre. Os dados obtidos foram interpretados com base nos preceitos das técnicas de análise de conteúdo, permitindo uma análise dos significados das mensagens contidas nas entrevistas. Os resultados demonstraram que as competências de conhecimento, competências pessoais, competências de atuação e competências técnicas específicas são relevantes para os participantes da pesquisa, com ênfase às competências pessoais, tais quais: comunicação, liderança, organização, negociação e profissionalismo. Além disso, os entrevistados apresentaram uma trajetória de carreira ocasional e apontaram que as competências mais valorizadas pelas organizações são liderança, comunicação, visão sistêmica, foco no resultado e competências técnicas específicas. Os achados manifestam o alinhamento com o framework de competências do PMI, PMCD, no que diz respeito às competências pessoais e de atuação. As competências pessoais foram realçadas pelos entrevistados como as habilidades mais relevantes na execução da função de gerente de projetos. / To be competitive in an era of constant changes, companies are moving from traditional organizational structures to project based ones. Projects characteristics - such as having predefined timeframe, scope and objectives - bring more flexibility to the companies in an everchanging environment. This shift creates a higher demand for capable project managers and highlights the relevance of companies knowing the important competencies for those professionals. A research was conducted to identify the required competencies for the professional practice of an IT project manager in companies in Porto Alegre metropolitan area. The subjects were selected project management professionals who worked in those companies. With a nonprobability sample, the descriptive qualitative research was based on semi-structured interviews with a predefined script. Data was interpreted with the use of content analysis technique, which allowed the evaluation of the messages within the interviews. Knowledge competencies, personal competencies, performance competencies and technical competencies were all considered relevant to the participants and some personal skills such as communication capabilities, organization, negotiation and professionalism were the most emphasized. From the organizations’ viewpoints, leadership, communication, systemic view, resultorientation and specific technical skills were pointed as the most valued competencies for project management professionals. The findings are in consonance with the Project Manager Competency Development framework of the Project Management Institute about the personal and performance competencies. Personal competencies were identified as the most relevant skills for a project manager to properly perform their activities.

The low retention rate of information technology (IT) project managers from a region in the southeastern United States has increased an organization's operational costs and decreased the organization's global competitiveness. The conceptual foundation for this study was the resource-based theory of competitive advantage. This multiple case study explored IT project managers' perceptions of the factors that contributed to their retention. Participants in the study included 10 IT project managers with at least 5 years of experience who were also members of a chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI). Semistructured interviews were conducted via teleconference to collect data that were subjected to a thematic analysis. Three key themes emerged from the analysis: an understanding of project management, challenging work, and certification support. The results of the study might provide those individuals in charge of hiring IT project managers with criteria that define what these IT project managers require as well what benefits can be offered and what methods can be applied in retaining these IT Project Managers. Findings from the study have implications for positive social change by contributing to the project management body of knowledge, positioning companies competitively, and effectively engaging IT project managers.

委外應用在資訊系統上已行之有年，但自柯達公司有計畫地將大量資訊活動委外之後，引發業界與學術界的關切與研究。委外有種種優點值得企業採納，但是根據實際委外的經驗指出，委外有其風險，使得企業未蒙其利反受其害。文獻指出一個成功的委外程序是一連串的過程：自委外的決策考量開始，經過需求定義、選擇承包商、談判合約書、到系統建置與監督，每一階段都需要用心經營。大多數委外相關研究偏重在委外的前期，而本文的焦點放在委外後期的關係管理。根據文獻探討所整理出的概念模式，經由個案訪談之後，深度瞭解台灣中小企業在委外過程中實際運用的管理技巧以及所遭遇到的困難。本研究提出六個命題說明中小企業與廠商之間關係形成的前因後果，最後並提出中小企業在進行資訊系統委外之際，在關係管理上應注意的事項。

<p>Date: 12-June-2008</p><p>Authors: Muhammad Saeed – 760721</p><p>Västerås – Sweden</p><p>Mehmood Ziauddin – 830730</p><p>Västerås – Sweden</p><p>Title: A Structured Approach for Evaluating Risk Impacts in IT Projects</p><p>Introduction: Risk is an integral part of any project and it’s more appropriate to say for IT because it is changing with a very fast pace. Different surveys, reports and researches show astonishing statistics about the risks in IT projects. Through proper risk assessment techniques most of the uncertainties can be reduced while initiating, implementing and improving IT projects. Different authors talk about different risks and different strategies to respond to them. It becomes difficult at times to keep in check all the risks. Often risk management is over hyped, and often it’s totally neglected. Their needs to be a balanced approached in risk management.</p><p>Problem: How a structured approach will be beneficial for an organization in assessing risk impacts on IT Projects?</p><p>Purpose: The aim of this report is to develop and analyze a structured approach which will permit an organization in identifying & categorizing risks and measuring their impact on IT Projects.</p><p>Method: Exploratory research approach is used and data collection is done using secondary sources. Our thesis is qualitative research based. Qualitative research is the one which is not relying on statistical data as compared to quantitative research.</p><p>Besides our text books and study material, the main source of information was internet databases and university library from where we read different articles, thesis and books. Majority of the material studied was collected from Mälardalen University Library’s online databases like, Elin@Mälardalen, Compendex, Emerald and Ebrary. We also consulted some books which we got by inter-library loan from Mälardalen University.</p><p>Conclusion: With the help of Remenyi’s approach for categorizing risks and Applegate’s approach of measuring risk impact, we have managed to develop a structured approach and reached a conclusion that proper identification and categorizing of risks can be very beneficial for an organization in numerous ways. This systematic way assists top management, project managers, IT & non IT Personnel is taking preemptive measures for managing risks. The benefits it brings is that it gives an equal understanding within the organization and this structured approach gives an in-depth and clear understanding of the risks associated with IT projects.</p>

An individual’s bad news reporting behavior has been studied from a number of perspectives and has resulted in a variety of research streams including the MUM effect (or reluctance to transmit bad news), whistle-blowing, and organizational silence. While many scholars in different areas have studied reporting behavior, it has not been widely discussed in the information systems literature. This dissertation research addresses an individual’s bad news reporting behavior (and its antecedents) in the troubled IT project context. Many social phenomena are multi-causal (Hollander 1971). The silence phenomenon involved in an individual’s bad news reporting behavior is multi-causal too. While prior research has identified many antecedents to the bad news reporting behavior, it has not provided any systematic approach for categorizing them. In this dissertation, the antecedents are categorized into three different levels: personal factors (i.e., individual-level factors), situational factors (i.e., project-level factors), and organizational factors. This research empirically investigates how the antecedents at different levels affect (i.e., encourage or discourage) an individual’s decision to report or not report bad news in the IT project context. The dissertation follows a multi-paper model, and includes three independent, empirical studies, each with its own research model focusing on personal, situational, and organizational factors.

The potential importance of managing knowledge for competitive advantage has been widely discussed according to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), with the sharing and application of knowledge being widely identified in recent years as key sources of sustained competitive advantage (Hall & Sapsed 2005, p57). While Alavi and Leidner (2001, p216) agree that much theory already exists on knowledge management, they argue that little empirical work has been undertaken and hence there are large gaps in the body of knowledge in this area. Bresnen, Edelman, Newell, Scarbrough, and Swan (2003) further suggest that only recently has attention been specifically directed towards managing knowledge in project environments. Evidence of poor IT project success continues to be provided by many researchers even though today's corporations recognize that to be successful, they need to understand modern project management techniques (Schwalbe 2002, p2). With Kotnour (2000) finding that project performance is positively associated with project knowledge, a better understanding of how to effectively manage knowledge in IT projects should have considerable practical significance for increasing the chances of project success. The focus of this research centres on the question of why individuals working within IT project teams might be motivated towards, or inhibited from, sharing their knowledge and experience in their activities, procedures, and processes. Using a combined qualitative/quantitative method of data collection in multiple case studies spanning four continents, and comprising a variety of organisational types, the research concludes with the development of a new theoretical model of knowledge sharing behaviour, &quotThe Alignment Model of Motivational Focus". This model suggests that an individual's propensity to share knowledge and experience is a function of perceived personal benefits and costs associated with the activity, balanced against the individual's alignment to a group of 'institutional' factors. These factors are identified as alignments to the project team, to the organisation, and dependent on the circumstances, to either the professional discipline or community of practice, to which the individual belongs. The model might be used within knowledge intensive projects, to help identify an individual's latent propensity to share knowledge, and to identify actions that may need to be taken in order to modify knowledge sharing behaviour.

Com o objetivo de manter a competitividade frente às mudanças, as organizações estão estruturando-se por projetos. Isto ocorre porque o projeto é um processo único, com início, meio e fim determinados, para atingir um objetivo específico, de acordo com escopo, custo e prazo, e que permite maior flexibilidade em um ambiente em transformação. Este movimento gera um incremento na demanda por indivíduos capazes de realizar a gestão destes projetos e, consequentemente, evidencia a importância de conhecer as competências relevantes para este profissional. Com o objetivo de identificar as competências requeridas para o exercício do cargo de gerente de projetos de TI em empresas da grande Porto Alegre, realizou-se uma pesquisa de abordagem qualitativa e caráter descritivo, mediante entrevistas semiestruturadas com roteiro prévio. Através de amostragem não probabilística, os sujeitos são profissionais que exercem o papel de gerente de projeto de TI na região metropolitana de Porto Alegre. Os dados obtidos foram interpretados com base nos preceitos das técnicas de análise de conteúdo, permitindo uma análise dos significados das mensagens contidas nas entrevistas. Os resultados demonstraram que as competências de conhecimento, competências pessoais, competências de atuação e competências técnicas específicas são relevantes para os participantes da pesquisa, com ênfase às competências pessoais, tais quais: comunicação, liderança, organização, negociação e profissionalismo. Além disso, os entrevistados apresentaram uma trajetória de carreira ocasional e apontaram que as competências mais valorizadas pelas organizações são liderança, comunicação, visão sistêmica, foco no resultado e competências técnicas específicas. Os achados manifestam o alinhamento com o framework de competências do PMI, PMCD, no que diz respeito às competências pessoais e de atuação. As competências pessoais foram realçadas pelos entrevistados como as habilidades mais relevantes na execução da função de gerente de projetos. / To be competitive in an era of constant changes, companies are moving from traditional organizational structures to project based ones. Projects characteristics - such as having predefined timeframe, scope and objectives - bring more flexibility to the companies in an everchanging environment. This shift creates a higher demand for capable project managers and highlights the relevance of companies knowing the important competencies for those professionals. A research was conducted to identify the required competencies for the professional practice of an IT project manager in companies in Porto Alegre metropolitan area. The subjects were selected project management professionals who worked in those companies. With a nonprobability sample, the descriptive qualitative research was based on semi-structured interviews with a predefined script. Data was interpreted with the use of content analysis technique, which allowed the evaluation of the messages within the interviews. Knowledge competencies, personal competencies, performance competencies and technical competencies were all considered relevant to the participants and some personal skills such as communication capabilities, organization, negotiation and professionalism were the most emphasized. From the organizations’ viewpoints, leadership, communication, systemic view, resultorientation and specific technical skills were pointed as the most valued competencies for project management professionals. The findings are in consonance with the Project Manager Competency Development framework of the Project Management Institute about the personal and performance competencies. Personal competencies were identified as the most relevant skills for a project manager to properly perform their activities.

Com o objetivo de manter a competitividade frente às mudanças, as organizações estão estruturando-se por projetos. Isto ocorre porque o projeto é um processo único, com início, meio e fim determinados, para atingir um objetivo específico, de acordo com escopo, custo e prazo, e que permite maior flexibilidade em um ambiente em transformação. Este movimento gera um incremento na demanda por indivíduos capazes de realizar a gestão destes projetos e, consequentemente, evidencia a importância de conhecer as competências relevantes para este profissional. Com o objetivo de identificar as competências requeridas para o exercício do cargo de gerente de projetos de TI em empresas da grande Porto Alegre, realizou-se uma pesquisa de abordagem qualitativa e caráter descritivo, mediante entrevistas semiestruturadas com roteiro prévio. Através de amostragem não probabilística, os sujeitos são profissionais que exercem o papel de gerente de projeto de TI na região metropolitana de Porto Alegre. Os dados obtidos foram interpretados com base nos preceitos das técnicas de análise de conteúdo, permitindo uma análise dos significados das mensagens contidas nas entrevistas. Os resultados demonstraram que as competências de conhecimento, competências pessoais, competências de atuação e competências técnicas específicas são relevantes para os participantes da pesquisa, com ênfase às competências pessoais, tais quais: comunicação, liderança, organização, negociação e profissionalismo. Além disso, os entrevistados apresentaram uma trajetória de carreira ocasional e apontaram que as competências mais valorizadas pelas organizações são liderança, comunicação, visão sistêmica, foco no resultado e competências técnicas específicas. Os achados manifestam o alinhamento com o framework de competências do PMI, PMCD, no que diz respeito às competências pessoais e de atuação. As competências pessoais foram realçadas pelos entrevistados como as habilidades mais relevantes na execução da função de gerente de projetos. / To be competitive in an era of constant changes, companies are moving from traditional organizational structures to project based ones. Projects characteristics - such as having predefined timeframe, scope and objectives - bring more flexibility to the companies in an everchanging environment. This shift creates a higher demand for capable project managers and highlights the relevance of companies knowing the important competencies for those professionals. A research was conducted to identify the required competencies for the professional practice of an IT project manager in companies in Porto Alegre metropolitan area. The subjects were selected project management professionals who worked in those companies. With a nonprobability sample, the descriptive qualitative research was based on semi-structured interviews with a predefined script. Data was interpreted with the use of content analysis technique, which allowed the evaluation of the messages within the interviews. Knowledge competencies, personal competencies, performance competencies and technical competencies were all considered relevant to the participants and some personal skills such as communication capabilities, organization, negotiation and professionalism were the most emphasized. From the organizations’ viewpoints, leadership, communication, systemic view, resultorientation and specific technical skills were pointed as the most valued competencies for project management professionals. The findings are in consonance with the Project Manager Competency Development framework of the Project Management Institute about the personal and performance competencies. Personal competencies were identified as the most relevant skills for a project manager to properly perform their activities.