M. Tech. Business Information Systems / Information Technology projects can fail for any number of reasons and in some cases can result in considerable financial losses for the organisations that undertake them. One pattern of failure that has been observed but seldom studied is the IT project that seems to take on a life of its own, continuing to absorb valuable resources without reaching its objective. The research study investigated the different challenges and failures of IT projects and looked at the root causes of these failures and how to overcome them. This research study was informed by the use of a case study of Liberty Life, one of the largest financial service providers in South Africa. The primary research question that informs this research study is: How mature is the organisation in implementing Information Technology projects.

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Despite the growth and adoption of project management expertise and techniques, the increase in organisational project-maturity and the emergence of the Web, project success remains a challenge. A key factor leading to the continued failure in IT projects is the lack of identification and appreciation for the key factors that influence the success of project management success. Therefore the researcher embarked on this study to determine the top five critical success factors of project management in the South African ICT environment. The researcher also determined during which phases of the project life cycle these critical success factors occur. In order to determine these objectives, qualitative research was conducted that included a study of literature, available material, views from experts as well as a content analysis from sample interviews. South African ICT companies do not directly focus on any critical success factors, but indirectly they do focus on certain areas that will increase the probability of project management success. The research identified the top five critical success factors as a comprehensive project management plan, well defined scope, skilled and experienced project managers, user / customer involvement and top management support. The research also identified that the focusing on the project planning and project execution and monitoring phases of the project life cycle are the most crucial for project management success. In addition the research identified that project managers who have a strong technical background understand the complexities of the product better and do tend to manage the deferent component of the projects more effectively. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ten spyte van die groei en toename in projekbestuurkundigheid en -tegnieke, die toename in organisatoriese projek volwassenheid en die uitbreiding van die Web, bly projeksukses ‘n uitdaging. Om die rede het die navorser die studie onderneem om die vyf top kritiese suksesfaktore van projekbestuur in die Suid-Afrikaanse ICT omgewing te bepaal. Om hierdie doelwit te bepaal is kwalitatiewe navorsing onderneem wat ‘n literatuurstudie, beskikbare materiaal, opinies van kundiges sowel as inhoudsanalise van onderhoude gevoer insluit. Suid-Afrikaanse ICT maatskappye fokus nie direk op enige kritiese suksesfaktore nie, maar indirek fokus hulle wel op sekere areas wat die waarskynlikheid van projekbestuur sukses sal laat toeneem. Die navorsing identifiseer die vyf kritiese suksesfaktore as ‘n samevattende projekbestuursplan, goed gedefinieerde omvang, kundige en ervare projekbestuurders, gebruiker/kliënt betrokkenheid en topbestuur ondersteuning. Die navorsing het ook identifiseer dat die fokus op projekbestuursbeplanning, en projekuitvoering en monitering fases van die projeklewensiklus die mees kritiese is vir projeksukses. Die navorsing het ook identifiseer dat projekbestuurders wat ‘n sterk tegniese agtergrond het die ingewikkeldheid van die eindproduk beter verstaan asook die verskillende komponente van die projek meer effektief bestuur.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:23:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Helio Yasuki Seki.pdf: 742782 bytes, checksum: 5a9bf6ed74acbaddd642bb94a612dfc2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-04-14 / The term maturity is used in psychology, sociology, biology, technology and other areas of human knowledge. However, a definition related to contemporary needs, in terms of paradigm ruptures that move in the intersections from the Knowledge Age to the Awareness Age, is the focus of this research. In contemporary times, the thinking being , whose thinking ability makes them different from other beings, becomes the main agent to be researched. Consequently, we tried to reach what this research called Corporate Maturity. Departing from the result that was presented in the surveys carried out by the Project Management Institute PMI (an international non-profit entity pioneer in the congregation of professionals of areas related to project management), that there were high levels of failure in technologically feasible projects we tried to find out the relationship between maturity and failure . The immaturity of the thinking being has been defined as the catalyst of the failure experienced by the organizations. Through an interdisciplinary approach, an emerging theory based on the Grounded Theory methodology is suggested, a research methodology over the qualitative paradigm, known as empirical data founded theory. Data were extracted from field work in multiple cases and through the software NVIVO, which consolidated their categorization and saturation and permitted the outlining of a possible emerging theory. Hopefully this paper will help new ones to come up, considering the retraction of the failure rate in the adoption of technologically feasible projects. / O termo maturidade é utilizado na psicologia, na sociologia, na biologia, na tecnologia e outras áreas do conhecimento humano. Entretanto, uma definição atinente às necessidades contemporâneas, no que diz respeito ao rompimento dos paradigmas que trafegam nas intersecções da era do conhecimento para a era da consciência, é o foco desta pesquisa. No contemporâneo, o "ser pensante", cuja capacidade de pensar o diferencia de outros seres, torna-se o principal agente a ser pesquisado. Por conseguinte, procurou-se chegar ao que esta pesquisa denomina maturidade Corporativa. Partindo-se do fator altos índices de insucesso em projetos tecnologicamente viáveis apresentadas nas pesquisas realizadas pelo Project Management Institute - PMI, entidade internacional sem fins lucrativos e pioneiros na congregação de profissionais de áreas relacionadas à gerência de projetos, buscou-se a relação entre a maturidade e insucesso . Definiu-se a "imaturidade" do ser pensante, como o catalisador do insucesso experimentado pelas organizações. Por meio de uma abordagem interdisciplinar, sugere-se uma teoria emergente baseada no método Grounded Theory, um método de pesquisa sob o paradigma qualitativo, conhecida como teoria fundamentada em dados empíricos. Os dados foram extraídos de pesquisa de campo em casos múltiplos e, através do software NVIVO, o qual alicerçou a categorização e a saturação dos mesmos que permitiu o delineamento de uma possível teoria emergente. Espera-se que, com esta pesquisa, novas venham a surgir, tendo em vista a retração do índice de insucesso na adoção de projetos tecnologicamente viáveis

Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed February 22, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-95).

Despite advances in technology, software and planning tools that are available to project managers, information systems (IS) projects continue to fail. Storm (2005, pg 1) has suggested that management issues are a central theme in these failures, recommending more thorough training for project managers and improved management overall. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations, arguably the most complex of IS projects, are particularly costly, high risk endeavors (Davenport, 1998, pg 7). When multiple locations are involved, the projects are even more challenging (Boudreau and Robey, 1999, pg 294; Markus et al, 2000, pg 46). This remains true even when a company has completed the strategic planning, the software configuration and the required infrastructural support, as experience shows companies may still face considerable complexity in getting from the capability to the reality. Due to a configuration knowledge barrier (Robey et al, 2002, pg 40), extensive use is often made of external consultants whose services add considerably to project cost (Haines and Goodhue, 2003, pg 24). By internalising and realising the benefits of a learning process within the business, implementation teams will become more self-reliant as their experience grows, increasing the possibility of success in subsequent implementations (Chang, 2004, pg 7). The challenge is how to achieve this learning effectively and efficiently (Esteves et al, 2002, pg 3). This dissertation proposes that an action learning approach may hold the key to reducing the variability of success in successive projects. This research has benefit for all practitioners, and particularly Project and Programme Managers working in Information System projects. It shows how incorporating an action learning approach to projects results in savings through doing things cheaper, quicker and better. It further proposes a practical, workable methodology for ensuring how action learning should take place as part of standard project methodologies. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

Thesis (DTech (Informatics))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. / Governments of the developing world, including South Africa, have a strong commitment and resolve to accelerate the rollout of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to achieve developmental benefits in communities. Consequently both government and the private sector are delivering a number of interventions in South Africa based on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). Hard evidence regarding the development benefits of ICT4D interventions is lacking and there is little agreement on measures to evaluate the benefits of such projects. One possible reason for this is that there are no established evaluation frameworks to assess the benefits. Frameworks used in ICT4D evaluation are investigated in this study to ascertain their usefulness to identify benefits of ICT4D initiatives. Sen’s Capability Approach defines development as freedom. An example of such development can be the process of providing opportunities through ICT and meaningful ways to use these opportunities to realise various benefits. Tangible benefits are simple to identify (e.g. number of people using the public access centre, or number of people finding employment). Intangible benefits include the real ‘wins’—capabilities garnered through access and meaningful use of ICT, leading to the recognition of new opportunities for the users of the public access centres. Sen’s Capability Approach is operationalised, demonstrating the inclusion of a person’s agency and conversion factors that inhibit or enhance utilisation of opportunities and choices in realising benefits. The SmartCape initiative is a 2002 ICT4D intervention established in the libraries of Cape Town, South Africa, and is used as a case in this research study. The libraries act as public access centres that provide free ICT and Internet access to library members in the community. Surveys completed by users of these centres provided useful quantitative data. A broad spectrum of qualitative data was gleaned from interviews and focus groups with users of the ICT centre at a recently established library and with focus groups from other centres in two underserved areas of Cape Town. Quantitative data analysis techniques applied to qualitative content data was used to investigate users’ diverse perceptions. An initial framework guided the analysis of data to identify the benefits realised by the users of the public access centre. Perceptions of a changed life, aspirations for a better life, and ‘hope’ emerged as intangible benefits. On the intangible side, the effect of keyboard proficiency, greater ease in finding information, and a preference for accessing the Internet at a public access centre emerged as having a significant effect on the hopefulness of PAC users. Two theme-groups were identified through using co- occurrences of themes and the statistical techniques of cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling. The Benefits-framework, produced by this study, based on Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach, represents the relationship between all the themes, includes emergent intangible benefits and can be used to identify the benefits of ICT4D interventions in public access centres. This study also produces empirical evidence of the developmental impact of the SmartCape ICT4D programme in Cape Town and thus provides evidence of its value.

The research shows the critical success factors when implementing information security projects. Many Information security projects in the past have not been successful because these factors were not identified and emphasised effectively. By identifying these factors the research basically presents a model by which information security projects can be executed with guaranteed success. The factors identified during the study cover the following streams: top management commitment as a factor of success; accountability as a factor of success; responsibility as a factor of success; awareness as a factor of success and an information security policy as a factor of success. For the empirical study, a physical questionnaire was administrated to a pool of experts in project management and information security. The study consisted of 60 participants who were verified to have minimum requirements core for questionnaire completion. The questionnaire requested for biological information of the participants and their perceived relations (based on their experience) between project success versus accountability, information security project success versus responsibilities, information security project success versus training & awareness, information security project success versus top management commitment and information security project success versus information security policy. The participants’ responses were structured according to a Likert-type scale. Participants had to indicate the extent to which they agreed with each of the statements in the questionnaire. The responses obtained from the survey were presented and analysed. The researcher observed in this study that information security projects are so specific that critical success factors need to be emphasised from project inception. With the identified critical success factors, the researcher recommends that a project methodology be structured to include these factors so that there is a standard in running information security projects successfully. The researcher also identified that amongst the critical success factors identified, there are some that need to be emphasised more than the others due to their level of importance in such projects.

Com o aumento recente na demanda de soluções inovadoras no desenvolvimento de produtos e serviços de base tecnológica, as organizações têm enfrentado o desafio de desenvolver novos modelos de negócio em um espaço de tempo cada vez menor, necessitando de agilidade e flexibilidade na condução de seus projetos para se posicionar neste novo cenário econômico. Entretanto, nem sempre é possível a adoção do gerenciamento ágil de maneira purista devido ao ambiente organizacional e aos aspectos regulatórios específicos de alguns setores. Para introduzir essas práticas em seus ambientes, algumas organizações optam por combinar práticas das abordagens ágil e tradicional para adaptar a metodologia de gestão de projetos às necessidades de seus contextos, dando origem ao termo gerenciamento híbrido de projetos. Todavia, apesar de existirem estudos na literatura que proponham modelos mesclando práticas de ambas as abordagens para atender necessidades de contextos específicos, não são encontrados estudos que discutam o papel estratégico do gerenciamento híbrido como vetor para a prospecção de novos negócios e o desenvolvimento de produtos e serviços baseados em tecnologia. Deste modo, o objetivo deste estudo é identificar os principais benefícios e desafios decorrentes da aplicação do gerenciamento híbrido nas organizações para viabilizar estratégias e estabelecer novos modelos negócios em projetos de desenvolvimento de produtos e serviços de base tecnológica. Para tanto, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática de literatura sobre gerenciamento híbrido de projetos e cinco estudos de caso em empresas de diferentes setores econômicos, que permitiram identificar as características do gerenciamento híbrido no âmbito teórico e prático, discutir seu papel em auxiliar as organizações a adaptar seus projetos aos novos modelos de negócio presentes no mercado. Além disso, os resultados obtidos também permitiram identificar as vantagens e desvantagens do gerenciamento híbrido nesses contextos, possibilitando assim estabelecer recomendações e critérios para avaliar quando é necessária a aplicação desse tipo de abordagem em projetos de desenvolvimento de produtos e serviços de base tecnologia. / With the recent increase on demand for innovative solutions in the development of technology-based products and services, organizations have faced the challenge of developing new business models in an increasingly shorter time frame. However, these organizations need agility and flexibility to conducting their projects for position themselves in these new strategic scenarios in the markets. In this context, it is not always possible to adopt a purely agile project management model because of issues related to the organizational environment and the specific regulatory aspects to some business segments, and, therefore, to introduce agile management on environments that are incompatible with the practices of this type of approach, it is necessary to customize and combine the practices of the agile and traditional approaches to construct a management methodology adapted to the reality and the needs of the context, leading to the hybrid project management approach. Although there are studies in the literature that propose hybrid project management models and discuss the need to combine project management practices in certain contexts, no studies are found that explore and discuss the strategic role of hybrid management for organizations in prospecting new business models. Thus, the objective of this study is to identify the main benefits and challenges arising from the application of hybrid project management approaches in organizations to enable strategies and establish new business models in technology-based product and service development projects. For this, a systematic review of the literature on hybrid project management and five case studies were carried out in companies from different economic sectors that allowed the identification of hybridity characteristics in the theoretical and practical scope, to analyze how hybrid project management assists organizations to introduce the agility in their projects and adapt them to the new business models, as well as presenting the advantages and disadvantages in the application of hybridity and identify when it is necessary to apply this type of approach in projects that develop technology-based products and services .

Com o aumento recente na demanda de soluções inovadoras no desenvolvimento de produtos e serviços de base tecnológica, as organizações têm enfrentado o desafio de desenvolver novos modelos de negócio em um espaço de tempo cada vez menor, necessitando de agilidade e flexibilidade na condução de seus projetos para se posicionar neste novo cenário econômico. Entretanto, nem sempre é possível a adoção do gerenciamento ágil de maneira purista devido ao ambiente organizacional e aos aspectos regulatórios específicos de alguns setores. Para introduzir essas práticas em seus ambientes, algumas organizações optam por combinar práticas das abordagens ágil e tradicional para adaptar a metodologia de gestão de projetos às necessidades de seus contextos, dando origem ao termo gerenciamento híbrido de projetos. Todavia, apesar de existirem estudos na literatura que proponham modelos mesclando práticas de ambas as abordagens para atender necessidades de contextos específicos, não são encontrados estudos que discutam o papel estratégico do gerenciamento híbrido como vetor para a prospecção de novos negócios e o desenvolvimento de produtos e serviços baseados em tecnologia. Deste modo, o objetivo deste estudo é identificar os principais benefícios e desafios decorrentes da aplicação do gerenciamento híbrido nas organizações para viabilizar estratégias e estabelecer novos modelos negócios em projetos de desenvolvimento de produtos e serviços de base tecnológica. Para tanto, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática de literatura sobre gerenciamento híbrido de projetos e cinco estudos de caso em empresas de diferentes setores econômicos, que permitiram identificar as características do gerenciamento híbrido no âmbito teórico e prático, discutir seu papel em auxiliar as organizações a adaptar seus projetos aos novos modelos de negócio presentes no mercado. Além disso, os resultados obtidos também permitiram identificar as vantagens e desvantagens do gerenciamento híbrido nesses contextos, possibilitando assim estabelecer recomendações e critérios para avaliar quando é necessária a aplicação desse tipo de abordagem em projetos de desenvolvimento de produtos e serviços de base tecnologia. / With the recent increase on demand for innovative solutions in the development of technology-based products and services, organizations have faced the challenge of developing new business models in an increasingly shorter time frame. However, these organizations need agility and flexibility to conducting their projects for position themselves in these new strategic scenarios in the markets. In this context, it is not always possible to adopt a purely agile project management model because of issues related to the organizational environment and the specific regulatory aspects to some business segments, and, therefore, to introduce agile management on environments that are incompatible with the practices of this type of approach, it is necessary to customize and combine the practices of the agile and traditional approaches to construct a management methodology adapted to the reality and the needs of the context, leading to the hybrid project management approach. Although there are studies in the literature that propose hybrid project management models and discuss the need to combine project management practices in certain contexts, no studies are found that explore and discuss the strategic role of hybrid management for organizations in prospecting new business models. Thus, the objective of this study is to identify the main benefits and challenges arising from the application of hybrid project management approaches in organizations to enable strategies and establish new business models in technology-based product and service development projects. For this, a systematic review of the literature on hybrid project management and five case studies were carried out in companies from different economic sectors that allowed the identification of hybridity characteristics in the theoretical and practical scope, to analyze how hybrid project management assists organizations to introduce the agility in their projects and adapt them to the new business models, as well as presenting the advantages and disadvantages in the application of hybridity and identify when it is necessary to apply this type of approach in projects that develop technology-based products and services .

This research focuses on the role that polychronic Communication (PC) plays in the productivity and project success of Information Technology (IT) Project Managers (PMs). PC refers to a communication style where the communicator switches rapidly between several conversations, irrespective of topic similarity, instead of completing one conversation before starting another. An online questionnaire collected data from Information Technology workers in multiple industries across the globe. The data consisted out of two distinct groups: IT PMs (n = 202) and IT project team members (n = 122). Statistical analysis on the dataset considered the perspectives of both participant groups, first separately and then combined. The results showed relationships between: 1. IT PMs’ individual polychronicity and their PC. 2. IT PMs’ PC and their opinion of the influence of PC on the success of the projects that they are managing. 3. IT PMs’ PC and their opinion of the influence of PC on their productivity. 4. IT PMs’ PC and the corporate polychronicity of their employers. In addition, when IT PMs rate their PC, the rating is lower than when other IT project team members rate the IT PMs’ PC. By contrast, there was no difference between IT PMs rating the influence of their PC on their project success and productivity versus IT project teams rating the influence of the IT PMs’ PC on their project success and productivity. These findings contribute to the factors that a corporation has to consider in hiring new IT PMs or training their current IT PMs. / Information Science / M. Sc. (Information Systems)