Government IT mega-projects often end in costly failure, despite attempts to identify those Critical Success Factors (CSFs) that lead to project success. This raises questions about whether these CSFs are understood, applied and, if so, whether they are having an impact on the management and subsequent performance of government IT mega-projects. The literature review compared CSFs from the generic and IT project management literature to find that they are broadly similar. CSF frameworks were then assessed to find a measure of the impact of CSFs and a measure of ‘performance’ was also defined. CSFs were then identified from fifteen reports on IT and information infrastructure projects and verified against the CSFs identified in the literature to produce a synthesised list of twelve CSFs. The understanding, application and impact of these CSFs were examined through a case study of the MoD’s Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) Programme, a government IT mega-project to provide a more integrated and coherent Defence infrastructure. It was evident that the CSFs were recognised and they appeared to have been understood within the DII Programme. However, the extent to which they have been applied is variable with differing effect. Therefore, the impact that CSFs have had on the management of the DII Programme is debatable. There were areas where the project could have been managed better and, therefore, could be performing better, suggesting that the overall success of the project is potentially at risk. The overarching conclusion of this study is that, in terms of the management of the DII Programme, the impact of the identified CSFs is variable and, where they are not applied, there is an adverse effect on its performance, suggesting a causal relationship. More generally, not applying generic CSFs to project management is likely to lead to failure, but is unlikely to assure success. Unique projects operating in highly specific and complex contexts require more contingent solutions. As a result of these conclusions, further case studies are suggested, along with further study into government and MoD IT project management and the management of trust in contractual relationships.

The local sphere of government in the Republic of South Africa is demarcated into three distinct municipal categories. These three categories represent metropolitan, district and local municipalities as, delineated in the Constitution, 1996 (RSA, 1996). A prominent intent of local government in South Africa is to achieve developmental goals and to deliver effective, effiecient and economic services to citizens. This means delivering services through programmes in a manner that encourages the sustained development of local communities. The Maquassi Hills Local Municipality (MHLM), located in the Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality of the North-West Province, has a responsibility to implement and achieve local government’s developmental agenda through good governance, public participation, as well as transformation of internal, organisational systems and processes. The ultimate aim is to provide basic services to local communities and to stimulate economic development within their area of responsibility. Contrary to this scenario of efficient, effective and economic service delivery in a democratic developmental local government, South Africa, thus far, typified low levels of service delivery to such an extent that many communities were driven to service delivery protests. The locus of this study, indicated as the MHLM, subsequently also experienced protests within the community, as a result of a low standard, or a lack of service delivery. As possible corrective measures to help achieve the developmental goals of the MHLM, through enhanced service delivery the study introduced a basis theory as “management by projects”. This theory or design is viewed as a vehicle for service delivery improvements. The study investigates these features at strategic, tactical and operational levels within the MHLM as organisation, and compares the implementation of these features to information gained from scholarly efforts. The application of the mentioned features at these three levels within the MHLM is, furthermore, analysed to discern possible disparities, in order to recommend corrective measures that may provide service delivery improvements by the MHLM in its area of operation. / MA (Development and Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The local sphere of government in the Republic of South Africa is demarcated into three distinct municipal categories. These three categories represent metropolitan, district and local municipalities as, delineated in the Constitution, 1996 (RSA, 1996). A prominent intent of local government in South Africa is to achieve developmental goals and to deliver effective, effiecient and economic services to citizens. This means delivering services through programmes in a manner that encourages the sustained development of local communities. The Maquassi Hills Local Municipality (MHLM), located in the Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality of the North-West Province, has a responsibility to implement and achieve local government’s developmental agenda through good governance, public participation, as well as transformation of internal, organisational systems and processes. The ultimate aim is to provide basic services to local communities and to stimulate economic development within their area of responsibility. Contrary to this scenario of efficient, effective and economic service delivery in a democratic developmental local government, South Africa, thus far, typified low levels of service delivery to such an extent that many communities were driven to service delivery protests. The locus of this study, indicated as the MHLM, subsequently also experienced protests within the community, as a result of a low standard, or a lack of service delivery. As possible corrective measures to help achieve the developmental goals of the MHLM, through enhanced service delivery the study introduced a basis theory as “management by projects”. This theory or design is viewed as a vehicle for service delivery improvements. The study investigates these features at strategic, tactical and operational levels within the MHLM as organisation, and compares the implementation of these features to information gained from scholarly efforts. The application of the mentioned features at these three levels within the MHLM is, furthermore, analysed to discern possible disparities, in order to recommend corrective measures that may provide service delivery improvements by the MHLM in its area of operation. / MA (Development and Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Government IT mega-projects often end in costly failure, despite attempts to identify those Critical Success Factors (CSFs) that lead to project success. This raises questions about whether these CSFs are understood, applied and, if so, whether they are having an impact on the management and subsequent performance of government IT mega-projects. The literature review compared CSFs from the generic and IT project management literature to find that they are broadly similar. CSF frameworks were then assessed to find a measure of the impact of CSFs and a measure of ‘performance’ was also defined. CSFs were then identified from fifteen reports on IT and information infrastructure projects and verified against the CSFs identified in the literature to produce a synthesised list of twelve CSFs. The understanding, application and impact of these CSFs were examined through a case study of the MoD’s Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) Programme, a government IT mega-project to provide a more integrated and coherent Defence infrastructure. It was evident that the CSFs were recognised and they appeared to have been understood within the DII Programme. However, the extent to which they have been applied is variable with differing effect. Therefore, the impact that CSFs have had on the management of the DII Programme is debatable. There were areas where the project could have been managed better and, therefore, could be performing better, suggesting that the overall success of the project is potentially at risk. The overarching conclusion of this study is that, in terms of the management of the DII Programme, the impact of the identified CSFs is variable and, where they are not applied, there is an adverse effect on its performance, suggesting a causal relationship. More generally, not applying generic CSFs to project management is likely to lead to failure, but is unlikely to assure success. Unique projects operating in highly specific and complex contexts require more contingent solutions. As a result of these conclusions, further case studies are suggested, along with further study into government and MoD IT project management and the management of trust in contractual relationships.

This report discusses the experiences gained and lessons learned during a project management internship in post-earthquake Christchurch as part of the construction industry and rebuild effort.

Many management studies report poor implementation of organisational strategy into practice (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2007; Li et al., 2008) and the absence within the literature of the question of how to translate strategy into effective practice provides the encouragement for this study. There are suggestions that by adopting a project management approach, organisations can better implement their overall strategies, meaning that what they do is properly and totally aligned with their goals (Pellegrinelli and Bowman, 1994). However, recent studies have concluded that project management makes little contribution to the achievement of organisational objectives, and possibly causes failure in this respect (Young and Grant, 2014). That said, Young and Grant (2014) have not provided any detailed information on the reason for such failure. At the same time, some management studies have revealed a number of challenges that confront organisations when approaching strategy implementation. Given these observations, this study aims to explore how organisations in Saudi Arabia are practising project management. It does so by adopting a qualitative method, involving thirty (30) face-to-face semi-structured and unstructured interviews undertaken in two phases with five organisations from the banking, property development, and higher education sectors. Two exploratory case studies (IT and Construction) were used to investigate the translation challenges in respect of strategy and project management implementation. From these, the study has identified a number of challenges confronting the participating organisations, and shows these challenges to be inter-related. Furthermore, it arrives at an understanding of why these challenges arise by investigating how the practice has been translated in these organisations. The tools and materials which resulted as objects from the translation are used to establish common knowledge, but are insufficient to create a clear view of the strategy within the participating organisations. Three main challengers related directly to the translation of project management practice emerged, namely: change, individual influences, and the role of the objects. The study makes several recommendations to improve the translation concept so that strategy implementation and overall project management practice can be enhanced. Additionally, it makes recommendations for further research to continue the efforts in this field of enquiry.

Cílem této disertační práce je navrhnout metodiku, která podpoří realizaci několika vzájemně provázaných ICT provozních projektů. Na základě tzv. dobrých praktik v odvětví, principů projektového a programového řízení, vlastních znalostí a zkušeností, vytvořil autor návrh metodiky kompetenčního centra ICT provozních projektů jako virtuálního útvaru společnosti, které má za cíl dodat takový typ projektů.

Motivated by scarce academic consideration of project management control frameworks, this article explores usage, value and structure of frameworks with a focus on the popular Control Objectives for IT and related Technology (CobiT) construct. We attempt to add to an empirically validated structure of internal control over IT project management by including CobiT's views on the intended domain of content. Results from the empirical survey indicate that the metrics suggested by CobiT are regarded as feasible and important by project management professionals, and are regularly used in controlling practice. Experience, regularity of significant projects and the size of the hosting organisations, however, seem to be stronger moderators of success rates than the use of a management control system with or without support of CobiT. CobiT's suggestions are of generic nature and in particular useful for programme performance management. The latent dimensions of project quality on process and activity levels were not validated and gaps to other project assessment models were identified.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge of how the existing gap betweenstrategy formulation and strategy implementation can be bridged in a project-­‐based organization.  The reason for this is to contribute with an empirical example of what challenges and obstacles are associated with this gap and how these can be solved.Method: The investigation of the strategy implementation in a project-­‐based organization has been conducted as a case study. To collect the necessary empirical material, three rounds of interviews were held with relevant employees of the case company, such as the Head of Strategy, Head of Product and sales people. The interviews have been complemented by collection of documents and participation in meetings held at the case company.Findings: The findings of the case study have showed that the strategy can be implemented in three ways in a project-­‐based organization: through the organizational structure, through the executed external projects and through the portfolio management. Additionally, the findings have revealed a number of existing problems within strategy implementation. The major challenges found were achieving balance in the Balanced Scorecard, prioritization of both internal and external projects and managing a programme as a project, which were confirmed in the literature.Practical implications: This study has resulted in a description of  how  a  project-­‐based organization implements its strategy. Furthermore, this study highlights the existing challenges within this process, such as achieving balance in the Balanced Scorecard and better prioritizing the internal and external projects.Theoretical implications: This study contributes with increased insight and knowledge of how a project-­‐based organization implements strategy and thus, expands the knowledge of how the gap between strategy formulation and implementation can be decreased. Several problems highlighted in the literature associated with this gap have been verified by this study. In this way, additional theoretical implications are the proposed solutions for how these problems can be solved. / Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att öka kunskapen om hur det existerande gapet mellan strategiformulering och strategiimplementering kan överbryggas i en projektbaserad organisation. Anledningen till detta är att bidra med ett empiriskt exempel kring vilka utmaningarnas och hinder som associeras med detta gap samt hur dessa kan överkommas. Metod: Undersökningen av strategiimplementeringen i en projektbaserad organisation har genomförts i form av en fallstudie. För att samla in det nödvändiga empiriska materialet har tre intervjurundor genomförts  tillsammans  med relevanta anställda på fallstudieföretaget.  Exempel på dessa är Strategichefen, Produktchefen och säljare. Intervjuerna var kompletterade genom insamling av dokument och genom deltagande på möten som hölls på fallstudieföretaget. Resultat: Resultat av denna fallstudie visar att strategi kam implementeras på tre sätt i en projektbaserad organisation: genom organisationsstrukturen, genom exekveringen av externa projekt  och genom portföljhantering. Resultaten har också visat ett antal existerande problem inom  rategiimplementeringen. De stora utmaningarna är att uppnå balansen i de balanserade styrkorten, prioriteringen av både interna och externa projekt och hantera ett program som ett projekt. Dessa utmaningar var bekräftade i litteraturen. Praktiskt bidrag: Denna studie har resulterat i en beskrivning av hur en projektbaserad organisation implementerar sin strategi. Dessutom har denna studie lyft fram de existerande utmaningarna inom denna process, såsom att uppnå balansen i de balanserade styrkorten och bättre prioritering av interna och externa projekt. Vetenskapligt bidrag: Denna studie bidrar med ökad insyn och kunskap om hur en projektbaserad organisation implementerar strategi och således, utvidgar kunskapen om hur gapet mellan strategiformuleringen och implementeringen kan minska. Flera problem som lyfts fram i litteraturen och som associeras med detta gap har blivit bekräftade i denna studie. Därför är de föreslagna lösningarna på hur dessa problem kan lösas ännu ett vetenskapligt bidrag.

Detta Examensarbete utfördes som en fallstudie Saab Combat Systems, som är och undersöker utmaningar i form av beroenden och osäkerheter som uppstår i Multiprojekt-Organisationer. Dessa utmaningar verkar orsaka konflikter och tvetydigheter i Multiprojekt-Organisationer gällande exempelvis, kommunikation, resursallokering, produktutveckling samt maktstrukturer mellan olika roller (Engwall & Jerbant, 2003; Dahlgren & Söderlund, 2010). Detta Examensarbete behandlar dessa utmaningar genom att undersöka och besvara följande forskningsfrågor: Vilka utmaningar i form av beroenden och osäkerheter existerar på Saab Combat Systems? Hur kan dessa utmaningar hanteras? Våra resultat visar att tre olika typer av beroenden uppstår i Multiprojekt-Organisationer som utvecklar komplexa produkter och system; organisatoriska beroenden, tekniska beroenden och resursberoenden. Dessa tre beroenden verkar påverka varandra och resultera i osäkerheter när flera projekt hanteras samtidigt. Dessutom ökar nivån av osäkerhet i projekt på grund av osäkerheter i relation till maktstrukturer samt utveckling av komplexa produkter och system. De tre identifierade beroende inkluderar projektosäkerheter samt projektberoenden. Vi har valt ut tre stycken olika typer av Management Control Systems; Projektkontor, Projektportföljhantering samt Programhantering och drar slutsatsen att de kan användas för att hantera de tre identifierade beroendena Multiprojekt-Organisationer. Vi har dock upptäckt att dessa Management Control Systems har både fördelar och nackdelar gällande hantering av de tre olika typer av beroenden. Alla identifierade beroenden och osäkerheter kan följaktligen hanteras genom att kombinera olika Management Control Systems. Dessutom har vi kompletterat en redan utvecklad modell av Dahlgren & Söderlund (2010) genom att kartlägga de tre beroendena, som tar hänsyn till projektosäkerheter och projektberoenden, samt vilken typ av Management Control Systems som är mest lämplig för att hantera dessa beroenden. / This Master Thesis was conducted as a case study at Saab Combat Systems investigating challenges in form of dependencies and uncertainties that emerge in Multi-Project Organizations. These challenges seem to cause conflicts and ambiguity in Multi-Project Organizations regarding for instance; communication, human resources allocation, product development and power structures between different roles (Engwall & Jerbant, 2003; Dahlgren & Söderlund, 2010). Thereby, this Master Thesis addresses these challenges by investigating and answering the following research questions: What challenges in form of dependencies and uncertainties exist at Saab Combat Systems? How can these challenges be addressed? Our Results display that three different types of dependencies exists in Multi-Project Organizations developing Complex Products and Systems; organizational dependencies, technical dependencies and resources dependencies. These three dependencies seem to be connected, and therefore result in uncertainties when managing multiple projects. Additionally, uncertainties in relation to the power structure as well as development of Complex Products and Systems tend to increase the level of project uncertainty. The three identified dependencies include both project uncertainties and project dependencies. We have chosen three different Management Control Systems; Project Management Office, Project Portfolio Management and Programme Management and conclude that they can be utilized in order to address the three identified dependencies in Multi-Project Organizations. However, we have found that these Management Control Systems have benefits as well as shortcomings when addressing different types of dependencies. Consequently, by combining them, all of the identified dependencies and uncertainties can be addressed. Furthermore, we have complemented an already developed model by Dahlgren & Söderlund (2010) by mapping the three identified dependencies, which consider project uncertainties and project dependencies, as well as which Management Control System is most appropriate when addressing these three dependencies.