Exercise 2

Schwalbe P.66 - Chapter 2, Ex 5

5. Write a one to two page summary of an article about the importance of top management support for successful information technology projects.

Link to source article:
“Rearranging the Deck Chairs: IT Project Failures - Why IT Projects Fail” (Krigsman, 2007), http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=329

“Why IT Projects Fail” (Taimour, 2005), http://www.projectperfect.com.au/downloads/Info/info_it_projects_fail.pdf

There are many reasons why IT projects fail, and most of them stem from poor planning within the initial stages. Research continually suggests that most IT projects have difficulty with time and budget and that many are cancelled before completion or implementation. Krigsman suggests that IT project failures can be categorised into the four following sections:

- Project Initiation and Planning Issues
- Technical and Requirements Issues
- Stakeholder, Management and Team Issues
- Project Management Issues

In particular, when looking at the Stakeholder, Management and Team issues, he highlights that fact that lack of top management and senior executive support is a key concern when it comes to the success or failure of a project.

According to Taimour, sometimes IT managers are not given the opportunity to plan because time pressure from senior management takes over and most of the time the project is on its way before it has been clearly defined. This implies that top management places too much emphasis on the fact that a project needs to be done by a certain date. This causes project managers to take shortcuts to make sure that tasks are completed more quickly, however the adverse affect is that the quality of these tasks is completed at a lesser standard; therefore the project might not fully deliver what the stakeholders intended it to do.

Further to this the research companies and academic institutions have focused on the lack of executive support and user involvement as two main difficulties in managing IT projects (Jenster and Hussy, 2005). Without executive support project managers in the organisation find it difficult to align business with their projects. Taimour also suggests that most IT projects will change the work life of many users and require that they participate in design and implementation. Without user involvement nobody in the organisation feels committed to the project. User involvement requires time and effort, but the staff might be already stretched and unable to find time for a new project on their schedule. That is why executive management support is important to make priority clear to the staff.

As one can see, these issues are all related to management and people rather than the technology involved. Projects have a tendency to fail when the expectations of senior management and stakeholders are not associated with results. The differences in expectations, goals and priorities are considerable factors that contribute to non technical problems. This is the overall underlying cause of most IT failed projects. Therefore project managers need to spend more time planning and making sure that the expectations of management and stakeholders are aligned to the deliverables of the project itself.

References

Taimour, A. (2005). Why IT Projects Fail. The Project Perfect White Paper Collection. Retrieved August 28, 2007, from http://www.projectperfect.com.au/downloads/Info/info_it_projects_fail.pdf

Krigsman, M. (2007). Rearranging the Deck Chairs: IT Project Failures - Why IT Projects Fail. ZDNet. Retrieved September 1, 2007, from http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=329

Jenster, P and Hussey, D (2005) Create a common culture between IT and business people to reduce project failures Computer Weekly, March 22