Issues of IT Project Management - Literature review Example

Issues of IT Project Management Name: Institution: Issues of IT Project Management Literature review The continued advancements in technology have increased the number of IT projects in many firms. The high number of IT projects nowadays has become a management scare due to the increased rate of project failure characterized by high extra expenses incurred on the projects and the projects taking longer than the planned time. Several researches have been conducted to identify and describe the factors that influence IT project management success. Therefore, in order to develop an appropriate strategic approach on the successful management of IT projects, it is important to review the existing literature based on two main aspects which include the factors that influence the success and performance of any given IT project and the technical approaches of planning effective and efficient daily management of IT projects. In the context of IT project success-determinant factors, Hidding & Nicholas (2014) conducted an empirical study on the reduction of IT project management failures. In this regard, the reduction of the failures directly related to establishment and implementation IT project management success factors. Prior to Hidding & Nicholas (2014) study, previous research findings had established that there are two main paradigms that determine the success of IT project management which include Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and Value-Driven Change Leadership (VDCL). The aim of Hidding & Nicholas (2014) was to establish the factors that directly related to project success or failure between PMBOK and VDCL. The methodological approach of the study used questionnaires of 30 questions to interview 8 different Chief Information Officers in organizations based in Chicago to identify two major IT exclusive projects that were considered as either a successful achievement or an absolute failure. The results of the study revealed that according to the Wilcoxon and sign test; the project management scope, the agreement on the project’s purpose, the reflection of end-item’s architecture in the project plan, the timescale of the project, the high level of human flexibility on repeated deeds, the focus on agree-to-agree environment, the acquisition of satisfactory project sponsorship, the creation of a common ground for all project stakeholders, the cost-management effectiveness, the inclusion of team members’ ideas in the project, the good person-to-person relationships, the constant update of project proceedings, good communications and the establishment of the architecture of the end-result item directly influenced the success of IT projects. From the identified factors, Hidding & Nicholas (2014) reported that VDCL was represented seven factors while PMBOK was represented six factors. Therefore, the study concluded that both PMBOK and VDCL aspects highly contributed to the success of IT management projects. It is clear from the study that both VDCL and PMBOK aspects offer effective approaches towards successful management of IT projects. The study revealed that project managers need to reflect the architecture of the end-result item in the plan of any IT project and establish the items’ architecture in the initial release to ensure absolute success of IT project management. Although Hidding & Nicholas (2014) established the success-determinant factors of IT project management, they limited the number of questions and the locality of the study; therefore, the end results did not represent worldwide conclusions. It means that it is impossible to draw wider conclusions based on the study thereby prompting further diversified studies on the factors that characterize the success of IT project management. In this regard, Jørgensen (2014) conducted a different study to comprehend the factors that influenced software project management failures at a global outsourcing marketplace (vWorker.com). The study developed a representation of 785,325 small software projects datasets to predict the prospective project failure-determinant factors and to explain why the softwares failed at the outsourcing market. The vWorker.com website is an online global software outsourcing marketplace where clients contract out software projects to software developers across the entire world. The model differed from the conventional studies of IT management project failures because it focused on the impacts of prospective project failures recognized at the on-start of the project, focussed on the global software outsourcing marketplace and utilized observational data. Based on the prediction mechanism of the model Jørgensen (2014) established that prior collaboration between the client and the provider led to a significant reduction in the risks of software project management failures. On the contrary, the persistence of clients on funding low priced projects increased the probability of project failure. In a nutshell, the model was designed to predict causations of project failure by evaluating the factors presented before the activation of the project. However, the findings of the study were restricted to the global outsourcing marketplace making it hard to define the failure-determinant factors using an objective-measured approach. There was a complex scenario of relating casual variables with project failure risks in such a way that the model relied on many assumptions thereby presenting many challenges. Therefore, Jørgensen (2014) tried to use a different approach but the fact remains that to evade the IT project management failures, it is important to identify and understand the background of success-determinant factors of IT project management. Following the identification of the success factors by Jørgensen (2014), Hidding & Nicholas (2014) and other researchers, the need to understand them resulted in various attempts of explanation. The explanation of such factors has further led to the contextual studies on the appropriate approaches of planning for effective and efficient management of IT projects on daily basis to reduce the risk factors and enhance the IT project success-ability. For instance, Islam, Mouratidis &Weippi (2014) and Asad & Pinnington (2014) identified that the factors that affected software projects such as size of application, complexity of the application, advancements of technology, unavailability of expertise and business environment are avoidable by implementing a goal-oriented day-to-day risk management model (Goal-driven Software Development Risk Management Model, GSRM). GSRM represents a simplified framework that identifies and manages project failure-determinant factors at the initial engineering stage. It consists of four levels which include the Goal level, the Obstacle level, the Assessment level and the Treatment level. The case study conducted by Islam, Mouratidis &Weippi (2014) on the effectiveness of GSRM at Domain Technologies Ltd revealed that the Goal level described the important aspects that ensured the success of the project and outlined clearly the personnel charged with the responsibility of fulfilling a given goal. The Obstacle level defined the hindrance factors that prevented the achievement of one or many goals of the project. The Assessment level accredited if a particular hindrance factor presented a potential risk factor. Lastly, the Treatment level focussed on the implementation of specific measures to counter the effects of the identified risk factors and to reassure the success of the project. The case study, therefore, proved that GSRM is suitable framework of managing risks at an early stage in IT project management. Furthermore, the model improved interaction and communication between the project stakeholders thereby reducing the chances of disagreements that have been identified as project failure-determinant factors. However, according to the case study, the risk management model focussed on the industrial ignoring the fact that IT projects extend across all sectors including the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). To cover up for all sectors, Asad & Pinnington (2014) analysed the relationship between project success and project management performance to establish an appropriate approach of planning and managing day-to-day activities of IT projects. The authors established that project management performance correlated directly with project success; therefore, the study proposed that project management stakeholders, policies and strategies are important factors in the implementation of project success-determinant models such as GSRM. Although, the study did not focus on establishing a concrete approach of planning and managing day-to-day activities of IT projects to ensure the success of the projects, it proved that a direct relationship existed between project management performance and projects success. Such a relationship is important in successful organizational planning and management of projects. Hartono, et al. (2014) intensified the approaches of planning and managing projects to reduce risks and increase chances of success by conducting a study that determined the relationship between stakeholder perspectives and theoretical concepts. The aim of the study was to establish the influence of stakeholder perspectives and theoretical concepts on management of project risks. After considering the fact that project risk management models improved the success of a given IT project, Hartono, et al. (2014) revealed that all stakeholders involved in project management were conversant with risk-related concepts. However, the stakeholders’ differences in the application of decision making concepts to prevent project risks created a gap that subsequently prevented the implementation of the models such as GSRM. The study established that day-to-day planning and management of IT projects required the stakeholders’ collaborative application of theoretical concepts in the decision making process to create a common ground that is important in the success of the project. The study showed that there was a complex relationship between project success-determinant factors and the techniques for planning and managing day-to-day uncertainties of IT projects. Hartono, et al. (2014), study covered the gap created by Patanakul (2013) to establish the key drivers in planning and managing several IT related projects. Patanakul (2013) had established that multi-project competencies and multi-tasking skills of multiple IT projects managers contributed to the effectiveness and success of the projects. However, the multiple IT projects managers’ effectiveness relied on the initial, consistent and adequate sponsorship or adequate funding of the projects independed from one another. Both Hartono, et al. (2014) and Patanakul (2013) revealed that the management of the IT projects affected both the day-to-day planning and managing of projects which influenced the success of the project. In a nutshell, they revealed that apart from other factors, the project managers are the major determinants of project success or failure regardless if the projects are executed singly or in multiples. By extracting the evidence on the above described studies, it is clear that IT project management is affected by two major issues which include success-determinant factors and techniques of day-to-day planning and management of IT projects. The two issues share a complex relationship which means an IT project manager needs to understand the aspects that surround the two issues for successful management of IT projects. The studies conducted so far on the issues of IT project management have identified and explained only few aspects that surround the successful management of IT projects. Therefore, a research gap still exists to establish a contextual relationship between success-determinant factors and effective planning and managing of daily uncertainties of IT projects. Such an understanding can create an effective model that ensures successful management of IT projects. References Hartono, B., Sulistyo, S. R., Praftiwi, P. P., & Hasmoro, D. (2014). Project risk: Theoretical concepts and stakeholders' perspectives. International Journal of Project Management, 32(3), 400-411. Hidding, G. J., & Nicholas, J. M. (2014). Reducing IT Project Management Failures: Early Empirical Results. In System Sciences (HICSS), 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on (pp. 4305-4314). IEEE. Islam, S., Mouratidis, H., & Weippl, E. R. (2014). An empirical study on the implementation and evaluation of a goal-driven software development risk management model. Information and Software Technology, 56(2), 117-133. Jørgensen, M. (2014). Failure Factors of Software Projects at a Global Outsourcing Marketplace. Journal of Systems and Software, 92, 157-169. Mir, F. A., & Pinnington, A. H. (2014). Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International Journal of Project Management, 32(2), 202-217. Patanakul, P. (2013). Key Drivers of Effectiveness in Managing a Group of Multiple Projects. Engineering Management, IEEE Transactions on, 60(1), 4-17. Read More