E competences 21 10-2013

Skills for Design, Analysis and

Implementation of IT projects

Prof. Dr. ir Jan Devos Universiteit Gent, Campus Kortrijk

Graaf Karel De Goedelaan 5

BE-8500 KORTRIJK - BELGIUM

T: +32 56 24 12 72

e-mail: [email protected]

linkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jangdevos

Blog: jangdevos.wordpress.org

twitter: @jangdevos

pag. 1 © Jan Devos

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IT/IS projects

pag. 4 © Jan Devos

• Runaway projects and system failure

• Runaway projects: 30%–40% IT projects – Exceed schedule, budget

– Fail to perform as specified

• Types of system failure – Fail to capture essential business requirements

– Fail to provide organizational benefits

– Complicated, poorly organized user interface

– Inaccurate or inconsistent data

Traditional approach

- Cybernetic system

- Control theory

pag. 5 © Jan Devos

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IT projects (New paradigms?)

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“(Computer-based) Information Systems defeat their own purpose because they create complexity.”

(Weick 1985)

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IT projects - new paradigms?

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Real Options Pricing Models (ROPMs)

• Suitable for large IT infrastructure investments

• Future revenue streams are unclear (unsuccessful ?)

• Invest now – harvest later

• An initial expenditure on IT creates the right, but not the

obligation to obtain the benefits associated with further

development

• Management has the freedom to cancel, defer, restart, or

expand the project

IT projects - new paradigms?

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Organizing for High Reliability: Processes of Collective

Mindfulness (Weick, 1999)

• Preoccupation with failure (“Failure is not an option”)

• Reluctance to simplify interpretation

(beware of ‘frameworks’, ‘models’, ‘mindsets’, …)

• Sensitivity to operations (“situational awareness”)

• Commitment to resilience (“continuous management of

fluctuations”)

IT projects - new paradigms?

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Lessons from HROs

• The expectation of surprise is an organizational resource because it

promotes attentiveness and discovery

• Anomalous events should be treated as outcomes rather than as

accidents, to encourage search for sources and causes

• Errors should be made as conspicuous as possible to undermine self-

deception and concealment

• Reliability requires diversity, duplication, overlap, and a varied response

repertoire, whereas efficiency requires homogeneity, specialization, non-

redundancy and standardization (bricolage?)

• Interpersonal skills are just as important in HROs as are technical skills

IT projects - new paradigms?

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The sociomateriality of IS (Orlikowski, 2007/8)

• A relational view of organizations and IS as sociomaterial

arrangements of human and non-human actors

• Assumes inherently inseparable sociality and materiality of

IS

• IS enactments can create different kind of realities in

practice

• E.g. Why is one ERP implementation successful and why is

another one considered as a failure?

Conclusions

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• PM does not guaranteed success nor eliminates failures

(IS success models)

• PM too much focused on ‘how-to-do’

• Management of meaning iso management of control ?

• Critical perspective on projects: focus on values (technology

is not neutral), ethics and morality equally important than

efficiency & effectiveness

• Trust vs Control (Devos, 2009)

2003, The chimpanzees’ tea party: a new metaphor for project manager (Drummond & Hodgson)

2006, New Possibilities for Project Management Theory: A Critical Engagement (Cicmil & Hodgson)

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Thanks