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?
pag. 12
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?
pag. 13
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
pag. 15
• 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