IT Project Failure - Research Paper Example

The following document deal with IT project failure. The paper begins with an introduction that s what the general problems are that cause IT failure. A literature review follows, that gives a more in-depth analysis to the issue and problems. An analysis of the literature review is after this. A discussion is the next element, in which the problems are reiterated and some solutions are proposed. The paper ends with a general conclusion that reviews the problems and solutions that have been discussed and analyzed. Introduction IT projects fail for a variety of reasons. Chief among these reasons is a failure of management. While there are many other reasons for the failure, some of which are highly technical, the fact remains that lack of leadership and a weak project manager is the main reasons for the project failures. Another major reason is outsourcing when companies outsource their projects, this often leads to distrust and a deterioration of the relationship. This leads to poor performance, which leads to more mistrust, which leads to even poorer performance, and so on. Whatever the reason for the project failures technical, vendor failures or failure of management - one thing is clear, and this is that project failures must be dealt with early and swiftly. If project failures are not dealt with, because an individual is reluctant to admit to higher management that a project is failing, then this leads to a buggy software entering the marketplace. And, as will be shown, buggy software may lead to serious consequences that include debilitation and death. Literature Review Why IT Projects Fail IT projects fail for a variety of reasons. Among these are 鍍echnological difficulties, organizational and functional problems, managerial issues, and many other reasons.(Ahmad et al., , p. 93). The chance of an IT project failing is higher than engineering projects, because they are different in the following ways: 1) their constraints are abstract, which generates overambitious projects and unrealistic expectations; 2) they are difficult to visualize, which makes it difficult to understand and leads to late problem detection; 3) the flexibility of the project is perceived excessively, and this leads to budget and time overruns and to the user asking for changes on a frequent basis; 4) their complexity is hidden; 5) uncertainty causes difficulty in 都pecifying requirements and problems in implementation of the specified system 6) software tends to fail, because of assumptions that are not considered when developing the software and the effects of small changes in the software are difficult to anticipate; 7) automation which is 砥nlikely to make a bad process better (Ahmad et al., 2009, p. 93). Other problems include issues with the software itself, along with issues with the vendors and integrators. (Brown & Thompson, 2005, p. 2). Lack of IT support, project size and complexity, and changed user requirements are also reasons for IT project failures. (Standing et al., , p. 1149). Other studies in indicate that leadership failure is the number one reason why IT projects fail, and, related to this, is the fact that the staff under the IT leader lacks skills (Brown & Thompson, 2005, p. 2). That leadership failure is one of the most cited reasons for project failure is no surprise, as employees will focus on problems deemed important by management. (Kappelman et al., , p. 32). Related to this factor is the weak project manager. This sometimes occurs when an individual who is a talented analyst or a programmer is promoted to the level of project manager. Since the skills that makes a good project manager the ability to communicate, lead, plan and coordinate multiple efforts are not the same skills that make a good analyst or programmer, this is a problem. The analyst or programmer might not have the requisite skills to make an effective project manager, and this is a cause of many IT project failures. (Kappelman, 2006, p. 32). Also, a project manager must be able to manage people, not just projects, and this is a major challenge. (NetoAlvarez, 2003, p. 5). The stereotypical programming 渡erdwho designs brilliant programs might not have the people skills to manage well. Vendor risks also contribute to IT failure. This occurs when the vendor agrees to complete a project according to a defined time schedule and fixed cost. Thus, the work is outsourced to a vendor and not conducted in-house. This becomes a problem when the vendor and client become adversaries, resulting in a loss of trust between client and vendor; vendor management de-escalates commitment and the contractual engagement is difficult to break. (Natovich, 2003, p. 410). Lack of trust is perhaps a natural by-product of an arrangement where work is outsourced. Trust is known to be difficult to develop when work is outsourced, due to the lack of prior relationship, and long-term relationship, between the parties. Another cause of a lack of trust is a contract that states penalties, reporting arrangements and defined deliverables. (Natovich, 2003, p. 411). Sometimes the lack of trust leads to a vicious cycle, where an initial lack of trust between parties leads to a conflict, that leads to poor performance. This poor performance in turn leads to a further erosion of trust, which leads to even more poor performance. And so on. At some point, trust becomes so eroded that the project comes to an end (Natovich, 2003, p. 411). Another major factor in IT project failure is the fact that a project member might be reluctant to report the true status of a project, which leads to an escalation of the problem and to the problem becoming a 途unaway system.(Park, 2009, p. 45). This can lead to a product going to market with fundamental flaws, which will harm others, and create 電angerous situationsas it becomes embedded in services and products. One example of a dangerous situation that could be caused by an IT project failure would be LASIK eye equipment if that software has a bug in it due to project failure, an individual can become irreversibly blind. Another example is in the financial sector, where clients may suffer a severe financial loss because of an IT project failure. One well-documented case is the Therac 25 case, in which a computer-controlled radiation therapy system that was designed to treat cancer ended up killing four patients and wounding two others, due to software bugs. (Park et al., , p. 45). These are the consequences of an individual not reporting a project failure, while, if the same individual does come clean about the failure, the problems might be resolved before they cause harm to others; however, research suggests that this is not always the case, and negative information about an IT project often does not make its way up the hierarchy. There is some suggestion that, if a software engineer or somebody else knows about these bugs and do not report them, they are liable for negligence to the people who are harmed by the buggy product and morally responsible for the injuries and deaths that are resultant from these bugs and failures (Park et al., , p. 45). To avoid project failures, there must be a clear link between the project and the key strategic priorities of the organization, and the measures of success must be agreed upon; there must be clear ministerial ownership and leadership, and senior management; there must be effective engagement with stakeholders; development and implementation must be broken into manageable steps; proposals must not be evaluated using initial price, but, rather, must be assessed by its long-term value for the money; senior levels of the organization must understand and have contact with the supply industry; and there must be integration between the supplier team, the supply chain and the clients. (OCG). There are also factors that will tend to make an IT project failure more certain, and these are the lack of executive support and lack of user involvement. Conversely, the number one factor that will lead to success of an IT project is the presence of an experienced project manager. (Al-Ahmad, 2009, p. 97). The signs of project failure There are major signs that an IT project is failing. It is generally recommended that 殿t the earliest possible stage, managers need to ask themselves whether any red flags...are serious enough to warrant project termination or significant redirection. By institutionalizing such an early warning system, organizations can save considerable sums of money simply by identifying failed projects while they are still in the early stages of development.(Kappelman, 2006, p. 31). These warning signs can be grouped into three general categories social subsystem risks, project management risks and technical subsystem risks, or, simply, people, process and product risks. (Kappelman et al., , p. 32). Among these red flags and early warning signs are project managers who do not understand the needs of the users; an ill-defined project scope; poorly managed project changes; technological changes; change in business needs; unrealistic deadlines; resistant users; lost sponsorship; the project is lacking people with appropriate skills; and best practices are ignored by managers. (Ahmad et al., , p. 97). Analysis There are a number of reasons for project failure. Chief among these reasons is the failure of management. This is no surprise the project manager must have an expertise in people skills, such as effective communication and management skills. Very often, an individual is promoted who might be a brilliant programmer or analyst, but lacks the ability to communicate and interact with others. This is a blind spot that leads to many projects failing. Another issue is with outsourcing. Outsourcing necessarily creates a relationship that is based upon the project alone, as opposed to a long-term relationship that is going forward into the future. This creates a lack of trust and potential for animosity between the parties. The lack of trust leads to a vicious cycle that leads to ever poor performance and an eventual scrapping of the entire project. More serious are the projects that fail because an individual is afraid to report to the hierarchy problems that are existing with the project. This is a problem because, if the individual would have simply reported the failure to higher-ups, the problems could be fixed or the project scrapped. Instead, software is put into the world with known bugs, and these bugs can have devastating consequences, as was shown with the software bug that caused cancer patients to die. Discussion The literature review points out problems that cause IT project failure, and obvious solutions. One of the problems that is cited, again and again in the literature, is the overall failure of a project manager to lead and inspire. The solution to this dilemma seems obvious individuals need to be promoted to project manager not on the basis of how talented they are in designing software or analysis, but on their ability to communicate and lead. Project managers have a very complicated job, one that involves communication with a variety of different stakeholders in the project, a coordination of resources, problem-solving and multi-tasking. If a company is short-sighted and promotes somebody strictly on the basis of how well that person is able to program or analyze, then this company is just asking for problems. Another problem is when an individual does not report problems to hierarchy. While this is a problem in any situation, in that this kind of issue causes buggy software to enter the marketplace, it is especially a problem when it is a matter of life and death. It is simply inexcusable for an individual to fail to report problems in software that, if it gets to the marketplace and fails, will cause devastating consequences such as permanent blindness and death. This problem would seemingly be resolved by there being a system of checks and balances. It should not be up to one person to discover the bugs and report them. Others should be double-checking everything that happens down the line so that this does not occur. This is especially true when dealing with software that has the potential to cause devastating consequences if it fails. This kind of software needs to be check and re-checked by a number of different eyes. As for the problems with the vendor, the solution to this seems rather obvious as well. Companies should not outsource their projects. They should only deal with trusted employees, ones who have a long-standing relationship with the company. There is simply too much risk that a lack of trust between the parties will cause poor performance and a vicious cycle that ends the relationship. When this happens, this benefits nobody the companys project needs to be scrapped, the vendors relationship is severed, and everybody has a sour taste in their mouths. This can be prevented by the company making a policy not to outsource their IT projects. Conclusion While there are a number of different reasons for project failure, the top reason is a simple lack of leadership. This is the main reason for project failures, and many of the smaller factors that lead to project failure can be directly attributed to this one major factor. This can be combatted by a simple company policy to not appoint an individual as a project manager unless that person has all the skills set that are needed for the job. Other solutions to the problem include not out-sourcing IT work, and having a strong system of checks and balances in the IT project pipeline. That way, if one individual sees that a project is failing and that individual does not report this failure to management, then somebody else will. This step is vital to save lives. Sources Used Al-Ahmad, W., Al-Fagih, K., Khanfar, K., Alsamara, K., Abuleil, S., and Abu-Salem, H. (2009). A taxonomy of an IT project failure: Root causes. International Management Review, (1), pp. 93-104. Brown, J. & Thompson, O. (2005). Project failure The numbers, why, and what it means. Kappelman, L., McKeeman, R., and Zhian, L. (2006). Early warning signs of IT project failure: The dominant dozen. Information Systems Management Journal, . 30-37). Natovich, J. (2003). Vendor related risks in IT development: A chronology of an outsources project failure. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, (4), 409-419. NetoAlvarez, S. (2003). Project management failure: main causes. A Graduate Research Report Submitted for INSS 690 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requiremenst of the Degree of Master of Science in Management Information Systems. OGC. Common causes of project failure. Standing, C., Guilfoyle, A., Lin, C. and Love, P. (2006). The attribution of success and failure in IT projects. Industrial Management and Data Systems, (8), 1148- 1165. Woo Parik, C., Keil, M. and Kim, J. (2009). The effect of IT failure impact and personal morality on IT project reporting behavior. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, (1), pp. 45-60. Table of Contents Introduction.........................................................1 Literature Review................................................2 Analysis................................................................6 Discussion.............................................................7 Concluson..............................................................9 Read More