Causes of IT Failure - Literature review Example

Causes of IT Failure Information Technology (IT) that has developed over the last two decades can be considered to be among the most essential parts of business in the world today. This is mainly because of the fact businesses have come to rely heavily on IT to ensure that they are not only up to date with the latest information concerning the market, but that they are able to get the necessary feedback concerning their products from customers. Moreover, it has been found that IT has come to have a significant influence on the business trends of the modern world since many individuals have come to rely on it to gain the latest information concerning new products that have developed in the market (Clemons, Reddi & Row, 1993). Businesses have come to embrace IT for the purpose of selling and marketing their products to their customers and this has enabled the development of advanced business IT for the purpose of ensuring that businesses are also in line with the current trends as demanded by their customers (Lanfranco, 2008). However, while IT has become an essential part of the business world, it also carries massive risks for those businesses that use it especially in case of failure. The failure of IT projects in companies tends to lead to massive losses which are brought about because of the loss of data as well as the inability of the business to receive and carry out orders from its customers (OCallaghan, 2007). IT failure has been found to be among the most devastating events for companies, many of which invest large amounts of money in it to ensure that they work smoothly. The ability of a company to recover from IT failure might take some time and this tends to incur the displeasure of customers, who might choose to purchase the products or rival companies instead. It has become necessary for businesses to take the necessary steps to ensure that IT failures among them are as minimal as possible. Studies have shown that the best means of ensuring that failures do not occur is to find out the causes of the failures so that they can be rectified before they become a problem. Most of the major businesses in the market today employ IT projects in one form or the other, and the risks of technical failures tend to be very low (Fadun, 2013). This is mainly because of the fact that most of the individuals who are involved in such project are the best trained individuals. Companies spend plenty of money to ensure that well trained individuals are hired to run their IT projects and this is normally done with the aim of ensuring that all forms of failures are prevented. The fact many businesses have come to rely a lot on IT means that they have to invest considerably in them so that they can be able to maintain their competitive edge over their rivals in the market. However, most of the technical failures that might take place in the IT project of a company is normally as a result of the lack of coordination between the different members of the team rather than as a consequence of a direct breakdown of the system. It has been found that the technical risks of IT failure can be traced to the size or complexity of the technology being used (Markus, 2004) and this is mainly because of the fact that the larger and more complex the technology being use, the higher the risk of failure. However, these problems can normally be solved through the hiring of people who are well versed in the new technology as well as the adoption of the best process practices that will ensure that the IT project continues to run smoothly (Lee & Xia, 2005; Mohamed Osman & Dawson, 2007). The risks that are brought about by technical failure, while they cannot be eliminated, can be managed through the company’s continued vigilance over the type of technology that it acquires as well as the provision of the necessary training for its IT department in the use of larger and complex technology. One of the leading causes of IT failure in a business is the lack of support for the venture from the leading executives of the company. This is not as surprising as one would think because of the fact that employees within a company will tend to focus only on those projects which its management considers to be the most important (Goulielmos, 2005). If the management does not prioritize IT in favour of other projects, it is most likely that the employees will also choose to do the same and this disregard for the IT department will increase the risk of failure. The lack of support for IT from the top management of the company might come in various forms but the most pertinent tends to be the lack of enough funding as well as the lack of the proper personnel to run the project. This leads to a situation where it becomes extremely difficult for the IT project in the company to be run in the most efficient manner since the project will have become one of the least priorities of the company. Most of the IT failures cause by lack of management support is based on enterprise politics, where the management is in perpetual disagreement concerning the priorities of the company; whether it would be best to implement constant upgrades of the company’s IT system or whether to prioritize other projects (Stanciu & Tinca, 2013). Because of these constant disagreements concerning the priorities of the company, the IT project of a company tends to be the loser because it is not able to have access to the most advanced technology and staff available to ensure the smooth running of the department. The result of this tends to be IT failure, which the top management of the company comes to find out much later when it is too late to prevent it and when more money needs to be spent to ensure that the problem is fixed. Another serious cause of IT failure tends to be weak leadership from the manager of the IT department (de Oliveira, Fernandes & Lima, 2013). This is mainly because of the failure of these individuals to lead and communicate effectively with their subordinates concerning what they need to do to ensure that their project is a success. The causes of weak leadership in the IT department tend to be mainly because of the promotion of brilliant programmers and analysts to the position of department managers. This creates a situation where brilliant programmers, who have no real knowledge of management, are placed in positions which do not allow them to realize their full potential; instead relegating to them responsibilities which they are ill suited to undertake. The result of such uncalculated promotions is that the IT department becomes vulnerable to the weak leadership style of the managers, posing a potential risk of failure as most of the decisions that they make might not be in compatibility with the maintenance of the IT system. The normal task of an IT manager is to ensure that he coordinates all the efforts in his department and not perform the tasks himself. This is something that the company’s management has to put into consideration when making decisions concerning promoting individuals to management positions. The person who is supposed to head the IT department of any business must first and foremost be a competent leader and organizer because this are the main attributes which make IT managers to be able to swiftly handle any emergency that might threaten a failure of the system. The inexperienced individuals who are normally appointed to IT management positions normally do not have the skills necessary to ensure that they deliver the stated goals of the project within the stated time scope or within the budget stipulated by the company. When all stakeholders are not directly drawn in the IT scheme of a business, it is most likely that the venture will experience a failure because it will not have the support of all the individuals that matter to ensure that it becomes a success (Issa & Haddad, 2008). Without the involvement of stakeholders in the IT project, no significant resources will be diverted to ensure that the department runs smoothly because the stakeholders will tend to prioritize other projects, in which they are directly involved. The main consequence of such a lack of support would be that the project would suffer from a lack of funding as well as moral support because most of the funding that it would have acquired is diverted to other projects. When this is the case, despite its importance, the IT project will end up being either shelved or suffering crippling failures which will require massive spending to get running again. It is therefore important for a company to ensure that it keeps all of its stakeholders informed concerning the progress of the IT department and to ensure that they are involved in all of its status meetings so that it can get the necessary attention that will in turn guarantee it gains required resources. With the direct involvement of the company’s stakeholders, the IT department will be able to deal with all the potential causes of failures and will help in the development of a wider network that the company can use to expand the markets for its products. Because of the direct involvement of all the major stakeholders in the activities of the department, it is more likely than not that a large number of lesser stakeholders will also choose to participate in it and this will also provide the motivation for members of the IT team to work harder to meet stipulated targets. Thus, one would state that the involvement of stakeholders ensures the success of a company’s IT project, and it also prevents the reassigning of its team members to other departments which might otherwise be given priority. This leads to the swift advancement of the company’s IT department to such an extent that it avoids most of the situations that might lead to its failure. The weak commitment of the IT team of a company might lead to its failure because members of the team will not have the motivation necessary to ensure that they work harder to make the company’s IT invulnerable to failure (Furukawa & Minami, 2013). This weak commitment might be brought about because of the management choosing to ignore the needs of the team members that help to make their work easier. Among the biggest causes of a lack of commitment among team members is when the management does not provide them with the necessary funding and resources that they can use not only to fix problems in the technology that they use, but also to acquire the necessary technology that can be used in significantly increasing the performance of the company’s IT. This leads to a situation where the members of the team opt not to work as hard as they normally would have to prevent any form of system failure as well as to ensure that it continues to run smoothly in the company’s interests (Sadoughi, Kimiafar, Ahmadi & Shakeri, 2013). There are certain instances where the company’s management gives the IT department a limited and unrealistic budget which is not normally enough for the IT team to accomplish its mission. Management fails to understand that for an IT project to become successful and of high quality, a lot of time, hard work, and difficult choices have to be made and implemented so that it can be accomplished (Marshall, 2012). This is something which companies have only come to realize in recent years and they have worked towards building up their IT department into some of the most competitive in the world. Moreover, the managements of these companies have taken the initiative of only including those individuals whose interests are in line with the companies’ own interests in their IT teams. This has been done to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest that might harm the running of the IT project and lead to failure. There are certain instances where IT failure in companies is caused by the lack of the necessary knowledge or skills of how to deal with those sudden situations that might bring about failures (Baccarini, Salm & Love, 2004). This lack of skills and knowledge can be brought about through the company not providing the members of the It department with the necessary training to keep them up to date with the latest trends in the industry. In addition, in case there are no qualified people within the team, it is the responsibility of the company’s management to ensure that experienced individuals are hired and brought into the team in order to keep the system running and preventing it from failing. Management has to provide the necessary funding and conditions which are necessary for the training of its IT employees because this is the only way through which they can be able to acquire the skills that they need to ensure the efficient running of the IT system. The ability of a company to prioritize its IT department in its budget is one of the most commendable needs of the company that can be implemented in the current competitive markets because it will not only ensure that it has easy access to its customers, but it will also enable the company’s customers to provide it with the necessary feedback concerning its products (Kappelman, McKeeman & Zhang, 2006). It is for this reason that the members of the IT team should be provided with the best training available as a means of providing the company with the leverage it needs to compete with its rivals. In addition, the prioritization of the IT department also ensures that the earnings of the company increase because the proper maintenance of its website enables its customers to make purchases online. Competent individuals have to be employed as managers of IT so that they can be able to recognize its deficiencies and make proposals which provide the system with the ability to withstand any potential failures. The security of the IT system is an important factor that needs to be put into consideration in protecting company information from malicious threats and software. Most computer software threats and malicious programs that come from the internet include information gathering where a company’s network can be discovered profiled the same way other systems have been profiled (Standing, Guilfoyle, Lin & Love, 2006). After the ports have been identified, a banner is used in grabbing and enumerating to detect the types of devices hence determines the operating system and application versions. Sniffing is another IT threat and it involves acts of monitoring network traffic for data that include plaintext passwords and date on installation. An attacker uses packet sniffer to read plaintext traffic, crack packets that are encrypted through lightweight hashing of algorithms as well as decipher payload that is considered to be safe. There are various strategies that can be used to counter threats relates to IT system networks, for instance, the issue of information gathering will require configuration of the routers which will assist in restricting responses to footprint requests. Strong physical security together with proper network segmentation prevents the problem of sniffing or traffic from being collected at a local level (Tirgari, 2012). When dealing with host threats, there are several measures that can be put in place which include ensuring the systems are current with the latest operating system service packs and software patches, ensure all necessary ports are blocked both at the firewall and the host, un used functionalities should be disabled and this will include protocols and services, and ensure weak, default configurations are hardened. Arbitrary code execution can be prevented by locking down the systems commands and utilities using restricted ACLs and ensuring the entire company systems stay current with updates and patches so that buffers that are newly discovered will be speedily patched. As has been discussed above, the prevention of IT failures within companies is one of the most important practices that can be encouraged within these businesses. This is because of the fact that it leads to the success of the business as well as the growth of the careers of those people who are directly involved in its success, namely the company executives, those who manage the IT projects, as well as the members of the IT teams (Akhter, 2010). There are normally a large number of risks that, if not dealt with swiftly, end up causing massive problems for the company involved, especially in the potential losses that it might incur. It has therefore become important for companies to pay attention to all the risk factors that are involved in the operation of their IT systems because this is the only way through which they can be able to effectively protect them from failure. Because of the massive importance of IT to companies and other businesses today, it has become necessary to protect them from any form of failure, whether technical or from outside sources which might be based on malicious intentions (Taylor, Artman & Woelfer, 2012). The ability of a company to protect itself against IT failure is very important because it not only saves it a lot of money in the long run but it also allows it to keep a constant eye on its performance in the market as well as receive the feedback it needs to improve its services. One would conclude that most of the major businesses in the market today employ IT projects in one form or the other. It is a fact that one of the leading causes of IT failure in a business is the deficiency of support for the venture from the top management of the company. Another serious cause is the weak leadership from the managers of the IT department. In addition, when all stakeholders are not directly involved in the IT project of a business, it is most likely that the project will become a failure. Moreover the weak commitment of the IT team of a company might lead to its failure because members of the team will not have the motivation necessary to ensure that they work harder to make the company’s IT invulnerable to failure. However, as seen above, there are certain instances where IT failure in companies is caused by the lack of the necessary knowledge or skills of how to deal with those sudden situations that might bring about failures. Finally, in order to counter this, the security of the IT system should be made an important factor that needs to be put into consideration in protecting company information from malicious threats and software. References Akhter, W. 2010, "Risk Management in Takaful", Enterprise Risk Management, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 128-144. Baccarini, D., Salm, G. & Love, P.E.D. 2004, "Management of risks in information technology projects", Industrial Management + Data Systems, vol. 104, no. 3, pp. 286-295. Clemons, E.K., Reddi, S.P. & Row, M.C. 1993, "The impact of information technology on the organization of economic activity: The "move to the middle" hypothesis", Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 9. de Oliveira, J.F., Fernandes, M.E. & Lima, C.R.C. 2013, "INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: AN ANALYSIS ON COMPUTATIONAL MODEL FAILURES FOR FLEET MANAGEMENT", Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management : JISTEM, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 577-596. Fadun, O.S. 2013, "Risk Management and Risk Management Failure: Lessons for Business Enterprises", International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 225-239. Furukawa, M. & Minami, A. 2013, "A Study on the Flexibility of Information Systems (Part 1): Why Do They Need to Be Flexible?", International Journal of Business and Management, vol. 8, no. 20, pp. 48-61. Goulielmos, M. 2005, "Applying the organizational failure diagnosis model to the study of information systems failure", Disaster Prevention and Management, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 362-377. Issa, R.R.A. & Haddad, J. 2008, "Perceptions of the impacts of organizational culture and information technology on knowledge sharing in construction", Construction Innovation, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 182-201. Kappelman, L.A., McKeeman, R. & Zhang, L. 2006, "EARLY WARNING SIGNS OF IT PROJECT FAILURE: THE DOMINANT DOZEN", Information Systems Management, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 31-36. Lanfranco, S. 2008, "Information and Communication Technology (ICT): In the Service of Human Services", Currents, vol. 7, no. 2. Lee, G. & Xia, W. 2005, "The ability of information systems development project teams to respond to business and technology changes: a study of flexibility measures", European Journal of Information Systems, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 75. Markus, M.L. 2004, "Technochange management: using IT to drive organizational change", Journal of Information Technology, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 4-20. Marshall, J.P. 2012, "Information Technology and the Experience of Disorder", Cultural Studies Review, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 281-309. Mohamed Osman, S.M. & Dawson, P. 2007, "The introduction of information technology in the commercial banking sector of developing countries: voices from Sudan", Information Technology & People, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 184-204. OCallaghan, R. 2007, "Fixing the payment system at Alvalade XXI: a case on IT project risk management", Journal of Information Technology, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 399-409. Sadoughi, F., Kimiafar, K., Ahmadi, M. & Shakeri, M.T. 2013, "Determining of Factors Influencing the Success and Failure of Hospital Information System and Their Evaluation Methods: A Systematic Review", Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, vol. 15, no. 12, pp. 1-15. Stanciu, V. & Tinca, A. 2013, "ERP SOLUTIONS BETWEEN SUCCESS AND FAILURE", Accounting and Management Information Systems, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 626-649. Standing, C., Guilfoyle, A., Lin, C. & Love, P.E.D., 2006, "The attribution of success and failure in IT projects", Industrial Management + Data Systems, vol. 106, no. 8, pp. 1148-1165. Taylor, H., Artman, E. & Woelfer, J.P. 2012, "Information technology project risk management: bridging the gap between research and practice", Journal of Information Technology, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 17-34. Tirgari, V. 2012, "INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY POLICIES AND PROCEDURES AGAINST UNSTRUCTURED DATA: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS", Academy of Information and Management Sciences Journal, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 87-106. Read More