From dynamic capabilities to ERP enabled business improvements: The mediating effect of the implementation project

This study explores whether an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation project mediates the relationship between dynamic pre-adoption capabilities and ERP-enabled business improvements. The results from our field survey of large ERP adopters in Austria suggest that the effects of the two out of three selected dynamic capabilities are dependent on the properties of the underlying organizational transformation project. While external information acquisition and IT governance capabilities are fully mediated by the performance of the ERP implementation project, decision making only directly impacts business capabilities. These results further our understanding about the role of the implementation project for ERP value creation and the different natures of capability relationships. We call for more research on co-presence conditions related to dynamic capabilities and IT transformation project performance.     

IT project management control and the Control Objectives for IT and related Technology (CobiT) framework

Motivated by scarce academic consideration of project management control frameworks, this article explores usage, value and structure of frameworks with a focus on the popular Control Objectives for IT and related Technology (CobiT) construct. We attempt to add to an empirically validated structure of internal control over IT project management by including CobiT's views on the intended domain of content. Results from the empirical survey indicate that the metrics suggested by CobiT are regarded as feasible and important by project management professionals, and are regularly used in controlling practice. Experience, regularity of significant projects and the size of the hosting organisations, however, seem to be stronger moderators of success rates than the use of a management control system with or without support of CobiT. CobiT's suggestions are of generic nature and in particular useful for programme performance management. The latent dimensions of project quality on process and activity levels were not validated and gaps to other project assessment models were identified.     

信息技术在汽车工厂设计中的应用

以天津长城汽车项目为例,介绍信息技术在工厂设计中的应用。概要介绍了汽车企业的基本建设条件,信息技术的含义。详细阐述了信息系统的设计内容,系统整体架构,主要设计方案和重点应注意的问题。     

Escalation of commitment in troubled IT projects: Influence of project risk factors and self-efficacy on the perception of risk and the commitment to a failing project

Past studies have indicated that project managers may be less likely to continue failing IT projects if they are able to perceive project risks accurately. Using the scenario of a failing IT project, a computer simulation-based experiment investigated the influence of individual self-efficacy and project risk factors on the perception of risk. Participants played the role of a project manager and managed a simulated IT project. The results suggest that project managers are likely to underestimate the risks of a project with endogenous risk factors as compared to a project with exogenous risk factors. Results of this study point to a ‘self-efficacy bias’ where project managers with higher self-efficacy may underestimate the risks of a troubled IT project as compared to project managers with lower self-efficacy. Further, risk perception mediated the influence of self-efficacy on the commitment to a failing IT project.     

Relationships between project governance and information technology governance and their impact on project performance

This research endeavors to address the question of how to enhance project performance through exploring the relationships among information technology (IT) governance, project governance and project performance. The research utilizes an empirical survey methodology. The survey of 533 working professionals in various industries renders 282 usable responses or a response rate of 53.91%. The results suggest that both IT governance and project governance have a positive impact on project performance. Moreover, we found that three dimensions of IT governance (i.e., strategy setting, value delivery, and performance management) are positively associated with project performance while all three dimensions of project governance (i.e., portfolio direction, project sponsorship as well as project effectiveness & efficiency, and disclosure & reporting) are positively associated with project performance. Additionally, the alignment between IT governance and project governance is also found to be positively associated with project performance. These findings provide evidence to project management professionals in regard to IT governance and project governance being part of the operational strategy in facilitating the success of projects. It also demonstrates the importance of the alignment strategy between IT governance and project governance in enhancing project performance.     

谈医疗IT系统的供电与接地设计

本文结合某综合医院住院楼设计实例,探讨医疗场所IT系统设置要求、供电设计方案与设备选型及医疗场所IT系统的接地与运用。     

‘But that is a systems solution to me’ – negotiations in IT design

In this paper we argue that it is not self-evident how ‘requirements’ are defined, but that ‘requirements’ are enacted differently by differently situated actors, and that this has consequences in design practices. The purpose of the paper is to explore the consequences of prototyping practices in a local IT design project. The empirical material was gathered through the use of ethnographic methods, and analysed diffractively. Graphical user interface prototypes were tools for formulating business requirements in a business process analysis. Through a reading of a discussion which took place in a work meeting about the prototypes, we discuss how business requirements were enacted. This is discussed in relation to divergent and convergent approaches in IT design. One consequence was a risk that the prototyping process moved too fast to solutions, and another was the risk that the business process analysis method reproduced the dominant story of women's absence in IT design.     

Modeling project criticality in IT project portfolios

Today's IT project portfolios (ITPP) contain many projects and varied interdependencies. Depending on a project's criticality to the ITPP, a failure can have massive consequences. However, existing methods usually only assess overall project portfolio risk and do not account for the criticality of single projects and their dependencies. Applying Bayesian network modeling to ITPPs, we bridge this gap and extend the current body of knowledge for the information systems and project management literatures. Our new method analyzes single projects' criticality in a portfolio context by considering both transitive dependencies and different dependency types in an integrated way. Since we demonstrate that single projects' criticality can vary substantially, being aware of which projects are critical is a key success factor for ITPP management. For practitioners, our method provides a straightforward procedure to enhance ITPP risk management.     

Professor Rodney Howes, 1943–2005

Strategic IT implementation decisions for major construction projects in Hong Kong are subject to various forces or factors identified in previous research—such as external forces, technological factors and organizational factors. The aim of this research was to examine the relationship (if any) between these families of forces and evaluate their impact, individually and collectively. A complex combination of several families of forces/factors that affect decision making was found to be ‘temporal’ with respect to project teams on major projects in Hong Kong. The research was underpinned by a broad questionnaire survey to establish ‘current practice’ before in‐depth analysis of the forces by means of a case study followed by interviews with industry leaders to confirm the results. It was found that respondents (n = 33) ordered cost, security and confidentiality as the most influential factors affecting IT implementation. A difference was found in the perceptions of ‘hired‐in’ project‐based staff in joint ventures and ‘permanent staff’ of single companies, the former evaluating IT performance more highly but evaluating the strategic use of, and user satisfaction with, IT significantly lower. The major constraint on IT implementation was found to be lack of budget, not cost per se. It is concluded that the temporal factors that apply to implementing innovative IT technology in project teams are relevant to different team members at different stages in the project life cycle and these factors are conditioned by a set of business conditions applying to project‐specific coalition organizations that are different from those that apply to single‐entity organizations.     

大型超深基坑工程信息化施工研究——上海外环隧道的浦西基坑工程

上海外环隧道的浦西基坑工程是一个开口型基坑,深达30m和不等深度,宽43m。本文对墙后地面沉降和墙顶沉降以及墙体水平位移进行研究,采用综合分析方法(包括系统的现场监测,超明星非线形空间软件和多种预测方法的跟踪计算),紧密结合现场的实际情况,按实际施工工况,有针对性地跟踪预测,提前两周提供分析结果,以期更好地指导施工。实践表明,运用综合分析方法是十分有效的。对土压力进行了实测与分析,结合变形分析对墙体工作性状的变化进行监视,并建议了一个实用的计算主动区土压力图式。最后,对信息化施工提出几点理性认识。     

An information technology forecast for the architectural profession

Much of our research in IT in construction is concerned with developing technologies and prescribing how they can be applied to construction problems. Our rationale for our choice of technologies to push is often unstated and the relative significance of a range of technologies is rarely considered. The impact of emerging technologies on the strategic health of companies and professions is also rarely discussed. Few professions appear to be explicitly in control of how IT will impact their future.

This paper addresses both of these issues through the example of an IT forecast for the architectural profession. It does this by examining issues of technology forecasting and development by reviewing currently emerging IT's and by conducting an opinion survey of which are of greatest significance to the architectural profession. The result is a relative assessment of the importance to architects of 10 technological mini-scenarios from which an overall architectural IT scenario is constructed.     

IT工业员工宿舍区交往空间环境营造策略初探

随着现代社会的发展,IT企业的规模正逐步扩大,员工宿舍区数量也相应地增加。但现阶段与员工宿舍区设计相关的指导理论与方法尚待发展完善,这使得设计师们在项目设计建设过程中很难对IT工业员工生活所需的交往空间环境进行准确合理的把握,往往会造成设计的不完善。现以IT工业员工宿舍区的交往空间环境作为研究对象,从尽可能满足IT工业员工的日常交往需求的角度出发,对其所需、合理的交往空间环境营造策略进行有益的探讨。     

IT治理在建设行业信息化中的应用探讨

我国建设行业的IT资源已经成为政府行业管理部门,设计、咨询、监理、施工单位、建设行业互联网企业等的重要的基础资源。引入IT治理理念及方法,对于提高IT投资效率,有效地推进和建设企业信息化,将具有积极的意义。文章对IT治理概念、内涵进行介绍,并探讨了IT治理在建设行业信息化中的应用。     

数据中心IT设备的节能设计

数据中心是能源消耗“大户”，其消耗的电能相当于整个IT消耗的40％。本文主要介绍了数据中心的设计原则，并针对IT设备提出了有效的节能设计。     

A methodology for selecting portfolios of projects with interactions and under uncertainty

Effective project evaluation and selection strategies can directly impact organizational productivity and profitability. Numerous analytical techniques ranging from simple weighted scoring to complex mathematical programming approaches have been proposed to solve these problems. However, traditional project selection methods too often fail to consider both the uncertainties in projects and the interaction among projects. Some prior studies have considered the interaction among projects in deterministic environments. Others have dealt with stochastic environments but have not considered project interdependencies. This study aspires to fill this gap in the project portfolio selection literature. Information system/information technology (IS/IT) projects are used in this study because they are frequently subject to uncertainties due to estimation difficulties and bounded by interactions due to technological interdependencies. We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to select the best portfolio of IS/IT projects while taking both project uncertainties (modeled as fuzzy variables) and project interactions into consideration simultaneously. We also present a numerical example to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed framework and exhibit the efficacy of the procedures.     

Project governance mechanisms and the performance of software development projects: Moderating role of requirements risk

Over the years, practitioners and academicians have been perplexed by low efficiency and poor performance in IT projects. Previous studies have uncovered a variety of critical factors, including effective project governance mechanisms that can trigger project performance and curb opportunism. However, an obvious question that emerges is how effective these governance mechanisms are at improving the performance of an IT organization and software development project in the presence of risk factors. Hence, the overarching objective of the current study is the development of a moderation model to investigate the effectiveness of these governance mechanisms in the presence of requirements risk. This paper follows a positivist research philosophy where a quantitative deductive approach has been used to collect the data of 318 respondents from 175 software development firms based in Pakistan. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through SmartPLS 3 have been used to analyze the hypotheses. The results of the study indicate that contractual and relational governances significantly influence project performance and are useful in reducing opportunism. Moreover, there is evidence that the presence of requirements risk tends to negatively moderate the influence of contractual and relational governances on project performance. The findings will help not only Pakistan's software firms, but also those in developing countries that want to improve performance through effective project governance and risk management.     

Shared and fragmented understandings in interorganizational IT project teams: An interpretive case study

Shared understanding is essential in interorganizational projects to integrate the divergent knowledge of individual team members and support collaborative knowledge building. This can nevertheless be a challenging undertaking in interorganizational projects as team members must continuously negotiate differences in their organizational and professional backgrounds during project work. In this paper, we explore how interorganizational IT project teams deal with sources of ‘fragmentation’ in their understanding, explicating the theoretical and practical implications that these have for project management. Our study is needed to explore the increasingly complex and emergent nature of interorganizational project management today where neither goals nor the means of attainment are known with precision at a project's launch. We analyze interpretive case study findings from an 8-month IT project involving diverse organizations from industry, academia, and healthcare. Based on our findings, we develop a framework which highlights the relationship between three sources of fragmentation of understanding (interpersonal, technical, and contextual) across key project activities. We contribute towards project management literature by revealing how these sources of fragmentation might be overcome through framing project activities (the problem, method, and solution formulation) differently. While fragmentation may characterize any, or all, of these key activities, it is not without remedy.     

The social interaction of developers and IT operations staff in software development projects

This paper investigates how developers and IT operations staff interact in software development projects. We analyse data from 42 IT professionals from 18 Norwegian firms through the lens of social interaction and project management theory. Our analysis suggests that their social interactions are hampered by a variety of factors. The study contributes to the research by providing an analysis of the elements of social interaction and how they contribute to better outcomes. For practice, we offer an assessment instrument for improving the social interaction in software development projects.     

信息化加速建筑企业转型升级

建筑业要响应国家发展低碳经济,实现节能降耗的科学发展目标,必须转变观念,加大执行力,采用信息技术对企业管理模式、生产经营方式、项目管理流程等进行重组改造。本文从执行力的三要素(人员、战略、运营）出发,阐述了在用信息化改造和提升传统产业的实施过程中,建筑企业应着力做好信息化战略规划、信息化全员培训、项目管理流程梳理等几项工作,改变建筑业过去高消耗、高污染、低效益的落后面貌,加速实现产业的转型升级。     

Professionalization,risk transfer,and the effect on gender gap in project management

In this paper, we demonstrate that Project Management (PM) in Information Technologies (IT) sector, despite the claims of autonomy and self-determination at work of creative experts, sets up fairly tight controls through management and the rhetoric of professionalism. The client's position of strength overrides the employer's direct control, transferring a major share of the risk inherent in PM to the IT experts themselves. Ensuing long hours of unplanned and unpaid overtime are the most important obstacle facing women in IT's workforce. This paper is based on a qualitative research conducted on 7 Canadian companies acting in multimedia, information technology (IT) business services and optics–photonics. We have interviewed 88 IT experts, women and men, who talk about their working conditions.