Understanding the impact of risks on performance in internal and outsourced information technology projects: The role of strategic importance

Successfully managing the risks of information technology projects continues to be a central problem for organizations regardless of whether the project is outsourced or not. While a plethora of studies has examined the effects of risks on performance, majority fail to distinguish the sourcing characteristics of the projects investigated. Furthermore, little is known about the joint effects of strategic importance and the risk on system performance across internal and outsourced projects. Based on data collected from 77 internal projects and 51 outsourced projects, we find that social subsystem and project management risks are negatively associated with system performance in both internal and outsourced projects. However, technical subsystem risk negatively affects performance only in internal projects. While social subsystem risk exerts greater influence on system performance in outsourced projects than in internal projects, the technical subsystem risk has greater effect on performance in internal than that in outsourced projects. Moreover, the effect of project management risk is not different in both types of projects. In addition, strategic importance moderates the relationship between risks and performance. The negative impact of risks on performance is greater in projects that are more strategic. Strategies are proposed to reduce the complexity and potential conflicts inherent to strategic projects because these characteristics may amplify a risk's impact.     

The management of project management: A conceptual framework for project governance

For an organization to create optimal value from its investment in projects there must be a clear link between the outputs created by the projects and the requirements of the organization's business strategy. This means that organizations that have a structure in place for aligning the project deliverables with their organizational goals will be better placed to realize their investment in projects, and achieve the value defined by their business strategies. This paper examines existing research, ideas and concepts of project governance and enterprise project management, and offers a framework to build on current theory development and practice. Synthesizing existing literature of project/program management, governance and portfolio management, this paper proposes four key elements to improve the performance of projects and hence create value for organizations. These four elements are (1) portfolio management: focused on selecting the right projects and programs to support the organization's strategy, and terminating ones that no longer contribute to the business success of the organization; (2) project sponsorship: providing the direct link between the executive and the project or program manager, focused on the whole project lifecycle; (3) Project Management Office (PMO): providing oversight and strategic reporting capabilities; (4) projects and program support: the effective support and management of projects and programs are the measures of an effective governance system. The purpose of the framework described in this paper is to provide guidance to organizations in the development of effective project governance to optimize the management of projects.     

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.     

Absorptive,innovative and adaptive capabilities and their impact on project and project portfolio performance

This study explores how absorptive, innovative and adaptive capabilities within early project phases affect project and portfolio performances in pharmaceutical and biotechnology R&D organizations. A sequential qualitative–quantitative mixed method was used with 18 interviews and 80 responses to an online survey. The results show effects of absorptive, innovative and adaptive capabilities on short- and long-term project performance and portfolio performance. Absorptive and adaptive capabilities are the primary contributors to the performance outcome, whereas innovative capabilities are a minor contributor. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Relationships among interpersonal conflict, requirements uncertainty, and software project performance

Interpersonal conflict and user requirements uncertainty are pervasive phenomena that plague information systems projects. Relevant literature indicates that interpersonal conflicts can negatively affect information system (IS) projects, even after controlling for the effects of conflict management and resolution. However, the negative emotional characteristics of conflict alone have limited explanatory power with regard to IS project success. The purpose of this study is to provide additional insights into this phenomenon by examining the impact on IS project performance made by the interaction between interpersonal conflict and requirement uncertainty (which comprises both diversity and instability). The authors surveyed the top 1600 companies in Taiwan and the results revealed that requirements instability would lead to potential interpersonal conflict and interpersonal conflict was directly associated with requirements diversity which, in turn, was negatively associated with final project performance.     

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.     

Multi-level project governance: Trends and opportunities

Project governance is important in ensuring successful project delivery. In this article we conduct a systematic investigation of previous research to provide a content-driven review of the literature, and to provide future research direction. We use the textual data mining software Leximancer to identify dominant concepts and themes underlying project governance research. Our findings indicate that agency and stakeholder theories have been adapted to the project governance context to a greater extent than other theories. Furthermore, we find differences in project governance research, published in project management journals compared to general management, IT and engineering journals. We conclude the paper by presenting a framework that links governance theories to the multiple organizational levels relevant to project governance.     

User advocacy and information system project performance

User participation in information system projects is an established practice well backed by research. However, participation is usually considered limited to helping shape the requirements of the system being developed in order to be certain that a functional system is developed. This narrow perspective overlooks the potential of having the user be an advocate for the system to grow support among all stakeholders of the project. We build and empirically test a model that links user advocacy to project performance. The model also establishes links between two potential antecedents of user advocacy, socialization that includes training and relationship development, and extrinsic motivation. All links are positively supported by data collected from 128 matched-pairs of information system users and developers. Information system project managers are encouraged to establish reward structures and training to promote a role of advocacy for the users represented in the project team.     

Exploring the impact of team mental models on information utilization and project performance in system development

Teams in system development must share information about tasks in order to be successful. A traditional view considers the processes in place to take the knowledge resident in a team and effectively share it with other members. Newer perspectives require conditions of shared models and understanding among the team members to effectively employ the dispersed information to develop successful systems. A model of teamwork mental models is presented to explore both perspectives so that the importance of both process and shared models is represented. A sample of system developers provides the data to test the model. Results show that team building activities can promote both aspects, yielding a greater chance for a quality team effort.     

Visualizing information structures and its impact on project teams: an information architecture for the virtual AEC company

An information architecture was developed to provide a common technical platform between all partners in the building process. This is to support the formation of virtual companies in the AEC industry. The objective was to augment the current computing environment with support for information sharing and collaboration, in support of existing practices and concurrent to existing applications. Eloquent visualizations of the information structures resulting from the collaborative activities will empower participants in an analysis and understanding of these processes and, consequently, increase their effectiveness in such collaborations. Experience and discussion with industry partners is provided, and extrapolated from extensive experiences with comparable examples in educational settings. On a élaboré un environnement d'information destiné à constituer une plate-forme technique commune à tous les partenaires de l'industrie de la construction. Il s'agit de contribuer à la formation de sociétés virtuelles dans le secteur de l'architecture, de l'ingénierie et de la construction. L'objectif était de compléter l'environnement informatique actuel par un soutien au partage et à la collaboration en matière d'informations, en complément de pratiques existantes et concurremment avec des applications existantes. Des représentations éloquentes des structures d'information résultant d'activités menées en collaboration permettront aux participants de mieux analyser et comprendre ces processus et, par conséquent, d'augmenter leur efficacité dans le cadre de telles collaborations. Cette communication traite des expériences et des discussions avec des partenaires industriels, ainsi que d'une extrapolation d'expériences complètes avec des exemples comparables dans les milieux éducatifs.     

Leadership,regulatory focus and information systems development project team performance

One primary function of a leader is to motivate followers to achieve project goals. Based on regulatory focus theory, actors may strive to the optional situation (promotion focus) or try to avoid not meeting the minimum requirements (prevention focus). This paper focuses on exploring the effect of leadership styles (transformational and transactional) on the collective regulatory focus of project team (promotion and prevention) and investigate the relationship between regulatory focus and project teamwork outcome. Data collected from 154 IS professionals shows that intelligent stimulation, idealized influence, and inspiration components of transformational leadership lead to promotion focus, and exception management and error-focus components of transactional leadership lead to prevention focus. Promotion focus associates with a higher quality system and less delay. The relationship between regulatory focus and project performance is contingent on the level of uncertainty.     

The impact of project capabilities on project performance: Case of open source software projects

Open Source Software (OSS) projects are contingent on volunteer developers and voluntary contributions from users, accordingly, traditional performance measures used for software projects, like being on time and budget, and satisfying specifications, may not be relevant for such projects. Although researchers have studied some predictors of OSS project performance, there is a lack of empirical work that studies the impact of project capabilities on the performance of OSS projects. Therefore, this paper studies project capabilities as potential predictors of OSS project performance. The data, gathered from 607 OSS projects over time (in two snap-shots), were consistent with Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT). In other words, the results showed that in order to achieve higher project performance, OSS projects need to have strong capabilities in terms of proactive and efficient defect-removal as well as proactive and efficient functionality-enhancement. The implications of these results for the OSS research community are discussed, followed by recommendations for OSS practitioners.     

Collaboration and opportunism as mediators of the relationship between NPD project uncertainty and NPD project performance

This study aims to conceptualize NPD (New Product Development) project uncertainty and investigate how the project uncertainty influences project performance through collaboration and opportunism. An empirical examination is conducted to test such relationships within the scope of Korean manufacturing firms, which are currently engaging in NPD projects with their key partner. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is performed to prove proposed hypotheses. The empirical findings suggested that higher level of project uncertainty leads to collaboration and opportunism and that these two factors come into play in project performance in an opposing way: collaboration serves as a driver of project performance whereas opportunism acts as a barrier against it.     

The transformative effect of top management governance choices on project team identity and relationship with the organization — An agency and stewardship approach

This study focuses on the relationship and identity changes within and between a project team and its organization following top management intervention in the context of a large international construction project. The study follows the project-as-practice orientation, examining the actions and behaviors of the project team through participant ethnography in the “praxis” of the project site over its entire duration. The longitudinal case allows the examination of the way the transition process established a new governance culture undermining the initial trust-based one and changed it from a virtual absence of mechanisms toward far more potent mechanisms of control, monitoring, and punishment. Simultaneously, the initial stewardship relationships and collectivist identity of the project team shifted toward agency relationships and individualistic identity. The triggers for the transformation process were identified as CEO succession, project failure, top management intervention driven changes in governance mechanisms, and perception of organizational betrayal of the project team.     

The moderating effect of human resource management practices on the relationship between knowledge absorptive capacity and project performance in project-oriented companies

In response to recent calls for research on human resource management (HRM) in project management, this research investigates the links between HRM practices, the project team's knowledge absorptive capacity (ACAP) and project performance in project-oriented companies (POCs). Based on survey data from 198 projects in multinational companies (MNCs) in the Thai automotive industry, this research finds that HRM practices moderate the effects of a project team's knowledge ACAP on project performance, in particular of potential ACAP on long-run project performance. In addition, HRM practices covary with a project team's realized ACAP, the other dimension of ACAP, to affect short-run project performance. This research sheds light on the different roles that HRM practices play in a project, finding that HRM practices not only facilitate knowledge management from the current project to future projects but also strengthen the relationship between a project team's knowledge ACAP and long-term project performance. This research contributes to the understanding of HRM in the literature of project management.     

The effects of project uncertainty and risk management on IS development project performance: A vendor perspective

The structural contingency perspective has been widely used in information systems development (ISD) project risk management research. This paper develops an integrative model to explore the moderating effects of uncertainty on the relationship between risk management and IS development project performance from a vendor perspective, rather than the client perspective that is mainly employed in the literature. A survey-based research design is used to collect data to test the proposed model. The results reveal that project uncertainty can moderate the effects of project planning and control on process performance and the effects of user participation on product performance. More specifically, the results indicate that project planning and control makes a greater contribution to process performance when there is a low level of inherent uncertainty and that user participation makes a greater contribution to product performance when there is a high level of inherent uncertainty. The results of this study contribute to a more acute understanding of the contingency approach to ISD project risk management.     

An investigation into the governance of information technology projects in South Africa

Information technology (IT) projects are often perceived as adding little or no organisational value despite substantial investments being made. The non-adoption of governance principles might contribute to this perception as unfeasible projects are often approved and initiated without proper discourse. To test this statement, 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand current practice. This article reports on the investigation of IT projects in South African organisations to determine whether generally accepted governance principles were applied in the project domain. The main trend that emerged as a result of the investigation is that adherence to governance principles is a myth and that it does not guide decision-making for IT projects. Using the findings of the investigation, a conclusion is drawn that the majority of the organisations do have corporate governance in place but that they do not comply with IT and IT project governance.     

Achieving strategic benefits from business IT projects: The critical importance of using the business case across the entire project lifetime

Business projects with an information technology component are referred to here as ‘business IT’ projects. Their success rate is found to be unsatisfactory, resulting in wasteful expenditure running to billions of dollars annually. Literature indicates that sound business cases, used effectively throughout the project lifetime, underpin governance and have a major positive impact on the project success rate. However, it also suggests that business case processes are seldom used properly.The goal of this study is to determine the extent to which business case processes are used in practice, and to understand the implications of the pattern that emerges.The data analysis from a survey reveals that business case usage diminishes significantly after approval is given to proceed, with potentially serious negative consequences. The findings offer initial building blocks for project business case theory; they also give valuable insights to management as to the required processes and how to avoid the prevailing pitfalls and achieve the intended strategic project benefits.     

Assessing the impact of COVID-19 and safety parameters on energy project performance with an analytical hierarchy process

COVID-19 has destabilized the global economy, disrupted the lives of billions of people globally, and caused the workforce to suffer. Furthermore, the spread of this disease has caused most nations to impose strict lockdown regulations and shutdown most industries. This study aimed to highlight the key issues of energy project performance alongside construction activities that were halted during the COVID-19 outbreak to follow social distancing, lockdown, and public safety parameters. A questionnaire survey was administered to accomplish the purpose of this study. The responses of 42 energy project professionals and experts were evaluated using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) for group decision-making. AHP shows that the biggest influences on project performance during COVID-19 pandemic were government measures and personal factors. The findings provide insight to support energy project planning and management during and after the pandemic, including prioritization of labor force health and safety.