Beyond Projects: Coordination process in IT enabled programmes (original) (raw)

The shifting sand of program coordination effort: lessons from IT-enabled transformation programs

2017

Information Technology (IT) enabled transformation programs are collections of interrelated projects and operational activity aimed at achieving strategic change of significant complexity, where the opportunity for change is provided by IT. This paper reports on a study of major Australian organisations that are using IT-enabled transformation programs to achieve strategic transformation of their work. While the program management literature has focused on the coordination of the multiple projects and related operational activities within the programs, little is known about how these programs deploy efforts to coordinate activities in response to contextual pressures. This exploratory, multi-case study asserts that a significant effort is needed to coordinate responses to factors external to the program. In addition, this study shows the key internal and external forces that combine in shifting the locus of effort in coordinating and integrating multiple activities and projects in m...

The nature of Programme Management and how they differ from project management

ABSTRACT: In business, changes bring about intense pressure to the managers to think and rethink, search and research, view and review the variables for a new approach that will place them at the top of competition. Maturity in project management gave birth to the phenomenon of programme management as a de facto means of aligning, coordinating and managing portfolio of projects to deliver benefits which would not be possible were the projects are managed independently. Programme management is now a widely used approach to bring about planned strategic changes. Similar to any other management approach, to fully understand the intricacies and realise the benefits embedded, programme management relies on certain parameters. These parameters include the structure, nature, management skills and competencies, tools and techniques, critical success factors etc. Based on an on-going doctorate study which aims to develop an appropriate body of skills, knowledge and competencies for programme managers, this paper will conduct comparative examination on the relationships between project management and programme management and attempt to provide a clear demarcation between the two.

Viable System Model: A Framework for Designing Structure and Control for Programme Management

Project management Leadership Conference 2007, 2007

Programme Management is gaining recognition as a domain in its own right. This is evident from the recent methodology and standard documents published by OGC and PMI respectively. There is widespread interest in these standards and methodologies. While we recognize that these are significant advances, we believe they do not address the core issue of Programme failure, which is the fit between Programme Characteristics and Programme Management design. The Programme Management design comprises the Structure, Processes, Competencies and the Governance requirements for the Programme. An appropriate design is critical for effective Programme execution and benefits delivery. An appropriate design needs to be cost-effective, but at the same time address the unique combination of the factors that drive Programme complexity. A careful study of Programme Management domain reveals a set of distinct viable recursive systems. Projects and corresponding operational activities in the programme portfolio, coordination of inter and intra projects’ activities, overseeing of operations and coordination, continuous scanning of Programme environment to identify opportunities and threats to the programme and steer the programme towards better adaptability and mechanisms to set directions and policy for programme governance all constitute systems that are recursive and engaged in purposeful behavior in their respective environments while maintaining their identity. Based on this observation this paper takes Viable System Model (VSM) as framework to outline the design and control of Programme management. It maps and adapts viable systems of VSM onto entire gamut of Programme management and outlines the mechanisms to handle the Programme complexity at every System level.

A Coordination Perspective on Agile Software Development

Modern Techniques for Successful IT Project Management

Achieving success in software development projects is a perennial challenge, and agile software development methods emerged to tackle this challenge. Agile software development provides a way to organise complex multi-participant software development projects while achieving fast delivery of quality software, meeting customer requirements, and coping effectively with project change. There is little understanding, however, of how such projects achieve effective coordination, which is a critical factor in successful software projects. Based on evidence from four cases, this chapter presents a theory explaining coordination in agile software projects. This theory defines the concepts of coordination strategy and coordination effectiveness and propositions explaining their relationship. This theory contributes to coordination literature by presenting clearly delineated concepts and their relationships in the form of a variance theory. For IT project management, this theory contributes t...

Operationalizing Coordination of Mega-projects - a Workpractice Perspective

Project Perspectives, 2008

Operationalizing Coordination of Mega-projectsa Workpractice Perspective In this paper we propose a workpractice perspective towards operationalizing the coordination of mega-projects. This perspective matured over several years in development practice at Ericsson, a major supplier of telecommunication products and services worldwide. Key points in the perspective are the management of critical dependencies and the construction of a communal understanding of how to coordinate projects. Coordination is seen as a workpractice, where actors provide coordination to the project. The main conclusion is that the suggested approach enables the coordination of extraordinarily complex mega-projects.

Understanding Coordination in the Information Systems Domain: Conceptualization and Implications

JITTA : Journal of Information Technology Theory & Application,, 2016

In this paper, we suggest a new conceptualization of coordination in the information systems (IS) domain. The conceptualization builds on neurobiological predispositions for coordinating actions. We assume that human evolution has led to the development of a neurobiological substrate that enables individuals to coordinate everyday actions. At heart, we discuss six activity modalities: contextualization, objectivation, spatialization, temporalization, stabilization, and transition. Specifically, we discuss that these modalities need to collectively function for successful coordination. To illustrate as much, we apply our conceptualization to important IS research areas, including project management and interface design. Generally, our new conceptualization holds value for coordination research on all four levels of analysis that we identified based on reviewing the IS literature (i.e., group, intra-organization, inter-organization, and IT artifact). In this way, our new approach, grounded in neurobiological findings, provides a high-level theory to explain coordination success or coordination failure and, hence, is independent from a specific level of analysis. From a practitioner’s perspective, the conceptualization provides a guideline for designing organizational interventions and IT artifacts. Because social initiatives are essential in multiple IS domains (e.g., software development, implementation of enterprise systems) and because the design of collaborative software tools is an important IS topic, this paper contributes to a fundamental phenomenon in the IS domain and does so from a new conceptual perspective.