Information technology project risk management: bridging the gap between research and practice (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Project Management, 2005
A review of the outcome of many information technology (IT) projects reveals that they fail to meet the pre-specified project objectives of scope, time and budget. Despite well-established project risk management processes, project managers perceive their application as ineffective to manage risk. This failure may well be attributed to the inadequate application of those risk management processes. The purpose of this research was to investigate how project managers responsible for the management of risk in IT projects actually managed risk and to relate this back to established project risk management processes. In undertaking this investigation, we were seeking to understand the ways in which the project managersÕ approaches and behaviours, when considering risk in IT projects, differed from what might be expected. Results show that because of environment-related and decision maker-related conditions, project managers tend to deny, avoid, ignore and delay dealing with risk, with the consequence of those actions having an adverse influence on their perceived effectiveness of risk management and the project outcomes. If project risk management, and its underlying processes are not to be discredited, the behaviour of project managers when confronted by uncertainty should be considered and actions need to be taken to discourage project managersÕ irrational actions.
Management of risks in information technology projects
… Management & Data Systems, 2004
Information technology (IT) projects are renowned for their high failure rate. Risk management is an essential process for the successful delivery of IT projects. In-depth interviews with IT professionals from leading firms in Western Australia were undertaken to determine how IT risks were managed in their projects. The respondents ranked 27 IT risks in terms of likelihood and consequences to identify the most important risks. The top five risks, in order, were: personnel shortfalls; unreasonable project schedule and budget; unrealistic expectations; incomplete requirements; and diminished window of opportunity due to late delivery of software. The respondents overwhelmingly applied the treatment strategy of risk reduction to manage these risks. Furthermore, these strategies were primarily project management processes, rather than technical processes. This demonstrates that project management is a risk management strategy. Scope, quality management, and human resource management were solutions applied to several risks. In particular, managing stakeholders' expectations is a specific risk treatment that helps to manage several key IT risks.
The Challenges in Implementing Risk Management for Information Technology Projects
IT projects are characterized by high degrees of risk. The rapid speed of transformation in information technologies combines changes in business processes to create surprising shifts in cost, the cost benefit relationship, and the feasibility of doing specific things in particular ways. The risks faced by IT projects are not, in essence, financial risks. By understanding these fundamental problems in real terms, rather than through their financial impact, IT project managers can move more quickly to resolve issues before they become major problems that threaten the goals of the project. This paper will focus on the challenges experienced when executing risk management processes in information technology projects. The lack of knowledge management support for risk management processes has caused many project failures in the past.
When to manage risks in IS projects: An exploratory analysis of longitudinal risk reports
2011
Research attributes the mixed performance of IS projects to a poor understanding of risks and thus limited capabilities to manage such risks. In line with others, we argue that the poor understanding of risks is partly due to the fact, that current research almost exclusively concentrates on which risks are important in IS projects. In contrast to this static view, we focus on the temporal aspect of project risks, ie, we explore when risks become more or less important during a project. In doing so, we analyze an archive of risk ...
Does Risk Management Contribute to IT Project Success? A Meta-Analysis of Empirical Evidence
The question whether risk management contributes to IT project success is considered relevant by people from both academic and practitioners‟ communities already for a long time. This paper presents a meta-analysis of the empirical evidence that either supports or opposes the claim that risk management contributes to IT project success. In addition, this paper also investigates the validity of the assumptions on which risk management is based. The analysis leads to remarkable conclusions. Over the last ten years, much has become known about what causes IT projects to fail. However, there is still very little empirical evidence that this knowledge is actually used in projects for managing risks in IT projects. This paper concludes with indicating new directions for research in the relation between risk management and project success. Key elements are stakeholder perception of risk and success and stakeholder behaviour in the risk management process. Keywords: Managing risk, Project success, Information Technology
RISK MANAGEMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECT: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
The companies are facing some risks due to changes in a dynamic environment. If risks are not managed properly, it will have some negative impacts on the companies at the present and the future. One important function of the Information Technology (IT) governance is risk management. Risk management in IT project aims to provide a safe environment for IT projects undertaken. Risk management becomes an important process for the success of IT projects. This article discussed the risk of IT project and whether there was a relationship between risk management and the success of the project. The method used was performing a literature review of several scientific articles which published between 2010 and 2014. The results of this study are the presence of risk management and risk manager influence the success of the project. Risk analysis and risk monitoring and control also have a relationship with the subjective performance of IT projects. If risk management is applied properly, the chance of the success of the projects undertaken can be increased.
RISK MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
IT projects management is not free from risks which are created from various sources of the environment. Thus a comprehensive understanding of these possible risks and creating strategic policies to confront them are one of the fundamental requirements for successful implementation of IT projects. The risks faced during the implementation of IT Projects are not just related to financial aspects. IT Project Managers must embrace these fundamental issues with more holistic view, rather than merely focusing on the financial matters. In order to prevent the potential problems from arising or escalating into bigger magnitude, serious attention must be given to it before the implementation of any IT project. The main focus of this paper is to investigate the impacts of Knowledge Management (KM) on Risk Management (RM) in IT project implementation process.
Risk Management for IT Projects
Risk management is like a form of insurance that is concerned with future events/risks in an IS project, particularly in software development projects, whose exact outcome is unknown, and with how to deal with these uncertainties in advance. Unfortunately, not many IT (Information Technology) developers properly define potential risk events and estimate the probability of the risk event occurring, the possible outcome if it does occur, when it might occur. Risk events can, in fact, affect time, cost, scope, and quality of the project outcomes. Therefore, there is highly important to have risk management mechanism put in place so that the project team can minimize potential risks while maximizing potential opportunities. It is also essential to fully understand the risk management process that consists of risk identification, risk analysis, risk response development, and risk control. In addition, the project team is highly recommended to identify sources of risks for IT projects and principles behind project risk management.