Exploring the Role of Un-Enacted Projects in IT Project Portfolio Management

From the IT governance point of view, one central project portfolio management task is to ensure that official projects draw upon assigned human resources. However, a common phenomenon is that resources thought to be available often turn out to be actually unavailable. Previous research indicates that numerous unofficial initiatives are a typical cause of this observation. These un-enacted projects are those projects that have not been officially evaluated but do exist although they are not known to a company’s project portfolio. The result is that unofficial initiatives compete for scarce resources. Despite these resource issues, previous research has barely investigated un-enacted projects. By building on four in-depth case studies, this exploratory study investigates the major drivers of the occurrence of un-enacted projects and their specific characteristics and found a great variety in respect of the type of un-enacted projects and the reasons for them being triggered in organizations

Value-Driven IT Project Portfolio Management: Tool-Based Scoring, Selection, and Scheduling

Managing IT project portfolios is a challenge because of IT projects\u27 complexity, dynamics, and uncertainty. Many IT projects exceed resources or time frames and do not reach their value-driven goals. A continuous scoring, selection, and scheduling of IT project proposals is thus essential to build an optimal portfolio. It has a significant impact on value contribution, strategic direction, goal achievement, and competitive advantages. We quantify an IT project\u27s urgency, strategy, efficiency, risk, and complexity as important evaluation and scoring criteria. To support top management decision makers in the IT project portfolio management process, we outline a combination of an evaluation approach with an optimization model. We develop a prototype decision support system to automate and simplify this process and demonstrate its applicability. Our recommendations address both theory and practice, improve IT project portfolio management, support value creation, and goal achievement

UNDERSTANDING THE ORGANIZATIONAL ANTECEDENTS OF BOTTOM-UP UN-ENACTED PROJECTS - TOWARDS A CONCEPTUAL MODEL BASED ON DEVIANCE THEORY

Un-enacted projects are those projects that have not been officially evaluated by the project portfolio management but do exist although they are not known to a company´s project portfolio. As a consequnce, resources thought to be available often prove to be actually unavailable and that unofficial initiatives eventually compete for scarce resources. One particular type of these un-enacted projects are bottom-up initiatives. Bottom-up un-enacted projects are unofficial initiatives on which employees spend time without order but with which they intend to benefit their organizations. While previous research highlights the great potential of bottom-up un-enacted projects, they only focus on the individual level but leave the organizational level for further research. To address this research gap, this study aims at gaining a deeper understanding of the organizational drivers of bottom-up un-enacted projects. We draw on deviance theory to develop a conceptual model for explaining the occurrence of these projects. In order to triangulate the emerging model with insights from practice, we use interview data to cross-check and refine the theory-driven model. Our results advance the theoretical discourse on the concept of un-enacted projects and enable practitioners to understand the levers with which to steer respective activities in the intended direction

Causing factors, outcomes, and governance of Shadow IT and business-managed IT: a systematic literature review

Shadow IT and Business-managed IT describe the autonomous deployment/procurement or management of Information Technology (IT) instances, i.e., software, hardware, or IT services, by business entities. For Shadow IT, this happens covertly, i.e., without alignment with the IT organization; for Business-managed IT this happens overtly, i.e., in alignment with the IT organization or in a split responsibility model. We conduct a systematic literature review and structure the identified research themes in a framework of causing factors, outcomes, and governance. As causing factors, we identify enablers, motivators, and missing barriers. Outcomes can be benefits as well as risks/shortcomings of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT. Concerning governance, we distinguish two subcategories: general governance for Shadow IT and Business-managed IT and instance governance for overt Business-managed IT. Thus, a specific set of governance approaches exists for Business-managed IT that cannot be applied to Shadow IT due to its covert nature. Hence, we extend the existing conceptual understanding and allocate research themes to Shadow IT, Business-managed IT, or both concepts and particularly distinguish the governance of the two concepts. Besides, we find that governance themes have been the primary research focus since 2016, whereas older publications (until 2015) focused on causing factors

Justifications for the Implementation of Shadow IT Solutions by Functional Departments in an Organisation

Background: The implementation of information technology (IT) solutions by end-users, while bypassing organisational laid-down IT acquisition and implementation processes and controls, poses a significant challenge for most organisations. This phenomenon, which is known as Shadow IT (SIT), has major financial, legal and security implications for the organisation. Studies indicate that even when organisations implement IT policy to minimise the implementation of SIT, end-users may still find innovative ways to bypass the IT department when implementing unsanctioned software. Purpose of the research: The objective of this study was to investigate how end-users (functional departments) who implement SIT in organisations justify their actions. The term Justification refers to the techniques employed by a social actor to indicate that their deviant behaviour is actually reasonable. Understanding justifications for SIT is essential for IT managers since they can understand them as justification and not confuse them with other phenomena and at the same time they can devise appropriate strategies to counter them. IT Managers who are not aware of the justifications for SIT may implement measures which may not be effective in curbing the phenomena. Design/Methodology/approach: The study adopted an interpretivist approach. The study was guided by the 'Neutralisation Theory’ from the social deviance discipline. The study examined whether an organisation had an IT policy which prevents end-users from implementing SIT, and also assessed the 'Neutralisation’ techniques employed by end-users to justify SIT. The study adopted a case study approach based on a South African office of a multinational organisation. The study collected data through (i) semi-structured interviews with end-users from different functional departments who were involved with implementation of SIT and (ii) documentation (IT policy and email correspondences). The study adopted the purposeful sampling (snowball) technique to target the employees who were involved with the implementation of SIT. A total of 13 respondents were interviewed. The data was analysed using thematic analysis approach. Findings: The organisation did not have an IT policy which prevented functional departments from implementing SIT. Instead, it had a policy which allowed functional departments to implement their own IT solutions as long as they inform the IT department to assess the software application for potential risks and compatibility with the existing landscape. Most respondents did not use Neutralisation techniques to justify the implementation of SIT due to the policy which allowed them to implement their own IT solutions. Nevertheless, the respondents who employed Neutralisation techniques mainly used Denial of responsibility, Denial of injury and Appeal to higher loyalties to justify SIT. Originality/contribution: The study contributed to the justifications of SIT literature when it explored the concept of SIT in a corporate company setting - as opposed to earlier studies that used quantitative methods and experiments when exploring the concept of SIT. The study also makes a further contribution to literature by investigating SIT in an environment where functional departments are allowed to implement their own IT solutions - this was not explored by previous studies on Justification of SIT. The study also contributes to the practice where there is a need by IT management to minimise SIT by providing awareness of Neutralisation techniques which may be employed by functional departments to justify SIT. Through the understanding of the Neutralisation techniques, IT managers could make sound decisions when implementing measures to minimise SI

Business and IT Managers’ Technological Frames Related to Cloud Computing

While cloud computing is becoming a mainstream IT sourcing option, especially large companies struggle with the internal governance of cloud and the issue of shadow IT. This study takes a technological frames perspective to contrast the knowledge and expectations that business versus IT stakeholders have regarding cloud IT. Our interview data from 20 business and IT managers display the incongruences between these two groups’ technological frames and how this relates to their governing actions: While business managers emphasize the benefits frames of cloud computing and tend to undermine IT governance, IT managers stress its threat frames and their desire to strengthen the IT governance framework. We discuss how these frame incongruences are related and how they can be resolved. This discussion contributes to the literature a stakeholder-specific view that may help understand the duality of the shadow IT phenomenon. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Causing factors, outcomes, and governance of Shadow IT and business-managed IT: a systematic literature review

Shadow IT and Business-managed IT describe the autonomous deployment/procurement or management of Information Technology (IT) instances, i.e., software, hardware, or IT services, by business entities. For Shadow IT, this happens covertly, i.e., without alignment with the IT organization; for Business-managed IT this happens overtly, i.e., in alignment with the IT organization or in a split responsibility model. We conduct a systematic literature review and structure the identified research themes in a framework of causing factors, outcomes, and governance. As causing factors, we identify enablers, motivators, and missing barriers. Outcomes can be benefits as well as risks/shortcomings of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT. Concerning governance, we distinguish two subcategories: general governance for Shadow IT and Business-managed IT and instance governance for overt Business-managed IT. Thus, a specific set of governance approaches exists for Business-managed IT that cannot be applied to Shadow IT due to its covert nature. Hence, we extend the existing conceptual understanding and allocate research themes to Shadow IT, Business-managed IT, or both concepts and particularly distinguish the governance of the two concepts. Besides, we find that governance themes have been the primary research focus since 2016, whereas older publications (until 2015) focused on causing factors

Multikonferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik (MKWI) 2016: Technische Universität Ilmenau, 09. - 11. März 2016; Band III

Übersicht der Teilkonferenzen Band III • Service Systems Engineering • Sicherheit, Compliance und Verfügbarkeit von Geschäftsprozessen • Smart Services: Kundeninduzierte Kombination komplexer Dienstleistungen • Strategisches IT-Management • Student Track • Telekommunikations- und Internetwirtschaft • Unternehmenssoftware – quo vadis? • Von der Digitalen Fabrik zu Industrie 4.0 – Methoden und Werkzeuge für die Planung und Steuerung von intelligenten Produktions- und Logistiksystemen • Wissensmanagemen