Risk assessment for change management within project management: a hierarchical model process approach

The field of modern project management is not new, and what seems to have changed over the past decade is the evolution of techniques applying theory into practice. This had as a consequence for the need to standardise and structure different processes of project management, in a detailed, documented and formal manner. On the other hand, change management seen as an integrated process within project management is a rational process for exploring decision and behaviour alternatives in an attempt to realign the course of ‘derailed’ deliverables due to change and ensure project success. However, models contained in such frameworks often lack formal semantics and clarity; generally fail to address and assess organisational change management risk reasoning, in a rather detailed way as they do for the majority of the project management processes. Since, uncontrolled changes might have an effect on the projects’ success, it is vital to assess the probability of materialisation (risk) of success before the decision is made and whether to proceed with the change or not. For example, if the change dramatically increases the risk of failure then it is logical to assume that avoiding that implementation is the right decision. Ideally, a change or consequence based upon a decision should have a low impact and a fairly high level of predictability. This research, takes the challenge to propose a novel modelling approach, which will contribute significantly to the missing formality of business models especially in the change risks assessment area. The introduction of Change Risk Assessment Model (CRAM) allows the identification and definition of speculative relationships, between change risks in the form of hierarchical risk tree analysis. Overall, the method is dynamic and flexible enough that can be tailored to various project requirements, taking into account significant environmental risk factors which influence project deliverables. Project success is a key objective for today’s organisations; professionals can make use of a new methodology for risk assessment, compatible with project management frameworks which currently seems to be missing from literature. Project management methodologies are not a panacea against project failure; nevertheless, CRAM can be regarded as a comprehensive modelling approach which combines both quantitative and qualitative risk criteria analysis in decision making processes

Influence of stakeholder motivation on the outcome of IT projects.

Recent research estimates that 70 to 90 per cent of IT projects fail to achieve the anticipated outcome. An analysis of relevant studies in Chapter 1 reveals numerous symptoms (project risks) that may explain why IT projects fail to such a large extent, and gives recommendations (risk strategies) on how to improve this situation. However, these recommendations tend to deal rather with symptoms than the underlying cause, and thus the failure rate remains disappointingly high. The analysis of project outcomes in this study suggests that this may be due to the lack of a human-centred philosophy in project management. Consequently, it can be argued that the immense effort in time and resources that has been invested to overcome the identified IT projects symptoms may potentially be wasted. In view of this situation, this thesis intends to go beyond an analysis of symptoms and aspires to make a case for a better understanding of the underlying cause of IT project failure today. The apparent dead-end situation of IT projects today appears to be sufficient rationale to explore the motivation of IT project stakeholders, which, as seen from a human-centred perspective, most likely play a key role in the project outcome. In order to examine this complex social phenomenon, a multiple embedded case study strategy had to be implemented. For this reason, this study is supported by relevant academic literature providing a ‘motivational lens’ through which the qualitative data can be viewed. The ethnographic element, both for data collection and analysis, furthermore allows a bottom-up approach to research, which endeavours to refrain from pre-assumed situations or an up-front definition of the involved stakeholders. For this purpose, this study has created the IT Project Process Generic Stakeholder Model. By looking through the lens of motivation this study intends to work towards an underlying cause explanation as to why IT projects fail to deliver the projected outcome. It appears that a better understanding of this situation may contribute significantly to the improvement of IT project outcomes in the future. In order to elucidate this problem-solving approach, this study provides the IT Project Process Model