PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS - ART, SCIENCE, OR MAGIC: Defining criteria for testing IS Project Ideas

It seems inevitable that sometimes projects will fail. Project management and project management methodologies exist to improve the likelihood of success, but delivering change in a dynamic environment is not without risk. Research says that a significant number of projects fail, particularly in information systems. It is recognised here that poor project management and/or methodology may not be the only causes when failure occurs. Areas outside the project control and even before project initiation could also be at fault, especially if it is based on a flawed concept. Is it possible that this may be the result of poor root cause analysis and an incorrect diagnosis of what the organisation needs to change? This goes beyond the requirements analysis, to the very beginning to the idea. In addition to the art of the project manager and the science of the project management methodology then, there is a third factor that should be recognised and analysed; the “magic” of the methodology used to generate the magic of the initial idea. Project management methodologies codify what is known about how to run a project; they provide governance and procedure. Talented project managers manage delivery of the plan whilst managing the attendant risks and issues. But the process seen as project management does not extend to include validation of the methodology applied to the idea behind the project. This paper speculates that the capability of the idea, measured in the rigour applied to the root cause analysis and the derivation of appropriate fix logic (the project mandate), is what needs to be tested by the application of a pre-project methodology

WOMEN IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CAREERS: A PERSON-PROCESS-CONTEXT-TIME FRAMEWORK

The underrepresentation of women in IT is a research area that has received much attention in recent years. Extant research has examined many factors that contribute to and/or improve the widening gender gap. Review articles to date have focused on certain aspects of the field, e.g., the pipeline (Gürer and Camp, 2001), secondary and post-secondary education (Sanders, 2005; Singh, Allen, Scheckler, and Darlington, 2007), and women in IT careers (Ahuja, 2002). There is a need for a comprehensive framework that synthesizes and extends existing research using a new research lens. We propose an integrative organizing model that draws on the career theory literature, Bronfenbrenner\u27s ecological system theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2004), the relational model of career decisions (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2005), and Super\u27s life-span, life-space approach to career development (Super, 1990). Examples of how the framework can be applied are discussed

Fairness as a Determinant of AI Adoption in Recruiting: An Interview-based Study

Traditional recruiting techniques are often characterized by discrimination as human recruiters make biased decisions. To increase fairness in human resource management (HRM), organizations are increasingly adopting AI-based methods. Especially recruiting processes are restructured in order to find promising talents for vacant job positions. However, use of AI in recruiting is a two-edged sword as the neutrality of AI-based decisions highly depends on the quality of the underlying data. In this research-in-progress, we develop a research model explaining AI adoption in recruiting by defining and considering fairness as a determinant. Based on 21 semi-structured interviews we identified dimensions of perceived fairness (diversity, ethics, discrimination and bias, explainable AI) thereby affecting AI adoption. The proposed model addresses research gaps in AI recruiting research in general and arising ethical questions concerning the use of AI in people management in general and recruiting process in particular. We also discuss implications for further research and next steps of this research in progress work

Aussie women game developers

Women are underrepresented in the digital games industry all over the world. In Australia, womens level of contribution to game development is much lower than the USA, Canada, and UK. Reviewing literature from the areas of computer science, information technology, and digital games, this study focuses on the impact of social, structural and cultural aspects, and how these factors might influence women choosing a career in the Australian digital games industry. Using a mixed-method, Grounded Theory approach, a large-scale census of Australian digital game studios was conducted, and followed up by semi-structured interviews of a small group of women game developers. Findings reveal that the number of women game developers in Australia has recently increased, and although work culture stereotypes and poor workplace conditions persist overseas, Australian women are not experiencing these issues. However, getting interested in digital game development is still a major obstacle in convincing young women to enroll in game development degrees at university. Once enrolled though, attrition is a problem that has been attributed to teaching styles, lack of confidence and how male peers treat female students in their first year. Those women, who eventually graduate and pursue a career in digital games, more often share the influence of strong parents, male siblings, and enjoyed playing games from a young age

A model for the alignment of ICT education with business ICT skills requirements

The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills shortage is of national and international concern. Modern business practices require the implementation of new technologies supported by a workforce with current and diversified ICT skill-sets. Acquiring suitable ICT skills has become a difficult task and employers are seeing government intervention at all levels. The school system in South Africa is under increased pressure and is faced with continuously declining matriculation pass rates, specifically in subjects such as science and mathematics. Schools are experiencing a decline in the number of scholars (learners) enrolling for the Information Technology (IT) school curriculum. The IT curriculum at school level is being criticised; under-prepared teachers are blamed and lack of suitable facilities highlighted. Surveys conducted amongst grade 9 and grade 12 scholars in the Eastern Cape have shown that scholars are not considering careers in ICT. Teachers, career/guidance counsellors and parents contribute to scholars' career decisions and are not encouraging scholars to pursue careers in ICT. Tertiary institutions in South Africa and internationally, are experiencing a decline in student enrolments and in pass and throughput rates. Industry is holding tertiary institutions responsible for not providing the “correct” ICT graduate skill-sets and passing an insufficient number of quality ICT graduates desperately required by industry. The accreditation of computing degree programs, such as Computer Science (CS), Information Systems (IS) and Information Technology (IT), collectively referred to as CIT, offered by tertiary institutions is becoming an international requirement. The ICT industry is constantly changing and new job requirements and new career opportunities are frequently introduced. Graduates entering the ICT industry should have acquired knowledge about ICT career tracks in order to specialise and choose a suitable career path. Tertiary CIT degree programs should further be linked to specific career tracks and provide a multi-disciplined education to graduates. ii ICT graduates working in industry utilise skills obtained in under-graduate and post-graduate CIT degree programs. The ICT graduates have also obtained valuable skills working in industry, including business skills and soft skills. ICT skill surveys have identified the graduate skills gap, indicating ICT skills industry requires from graduates completing tertiary level qualifications. ICT graduates working in industry, for example indicated that programming in some cases is over-emphasised at school and tertiary level and that soft skills are ignored by tertiary institutions. An ICT Graduate Skills Classifications Framework is developed to address the graduate ICT skills gap and highlight important business skills, soft skills, technical skills and programming skills required by industry. In this thesis, an Industry ICT Value Chain Model is further developed that suggests a holistic approach to the problems experienced at all levels of ICT skills development, including government, industry, tertiary education institutions and at school level. Results from a number of research surveys conducted along the proposed Industry ICT Skills Value Chain Model indicated that problems exist at all stages in the value chain and that the problems can only be addressed involving government, industry and tertiary institutions collectively. A number of interventions is required and the support from industry is essential in achieving overall success in addressing the ICT skills shortage in South Africa. A proposed Industry ICT Skills Value Chain Model that can be utilised to address the ICT skills shortage in South Africa is presented

Metamodel for Understanding, Analyzing, and Designing Sociotechnical Systems

This paper presents a metamodel designed to help in understanding, analyzing, and designing sociotechnical systems. The metamodel extends and clarifies the work system framework and related concepts at the core of work system approach for understanding IT-reliant work systems in organizations [Alter, 2003, 2006a, 2008a]. Development of the metamodel supports a larger goal of creating an enhanced work system approach that is understandable to business professionals but that is somewhat more rigorous than most current applications of work system concepts and can be linked more directly to precise, highly detailed analysis and design approaches for IT professionals. The 32 elements in the metamodel include work system, the 9 elements of the work system framework (with information replaced by informational entity), and 22 other elements that clarify a number of questions and confusions observed in past applications of the work system approach. Specification of the metamodel clarifies ambiguities in the work system framework and forms a clearer conceptual basis for tools and methods that could improve communication and collaboration between business and IT professionals. It can also be used to organize much of the know-how and many of the system-related research results in the IS field

Validating Work System Principles for Use in Systems Analysis and Design

This research validates 24 work system principles that emerged from the effort to develop the work system method, whose goal is to help business professionals understand and analyze systems in organizations in their own terms, and also to help bridge the communication gaps that have undermined IS projects and reduced business/IT alignment. The research validates the principles based on questionnaire responses submitted by six cohorts of Executive MBA students, who rated each of the work system principles on two criteria: 1) normatively, to what extent should work systems in their organizations conform to each principle, and 2) descriptively, to what extent do most existing work systems in their organizations actually conform to each principle. An analysis of the results reveals statistically significant gaps between their perceptions of normative principles and their perceptions of how well typical work systems operate in organizations. The findings are statistically significant for all 24 principles

Resistance to IT-induced Change - Theoretical Foundation and Empirical Evidence

In this PhD thesis the question “Why do people reject technologies?” is investigated and a variety of theoretical founded and empirical evaluated answers are given. Too many IT implementation and organizational change projects in firms still fail as the underling Information Systems are inadequately used. The thesis evaluates the reasons for user resistance behavior including individual characteristics such as personality traits, process characteristics, technology characteristics, and characteristics of the change process. Moreover, it can be shown that user resistance is not only related to the observed usage behavior, but also in work- and process-related consequences. The results contribute not only to IT adoption and change management literature, but also to the literature on Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) as the thesis investigates employees’ reactions to information systems in HR departments