The management of complexity in project management – a qualitative and quantitative case study of certified project managers in Germany

With the increased globalization and expansion of the markets worldwide, companies have to struggle with increased competition. Therefore, organisations have begun to offer advantages such as a personalisation of products to potential customers. Market conditions and legal policies can make it challenging to predict whether those ad-vantages can be realized. Project managers are often in the position of having to fulfil these requirements; in continuously changing influencing factors that make tasks diffi-cult to manage. These circumstances create complexity. Frequently, managers are una-ware that complexity has created problems in a specific project. Often, the traditional standards of project management no longer provide a sufficient support to managers of complex projects. This research investigates how current standards of project management address com-plexity, and whether a supplement is necessary. Complexity strengtheners are investi-gated. One standard Project Management Institute (PMI) is selected as an example to analyze the influence of strengtheners on PM-processes. A funnel model is developed based on these research findings. This is aimed to help managers in their daily practice and support them in categorizing the complexity of their projects. Based on this model, managers should be able to recognize the actual strengtheners of complexity and which processes of their project are affected. Finally, a possible adaption of the standard is re-searched. A proposition for a new comprehensive guide is designed to support manag-ers carrying out complex projects. The key managerial implication of this research is the development of a five-step model for handling complexity in projects: forming, storming, norming, performing, and ad-journing. Furthermore, the intent of this thesis is to make a valid contribution to the management literature. For handling complexity the new funnel model should close the gap between the recognition of complexity in a project and underlying causes. The new five-step model thus provides project managers helpful guidelines for handling complex projects. This research applies a mixed method, consisting of a survey (quantitative method) and focus interviews (qualitative method) with experts of project management (PMI) in Germany. There are approximately 4.900 PMI certified project managers in Germany; more than 170 participated in the survey (3.6%). This is considered sufficient to provide reliable results for this research. Further, three focus interviews deepen the knowledge and validate the results of the survey: Complexity is an actual problem in project man-agement. Existing standards are sufficient for project management, but complexity can-not be standardized. This thesis proposes to help project managers to resolve project complexity by providing guidelines for navigating through complex projects

Modeling and Simulating Causal Dependencies on Process-aware Information Systems from a Cost Perspective

Providing effective IT support for business processes has become crucial for enterprises to stay competitive in their market. Business processes must be defined, implemented, enacted, monitored, and continuously adapted to changing situations. Process life cycle support and continuous process improvement become critical success factors in contemporary and future enterprise computing. In this context, process-aware information systems (PAISs) adopt a key role. Thereby, organization-specific and generic process support systems are distinguished. In the former case, the PAIS is build "from scratch" and incorporates organization-specific information about the structure and processes to be supported. In the latter case, the PAIS does not contain any information about the structure and processes of a particular organization. Instead, an organization needs to configure the PAIS by specifying processes, organizational entities, and business objects. To enable the realization of PAISs, numerous process support paradigms, process modeling standards, and business process management tools have been introduced. The application of these approaches in PAIS engineering projects is not only influenced by technological, but also by organizational and project-specific factors. Between these factors there exist numerous causal dependencies, which, in turn, often lead to complex and unexpected effects in PAIS engineering projects. In particular, the costs of PAIS engineering projects are significantly influenced by these causal dependencies. What is therefore needed is a comprehensive approach enabling PAIS engineers to systematically investigate these causal dependencies as well as their impact on the costs of PAIS engineering projects. Existing economic-driven IT evaluation and software cost estimation approaches, however, are unable to take into account causal dependencies and resulting effects. In response, this thesis introduces the EcoPOST framework. This framework utilizes evaluation models to describe the interplay of technological, organizational, and project-specific evaluation factors, and simulation concepts to unfold the dynamic behavior of PAIS engineering projects. In this context, the EcoPOST framework also supports the reuse of evaluation models based on a library of generic, predefined evaluation patterns and also provides governing guidelines (e.g., model design guidelines) which enhance the transfer of the EcoPOST framework into practice. Tool support is available as well. Finally, we present the results of two online surveys, three case studies, and one controlled software experiment. Based on these empirical and experimental research activities, we are able to validate evaluation concepts underlying the EcoPOST framework and additionally demonstrate its practical applicability

What support do systematic reviews provide for evidence-informed teaching about software engineering practice?

Background: The adoption of the evidence-based research paradigm by software engineering researchers has created a growing knowledge base provided by the outcomes from systematic reviews.Aim: We set out to identify and catalogue a sample of the knowledge provided by systematic reviews, to determine what support they can provide for an evidence-informed approach to teaching about software engineering practice.Method: We undertook a tertiary study (a mapping study of systematic reviews) covering the period to the end of 2015. We identified and catalogued those reviews that had findings or made recommendations that were considered relevant to teaching about industry practice.Results: We examined a sample of 276 systematic reviews, selecting 49 for which we could clearly identify practice-oriented findings and fecommendations that were supported by the data analysis provided in the review. We have classified these against established software engineering education knowledge categories and discuss the extent and forms of knowledge provided for each category.Conclusion: While systematic reviews can provide knowledge that can inform teaching about practice, relatively few systematic reviews present the outcomes in a form suitable for this purpose. Using a suitable format for presenting a summary of outcomes could improve this. Additionally, the increasing number of published systematic reviews suggests that there is a need for greater coordination regarding the cataloguing of their findings and recommendations

The Impact of User Involvement on Information System Projects

Information systems (IS) development has been studied from many perspectives. Information systems are being viewed as a service as the economy shifts from being industrial-based to service-based. This shift is motivating the business user to become more involved with the development of the system. The once clear roles of user-as-specifier and IT professional-as-developer are blurring. This research addresses three objectives. First, we survey the actual business users themselves for their perception of activities and satisfaction with the completed system. Second, we analyze the separation of business requirements into two constructs representing the functional and presentation dimensions of these requirements to advance our understanding of user involvement on information system projects. Third, we explore the combinations of user characteristics and their activities that can improve IS project performance. A new comprehensive model is proposed to represent the business user as an active participant in system development. A survey instrument is developed from a widespread literature review of IS project performance, user involvement and project management. The instrument was tested to ensure its ease of completion and its comprehensibility. The revised instrument was sent to 3,419 U.S. business users in multiple industries from which 205 valid surveys were received. Structural Equation Modeling was used to validate the measurements and analyze the hypotheses and the overall model. The results confirm some previous findings and document new discoveries regarding the users, their activities and the impact on user satisfactio

The Impact of User Involvement on Information System Projects

Information systems (IS) development has been studied from many perspectives. Information systems are being viewed as a service as the economy shifts from being industrial-based to service-based. This shift is motivating the business user to become more involved with the development of the system. The once clear roles of user-as-specifier and IT professional-as-developer are blurring. This research addresses three objectives. First, we survey the actual business users themselves for their perception of activities and satisfaction with the completed system. Second, we analyze the separation of business requirements into two constructs representing the functional and presentation dimensions of these requirements to advance our understanding of user involvement on information system projects. Third, we explore the combinations of user characteristics and their activities that can improve IS project performance. A new comprehensive model is proposed to represent the business user as an active participant in system development. A survey instrument is developed from a widespread literature review of IS project performance, user involvement and project management. The instrument was tested to ensure its ease of completion and its comprehensibility. The revised instrument was sent to 3,419 U.S. business users in multiple industries from which 205 valid surveys were received. Structural Equation Modeling was used to validate the measurements and analyze the hypotheses and the overall model. The results confirm some previous findings and document new discoveries regarding the users, their activities and the impact on user satisfactio

The Impact of User Involvement on Information System Projects

Information systems (IS) development has been studied from many perspectives. Information systems are being viewed as a service as the economy shifts from being industrial-based to service-based. This shift is motivating the business user to become more involved with the development of the system. The once clear roles of user-as-specifier and IT professional-as-developer are blurring. This research addresses three objectives. First, we survey the actual business users themselves for their perception of activities and satisfaction with the completed system. Second, we analyze the separation of business requirements into two constructs representing the functional and presentation dimensions of these requirements to advance our understanding of user involvement on information system projects. Third, we explore the combinations of user characteristics and their activities that can improve IS project performance. A new comprehensive model is proposed to represent the business user as an active participant in system development. A survey instrument is developed from a widespread literature review of IS project performance, user involvement and project management. The instrument was tested to ensure its ease of completion and its comprehensibility. The revised instrument was sent to 3,419 U.S. business users in multiple industries from which 205 valid surveys were received. Structural Equation Modeling was used to validate the measurements and analyze the hypotheses and the overall model. The results confirm some previous findings and document new discoveries regarding the users, their activities and the impact on user satisfactio

Investigating benefits realisation process for enterprise resource planning systems

This research aims to investigate the benefit realisation process for ERP systems so as to develop a benefit realization road map whereby organisations can realize the maximum potential of their ERP systems. This research covers two areas: mechanism of implementation and the destination to change (i.e. road map). It has been found that project management and benefits management approaches are necessary for recouping benefits from investing in Information Technologies (IT) projects. Thus, Project Benefits Governance Framework (PBGF) is developed, and later tested, by combining the two approaches for the sake of realising the expected benefits from investing in IT initiatives. Because ERP demands radical changes in organisations, the neo-institutionalisation theory was adopted to apply PBGF on ERP so that the ERP success is improved. The key connecting element between PM and BM in PGBF is the blueprint design. ERP orchestration framework is developed to show how investments in ERP resources and organisational complementary resources shall be orchestrated so that ERP benefits can be realised effectively. Thus, benefits are classified into three levels (automating, planning, and innovating benefits), and each level needs a specific blueprint. All of these blueprints constitute the ERP benefits road map. Each blueprint consists of attitudes, skills, organisation characteristics, technologies, and ERP department human resources competencies. Based on these results, ERP Business Innovation framework is developed and tested. ERP benefits maturity assessment tool is developed for assessing organisations’ status to show weaknesses and strengths in their ability to recoup different ERP benefits by benchmarking with the three blueprints. This research has contributed by integrating and institutionalising benefits management practices and project management practices. Moreover, it is novel in adapting the orchestration theory to understand how ERP resources shall be composed to achieve benefits efficiently. Finally, it demonstrates that ERP can be a source of innovation if the innovating benefits are managed deliberately