Project management information systems: An empirical study of their impact on project managers and project success

The hunt for computerized support in information security policy management

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to survey existing information security policy (ISP) management research to scrutinise the extent to which manual and computerised support has been suggested, and the way in which the suggested support has been brought about.

Design/methodology/approach

The results are based on a literature review of ISP management research published between 1990 and 2017.

Findings

Existing research has focused mostly on manual support for managing ISPs. Very few papers have considered computerised support. The entire complexity of the ISP management process has received little attention. Existing research has not focused much on the interaction between the different ISP management phases. Few research methods have been used extensively and intervention-oriented research is rare.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should to a larger extent address the interaction between the ISP management phases, apply more intervention research to develop computerised support for ISP management, investigate to what extent computerised support can enhance integration of ISP management phases and reduce the complexity of such a management process.

Practical implications

The limited focus on computerised support for ISP management affects the kind of advice and artefacts the research community can offer to practitioners.

Originality/value

Today, there are no literature reviews on to what extent computerised support the ISP management process. Findings on how the complexity of ISP management has been addressed and the research methods used extend beyond the existing knowledge base, allowing for a critical discussion of existing research and future research needs.

Corruption as a Source of Government Project Failure in Developing Countries

This study explores how corruption impacts the failure of government projects in developing countries with evidence from the Ghanaian context. This study solicits the perceptions of project management practitioners (14), contractors (6), government officials (clients; 5), and the general public (5) on the subject. The findings indicate that corruption influences government project failure on all the failure criteria that were used for the evaluation. However, corruption influences failure at two different levels: project management and product phase. At the project management level, corruption has direct influence, while at the product phase level, the influence is indirect.

Investigating the post-adoption stage of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony diffusion

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the post-adoption stage of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony diffusion, examining usage behavior based on Shih and Venkatesh’s use-diffusion (UD) model.

Design/methodology/approach

The research model incorporates technology sophistication, complementary technologies, personal innovativeness, self-efficacy, trust propensity, media exposure, subjective norms, and word-of-mouth (WOM) referrals as UD determinants; rate of use and variety of use as usage variables; intense use, specialized use, nonspecialized use, and limited use as UD patterns; and satisfaction and intention to use future-related technologies as UD outcomes. Data used to test the research model were collected using a web-based online questionnaire form; 360 valid responses were obtained. Partial least squares, multinomial logistic regression, and analysis of variance were used to analyze data.

Findings

The results reveal that variety of use, self-efficacy, propensity to trust, media exposure, subjective norms, and WOM referrals increase rate of use, while complementary technologies, personal innovativeness, self-efficacy, media exposure, and subjective norms widen variety of use; variety of use is essential in predicting UD outcomes; when choosing limited use as the reference category, more than half of the UD determinants are capable of predicting UD patterns; and generally, intense users are more satisfied with VoIP telephony, while limited users have less intention to use future-related technologies.

Originality/value

The present study focuses on the post-adoption stage, thereby extending the frontiers of research on the diffusion of VoIP telephony. Academics can obtain some evidence of the explanatory power of the UD model in the context of VoIP telephony use, and practitioners can obtain fresh insights into the dynamics of VoIP telephony usage behavior.

IT Project Success

Investigation into the causes for low IT project success rates has dominated both the IT project management literature and the focus of IT project management professionals for decades. Many factors, including a variety of hard skills and soft skills, have been proposed to have an effect on IT project success. This study presented 142 such factors, collected from the IT project management literature over the past 25 years, to members of the Project Management Institute in an effort to ascertain which of these factors had the most impact on IT project success in their respective organizations. Factors were classified into 5 groups: Communication Group, Project Manager/Team Group, Project Group, Organization Group and User Group. Results indicated that 71.8% of respondents agreed that Ability to Communicate at Multiple Levels from the Project Manager/Team Group was the most important factor critical to IT project success of the 142 factors under consideration.

Project Management–Related Software Systems and Their Legal Protection: Emergence, Distribution, and Relevance of Business Method Patents

The legal protection of project management–related software systems has changed recently, as patenting is spreading to the area of business methods. We investigate which parts of project management are especially confronted with this form of legal protection and how software system providers deal with this topic. Almost all the tasks of project management are permeated by business method patents but the intensity of these tasks differs remarkably. Their assignment–-related to major project management software system providers–-is unbalanced. While patenting-experienced companies have already learned how to use business method patents to gain advantages in project management environments, many others have not.

Application of Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making in R&D Project Manager Selection

Project managers perform better and lead projects to a successful end if their characteristics match with the requirements of the position. Manager of a research project should not only have a solid scientific background, but also possess attributes of a leader. Incompetent research and development (R&D) managers can cause grievances, complaints, employee turnover, and organizational disruptions. The process of selecting the best project manager among several candidates involves comparing both tangible and intangible attributes. Such a complex problem involves satisfying several objectives simultaneously. Hence the most suitable methods are multi-criteria decision making techniques. In this article, a fuzzy linguistic problem is addressed using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to identify the most suitable manager to lead an R&D project. A selection committee of five experts is formed to choose the best applicant on the basis of eight criteria. In the final analysis, leadership is found to be the most important criterion followed by scientific accomplishments.

Information Technology Project Performance

In this exploratory research study the critical success factors resulting in Information Technology (IT) project performance were assessed. Previous research supported associations between critical success factors and information technology project performance. A survey of 116 different projects at firms in the United States was used as the context to examine the critical success factors in project performance. The examination of the data analysis showed the size of the project, clarity of goals and mission, availability of required technology, and client acceptance of the project had a significant impact on project performance.