Complexity as a Cause of Failure in Information Technology Project Management

Abstract

IT project failures that may have been caused by the dual hazard of inherent project complexity and the worldview and approaches in common practice in IT project Abstract management today. Project management success is often elusive, particularly in a complex, Systems ofSystems Environment (SOSE). In the What is Complexity Information Technology (IT) industry, failure rates are Initial research on the definition of approaching 70 percent. Many reasons are cited for this complexity yields two observations: 1) No consensus exists high failure rate, including the shortage of skilled staff, on a single definition and 2) the definition is sometimes a constant changes in technology, too many known IT function of the industry or domain associated with the application constraints, inadequately defined requirements, research. For example, a researcher in the information and poor project management skills among others. This technology industry defines complexity as a "high number paper proposes a main cause of failure as complexity of cognitive operations [4]." In the supply chain caused by discontinuities among project objectives and the management industry complexity means "proliferation of worldviews, tools and ideas in standard practice in IT individual items, either in input components and project management. This paper will also assert that many subassemblies or finished goods [5]." These definitions ITprojects, by their very nature, are complex in design. An may be useful for the purpose of understanding the understanding ofcomplexity and a change in thinking about relationship under research, but do not serve as universal IT project management in the modern engineering definitions of complexity in the context of understanding or organization may be indicated The conclusion of this predicting success in IT related projects. paper will summarize future research necessary to close These definitions, and some others, focus on sheer numbers this gap.of operations or items in a processing stream to form a definition of complexity. Although a larger number of Keywords:Complexity, Non-Ergodicity, Project inputs to a processing steam may influence complexity, it is Management, Irreducibility. more likely that the larger number implies that the problem Project Failure Rates in the IT Industry is difficult rather than complex [6].Projects fail at an alarming rate, and some industries appear Lucio Biggiero provides an alternative explanation to have a more drastic problem than others. The Standish of the differences in the concepts of difficult or complex. Report, first published in 1994, indicated that less than 20 Given an adequate level of computational power, difficult percent of the Information Technology (IT) projects studied problems can eventually be solved or an outcome can be by the Standish Group were considered successful [1]. predicted [7]. The nature of predicting the outcome of Failure in this context is defined as a project that is complex problems is exacerbated because such prediction terminated prior to succ...

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