Information systems project post‐mortems: Insights from an attribution perspective

Abstract

Information systems (IS) project failure is a costly and common problem. This is despite advances in development tools and technologies. In this article, we argue that one reason for this is the failure of project postmortems to generate constructive "lessons learned" from previous projects. Over time, the ineffective practices would persist in the organization, rendering it resistant to change. The attribution theory literature serves as one of the few promising theoretical bases to explain why project post-mortems fail. A case study of a project post-mortem undertaken for an abandoned electronic procurement system project is discussed and analyzed. We identify five antecedent conditions of attribution error: the presence of self-appointed mindsets, the general persistence of negative beliefs, memory decay, selective recall of project events and the influence of power dynamics within the organization. We discuss the research and practical implications of these findings and suggest how the problem of attribution error may be minimized in project post-mortems.

Advancing theory through the conceptualization and development of causal attributions for computer performance histories

“…Support for using attribution theory to explain initial adoption of IS/IT is found in the literature. Specifically, individuals' causal attributions for their performances have been found to explain adoption (e.g., Henry and Martinko 1997), post-training reactions to and performance of IS (e.g., Rozell and Gardner 1999), course performance (Henry et al 1993;Gardner 1995, 2000;Wilson and Shrock 2001), satisfaction (Barki 1990), IS job performance in career advancement studies (Igbaria and Baroudi 1995;Igbaria and Wormley 1995), IT project success and failure (Standing et al 2006), failure of project post-mortems (Pan et al 2007), and IS professional-end user interaction (Karsten, 2002).…”

Pre-implementation failure of information systems in public universities in Kenya: A case study of Moi University, Kenya

“…Table 1 shows that the first four highly rated factors for pre-implementation failure concur with the signs of difficulty examined in the previous section. Most of these factors do not differ significantly from those in the findings of some studies in developed countries (Pan et al, 2008;Pan et al, 2007;Malaurent and Avison, 2015;Newman and Zhao, 2008). However, top management interference with IS project leadership, unfavourable organisational culture, ineffective communication, poorly trained and less experienced project team, and lack of ownership of the IS initiative deserve some elaboration.…”