Purpose

For decades, troubled information systems (IS)/information technology (IT) projects have continued to lose billions of dollars all over the world. The purpose of this paper is to look for the root causes of this widespread and important phenomenon.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper begins with a concise survey of empirical research and shows that a significant proportion of project failures are derived from the behavior of managers rather than from objective or technical obstacles. Although researchers have made significant efforts to improve the professional conduct of managers, the situation ameliorated only slowly. This raises the issue of a possible hidden cause lying behind the perceived determinants of failure; the authors, therefore, look for the root-cause of this broad noteworthy phenomenon and apply the techniques typical of “root-cause analysis”.

Findings

IS/IT managers handling troubled projects worldwide have nothing in common except for a similar cultural basis. As students, they learned the fundamental concepts of informatics, and it is, therefore, natural to hypothesize a specific cause and effect relationship between these lessons and the ineffective behaviors of managers. A careful analysis shows that computing theories are narrow, self-referential and abstract, and this negatively affects the conduct of managers, who have broad, practical responsibilities.

Practical implications

The cultural causes of runaway projects require advanced theoretical research on the foundations of computer science to create a comprehensive and consistent construct that can support the manifold duties of IS/IT project leaders. A future theoretical structure will underpin innovative courses in universities and professional organizations, making leaders more aware of their roles and more capable of managing them.

Originality/value

In general, when a problem is traced to its origin, it can be eradicated. This work offers evidence that the root causes of troubled projects lie in the management culture, and therefore, the professional preparation of managers needs to be improved so to remove the present difficulties in IS/IT projects.

中文翻译：

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陷入困境的 IS/IT 项目：寻找根本原因

目的

几十年来，世界范围内陷入困境的信息系统 (IS)/信息技术 (IT) 项目持续损失数十亿美元。本文的目的是寻找这一广泛而重要的现象的根本原因。

设计/方法/方法

本文首先对实证研究进行了简明的调查，并表明很大一部分项目失败源于管理人员的行为，而不是源于客观或技术障碍。尽管研究人员为改善管理人员的职业行为做出了巨大努力，但这种情况只是缓慢改善。这就提出了一个问题，即在可察觉的失败决定因素背后隐藏着一个可能的隐藏原因；因此，作者寻找这一广泛值得注意的现象的根本原因，并应用“根本原因分析”的典型技术。

发现

除了相似的文化基础外，在全球范围内处理问题项目的 IS/IT 经理没有任何共同之处。作为学生，他们学习了信息学的基本概念，因此很自然地假设这些课程与管理人员的无效行为之间存在特定的因果关系。仔细分析表明，计算理论是狭隘的、自我参照的和抽象的，这对具有广泛实际责任的管理者的行为产生了负面影响。

实际影响

失控项目的文化原因需要对计算机科学基础进行高级理论研究，以创建一个全面且一致的结构，以支持 IS/IT 项目负责人的多种职责。未来的理论结构将支撑大学和专业组织的创新课程，使领导者更加了解他们的角色并更有能力管理他们。

原创性/价值

一般来说，当一个问题追溯到它的根源时，它可以被根除。这项工作提供了证据表明问题项目的根源在于管理文化，因此，需要改进管理人员的专业准备，以消除当前 IS/IT 项目的困难。