An Adaptive and Preemptive Theory for Improving Systemic IT Project Failure Trends (“AdaPIT” Theory)

Abstract

Information Technology (IT) systems have become an important competitive element across the great majority of industries, and technology projects are entrenched within all domains becoming larger and encompassing cross functional components. This increased technological dependency and transformation also increases the risk to organizations as a whole if something goes wrong. Pragmatically things often do go wrong and despite the evolution and sophistication of project management frameworks and methodologies a great percentage of IT projects are still failing. Although multiple actions have attempted to address this costly and prevailing trend, they have yet to positively and/or consistently impact it, even though it has caused additional management burdens and costly compliance requirements along the way. As the projections for IT investment increase by a magnitude of 3.5% (annual average) and IT project failures report losses in the billions (Gartner, 2011), this trend has become ever steeper over time. It is likely that the rates are even higher than the industry reports because individuals and organizations fear back lash when identifying and communicating perceived failures. The alarming (and increasing) rates of IT Project Failure 4 are strong indicators that this systemic trend has not yet been addressed from a causal perspective. The authors hence conducted extensive research in order to enable the assessment of this pervasive and costly issue through a unique approach and leveraged the social “lens” (one of the three fundamental research methodology pillars). Hypothesizing that the underlining key factors associated with this costly and pervasive trend could be traced to “soft factors” an extensive (multi-method) research effort based on three fundamental pillars (Grounded Theory, System Dynamics an Social Theory) has been conducted and has unveiled a new theoretical model promising greater understanding of IT (and potentially other) programs and projects. The IT project construct is looked upon by the researchers as “mini organizations” characterized by multiple changes and natural disruptions to the Social Order over time. The philosophical research framework was then operationalized by means of a four phased multi-method approach promoting a root cause identification of key factors driving IT project success and/or failures as well as their interdependencies and impacts. This paper presents the outcomes of this research (emerging theory), its key challenges and how they were overcome and discusses the Adaptive and Preemptive IT Theory (“AdaPIT”). In essence the “AdaPIT” Theory does not replace any existing IT project Management framework: it simply incorporates the identified Intangible Soft Factor (“ISF's”) into the applicable project construct. The main theory unveiled has been modeled and presented through multiple views that will be discussed in this paper. A summary analysis of the research findings will also be provided. It encompasses the author's representation from all data points collected throughout this investigation inclusive of their own experiences (“all is data”) as well as the review and feedback from industry practitioners, Grounded Theory subject matter experts and other technical and/or managerial personnel. The summary outcome (AdaPIT Theory) encompasses the data collection, analysis and hypotheses support process within the multi-method research framework.