An analysis of the causes and consequences of the information gap in IT projects. The client’s and the supplier’s perspective in Poland

Abstract

The high IT project failure rate means that the stakeholders start recognizing the need to analyze the factors influencing project success, previously deemed irrelevant in the face of technology, including the agile approach, eliminating project documentation, effective prototyping, information asymmetry between project parties, while also perfecting communication and the methods of knowledge transfer between team members. Currently, IT projects are researched using a holistic approach, seeing an implementation project as a whole, subject to specific regularities, which may not be deduced based on the knowledge of their individual components. We would like to enrich the research perspective with the notion of the information gap. The article aims to evaluate and analyze the information gap in ERP and CRM project implementations. We have researched the information gap from the perspective of project managers on the supplier’s and the client’s sides. The study was conducted in Poland between 2014 and 2021 in a group of medium companies, using qualitative research methods: unstructured interview and direct observation. The study led to a qualitative characterization of the information gap and the identification of its causes and consequences. The presented research result can help achieve three goals, i.e. studying the information gap in the selected group of IT projects, indicating the nature of imperfection in information access by the project participants, and raising awareness amongst project managers regarding risk management issues, especially uncertainty. Reducing the information gap can be used by the transaction parties to implement a strategy of building the object’s resilience to uncertainty and its consequences. These results can help develop methodologies of IT project implementation, limiting the level of risk and uncertainty.