Case Studies - IT Management
This page provides a summary and a link to all IT Management case studies.
This is a case study of a leading edge project management initiative within the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The ABS is an organization with a reputation for being better at IT than other organizations and it has a core competence in project management. This case study is of an initiative to lift their IT governance practices to even higher levels. The case describes how the ABS implemented a project management framework (PMF) to create a widespread awareness within the organization of the difference between project management success (outputs) and project success (outcomes). The adoption rate of the PMF was acceptable, with all large projects using it, but the formal adoption of the PMF by other projects had slowed when the executive sponsor left.
Raymond Young
This is a case study of a difficult project in an organization with a reputation for consistent success. It describes how an executive project sponsor influenced a very understaffed IT project to achieve a modest success in spite of very little support from the rest of the organization. The project succeeded despite a poor project plan, little user support and malicious political opposition. This confirms the critical role of an executive sponsor for project success and it provides extensive background information to explain how top managers really influence projects to succeed. The case is particularly valuable for its detailed description of how important it is to build commitment and trust over the length of a project. It highlights the subtleties related to the communication of priorities and the need to seek out, listen and respond to unanticipated issues.
Raymond Young
Case 2005-2: How Projects Fail "Successfully"
This is a case study highlighting dysfunctional management practices arising from inconsistent conceptions of IT project success. It describes an apparently successful project (on-time on-budget), but challenges the traditional assessment by highlighting the fact that the project delivered less than half of what was promised. The case provides a concrete example for readers to appreciate the much-neglected insight that project management success does not necessarily lead to project success from a business perspective. It provides extensive background information to suggest the cause and remedy for the issue rests mainly with top management. It was conducted over a 17-month period and is based on interviews with key stakeholders followed by an extensive review period leading to a signoff by the organization.
Raymond Young
Case 2005-1: A Passion to Succeed
SkyHigh Property Investments is a subsidiary of a major investment bank. SkyHigh’s success depends on its ability to recognise, purchase and manage quality commercial properties for its clients and its ability to attract quality tenants and keep them happy while controlling expenses. They also need to provide their investors with timely information. The CEO of SkyHigh had trebled the size of company in only four years. The organisation originally managed only a handful of buildings for a superannuation fund, but by the end of 2000 it had over 100 major properties, many thousands of tenants, and thousands of investors across a number of investment vehicles. The enormous growth in complexity was imposing operational stresses on the organisation. The CEO was acutely aware of it because two companies in the industry had recently lost market share because poor operational systems had undermined investor confidence.
Raymond Young
This is a case study illustrating the political realities of a ‘routine’ IT project. The project had a very poor outcome, overall revenues were compromised and the senior managers personally suffered as a result. The main reason for the poor result was not so much poor project management or lack of technical skill but rather the lack of ‘senior management support’. The case provides extensive background information to show that the lack of support was to be expected given the political realities of the case. It suggests that such situations are typical of routine projects and therefore a major consideration in all IT projects. The case was originally prepared to test an IT risk management framework and modified to support an MBA class on IT Management. The case was used to help students to appreciate that so called IT experts and the common IT prescriptions tend to focus on inappropriate issues from a business perspective. The objective was to help students internalise the finding that “unless top management are actively involved, the idea that computers will produce substantial benefits is the big lie of the information age”.
Raymond Young
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