In many fields of empirical science, theories have been proposed arguing that behavioral relation... more In many fields of empirical science, theories have been proposed arguing that behavioral relationships change over time. There are many possible ways in which parameters of regression models are assumed to change. With better understanding of how parameters change, estimation and testing procedures for various structural changes can be developed. This paper uses an exploratory way by augmenting the multivariate regression framework with data mining to study the less understood structural change concept by examining the effects of IT investments on industry profiles. It explores the shifting of industry boundaries over the past 17 years (1990-2006) in Australia.
This research has replicated an earlier study examining the effectiveness of project investment f... more This research has replicated an earlier study examining the effectiveness of project investment frameworks and provided a second case showing that in a normal environment (using private sector managerial techniques) projects contribute little to the realisation of strategic goals. The replication has implications for both the public and private sector. A promising new finding is that 'in some environments (with stable strategies and central oversight) projects make some contribution to the realisation of strategic goals'. However the contribution is smaller than expected and more research is required to explore how projects can contribute more to strategy.
This paper synthesises prior research findings to highlight how few IT projects realise all their... more This paper synthesises prior research findings to highlight how few IT projects realise all their expected benefits despite the widespread use of project management and technical methodologies. Using plausible assumptions derived from research the paper suggests only a third of IT projects currently deliver any benefits at all and that overall ROI is around 30%. It suggests IT Project Governance has the potential to increase ROIs to 135-240%. A large organisation that spends $30M pa on IT might realise an additional $10.5M to $21M pa, and nationally GDP might be lifted by 1.6% to 3.1%. Further research is suggested.
Improving Implementation: Organisational Change and Project Management
This chapter positions IT project governance in the context of corporate governance and IT govern... more This chapter positions IT project governance in the context of corporate governance and IT governance. It has highlighted dysfunctional behaviour and neglect of the governance perspective in project management practice and argued that the traditional measure of success 'on-time on-budget' is inappropriate for IT project governance. It presents a holistic framework of IT projects in the context of an organisation and lists six key IT project governance questions that should be asked by a board (or other approving authority), top managers and executive project sponsors. The detailed framework and questions are being published by Standards Australia as HB280 and they incorporate and extend the best of the IT project governance prescriptions that currently exist.
Journal of Project, Program & Portfolio Management
This conceptual paper examines the state of the project, program and project portfolio management... more This conceptual paper examines the state of the project, program and project portfolio management literature and highlights the divergent views of strategy that exist between project managers and top managers. Project management concepts are shown to be based on approaches to planning that top managers had rejected after thirty years of unsuccessful experience with strategic planning. Persistently high project failure rates and recent developments at the board level suggest that we might have reached the limits of our current approaches, and the question is asked whether project management is destined to follow the rise and fall of strategic planning. Alternatives to the traditional linear mechanistic approaches are explored and it is suggested that the project management field would need to embrace the delivery of strategy as the common ground to engage top managers. Approaches would need to be developed that are consistent with how strategy emerges in turbulent environments. Progr...
Despite the increasing prevalence of project management, evidence suggests that project success i... more Despite the increasing prevalence of project management, evidence suggests that project success is still often inadequate. In order to address these shortcomings, project governance has emerged as a way of engaging top management support and the soft skills required for benefits realisation. This research seeks to address the needs of contemporary businesses in order to improve project success rates. By analysing enterprise risk management, change management and IT governance in addition to project governance literature, a measurement model is proposed which aims at being better equipped to deal with the diverse concerns that an organisation must consider during the course of a project. In response to the concerns that a vast majority of methodologies remain untested, following its development, the model was tested to ensure validity and reliability. Subsequently, the contribution of this research is therefore to create an empirically tested model for governing projects that incorporates existing project ...
Disclaimer Case Studies are produced as a means of simulating discussion among management scholar... more Disclaimer Case Studies are produced as a means of simulating discussion among management scholars and students. The facts herein do not make imputation on the management of the company.
Case Studies are produced as a means of simulating discussion among management scholars and stude... more Case Studies are produced as a means of simulating discussion among management scholars and students. The facts herein do not make imputation on the management of the company.
This conceptual paper examines our existing world-view portfolio is defined the management of tha... more This conceptual paper examines our existing world-view portfolio is defined the management of that portfolios from that of project and new product development portfolios to other portfolios that exist in an organisation, such as the asset portfolio, resource portfolio and ideas portfolio. Portfolios do not exist in isolation in an organisational context, but instead overlap and interact. This paper argues that there is a need to move another step higher, and examine the relationships between portfolios of projects and related activities across an organisation in order to optimise outcomes across the organisation. We propose the need for 'enterprise portfolio management' and suggest that this approach has the potential to improve organisational efficiency, and in the longer term could be a source of competitive advantage.
Project governance can potentially provide the top management support needed for projects to succ... more Project governance can potentially provide the top management support needed for projects to succeed. However, the awareness and adoption of project governance guidelines has been sporadic. This research seeks to overcome any credibility gaps that may exist by developing a theoretical model to explain why project governance should work and testing the model against industry data. The research found five of six theoretical constructs for project governance correlated significantly with project success and different constructs were more important at different at different stages in the project lifecycle. The contribution of the research is firstly to show project governance can be explained by agency theory and theories of planned change. The second contribution is to provide evidence that project governance leads to project success.
Disclaimer Case Studies are produced as a means of simulating discussion among management scholar... more Disclaimer Case Studies are produced as a means of simulating discussion among management scholars and students. The facts herein do not make imputation on the management of the company.
This paper summarises the literature on the lack relevance in IS research. It then introduces the... more This paper summarises the literature on the lack relevance in IS research. It then introduces the concept of an IS Relevance Index as an initiative to help address the issue and summarises the status of its development. It then presents an exploratory study using ACIS 2005 data to provide a concrete example of how an IS Relevance Index might be implemented in practice and to highlight implications. The findings may be of particular interest to IS Conference Organisers and IS Journal editors. The findings will be of great interest to IS researchers if IS conferences and IS journals choose to adopt the index or some variation.
In many fields of empirical science, theories have been proposed arguing that behavioral relation... more In many fields of empirical science, theories have been proposed arguing that behavioral relationships change over time. There are many possible ways in which parameters of regression models are assumed to change. With better understanding of how parameters change, estimation and testing procedures for various structural changes can be developed. This paper uses an exploratory way by augmenting the multivariate regression framework with data mining to study the less understood structural change concept by examining the effects of IT investments on industry profiles. It explores the shifting of industry boundaries over the past 17 years (1990-2006) in Australia.
This research has replicated an earlier study examining the effectiveness of project investment f... more This research has replicated an earlier study examining the effectiveness of project investment frameworks and provided a second case showing that in a normal environment (using private sector managerial techniques) projects contribute little to the realisation of strategic goals. The replication has implications for both the public and private sector. A promising new finding is that 'in some environments (with stable strategies and central oversight) projects make some contribution to the realisation of strategic goals'. However the contribution is smaller than expected and more research is required to explore how projects can contribute more to strategy.
This paper synthesises prior research findings to highlight how few IT projects realise all their... more This paper synthesises prior research findings to highlight how few IT projects realise all their expected benefits despite the widespread use of project management and technical methodologies. Using plausible assumptions derived from research the paper suggests only a third of IT projects currently deliver any benefits at all and that overall ROI is around 30%. It suggests IT Project Governance has the potential to increase ROIs to 135-240%. A large organisation that spends $30M pa on IT might realise an additional $10.5M to $21M pa, and nationally GDP might be lifted by 1.6% to 3.1%. Further research is suggested.
Improving Implementation: Organisational Change and Project Management
This chapter positions IT project governance in the context of corporate governance and IT govern... more This chapter positions IT project governance in the context of corporate governance and IT governance. It has highlighted dysfunctional behaviour and neglect of the governance perspective in project management practice and argued that the traditional measure of success 'on-time on-budget' is inappropriate for IT project governance. It presents a holistic framework of IT projects in the context of an organisation and lists six key IT project governance questions that should be asked by a board (or other approving authority), top managers and executive project sponsors. The detailed framework and questions are being published by Standards Australia as HB280 and they incorporate and extend the best of the IT project governance prescriptions that currently exist.
Journal of Project, Program & Portfolio Management
This conceptual paper examines the state of the project, program and project portfolio management... more This conceptual paper examines the state of the project, program and project portfolio management literature and highlights the divergent views of strategy that exist between project managers and top managers. Project management concepts are shown to be based on approaches to planning that top managers had rejected after thirty years of unsuccessful experience with strategic planning. Persistently high project failure rates and recent developments at the board level suggest that we might have reached the limits of our current approaches, and the question is asked whether project management is destined to follow the rise and fall of strategic planning. Alternatives to the traditional linear mechanistic approaches are explored and it is suggested that the project management field would need to embrace the delivery of strategy as the common ground to engage top managers. Approaches would need to be developed that are consistent with how strategy emerges in turbulent environments. Progr...
Despite the increasing prevalence of project management, evidence suggests that project success i... more Despite the increasing prevalence of project management, evidence suggests that project success is still often inadequate. In order to address these shortcomings, project governance has emerged as a way of engaging top management support and the soft skills required for benefits realisation. This research seeks to address the needs of contemporary businesses in order to improve project success rates. By analysing enterprise risk management, change management and IT governance in addition to project governance literature, a measurement model is proposed which aims at being better equipped to deal with the diverse concerns that an organisation must consider during the course of a project. In response to the concerns that a vast majority of methodologies remain untested, following its development, the model was tested to ensure validity and reliability. Subsequently, the contribution of this research is therefore to create an empirically tested model for governing projects that incorporates existing project ...
Disclaimer Case Studies are produced as a means of simulating discussion among management scholar... more Disclaimer Case Studies are produced as a means of simulating discussion among management scholars and students. The facts herein do not make imputation on the management of the company.
Case Studies are produced as a means of simulating discussion among management scholars and stude... more Case Studies are produced as a means of simulating discussion among management scholars and students. The facts herein do not make imputation on the management of the company.
This conceptual paper examines our existing world-view portfolio is defined the management of tha... more This conceptual paper examines our existing world-view portfolio is defined the management of that portfolios from that of project and new product development portfolios to other portfolios that exist in an organisation, such as the asset portfolio, resource portfolio and ideas portfolio. Portfolios do not exist in isolation in an organisational context, but instead overlap and interact. This paper argues that there is a need to move another step higher, and examine the relationships between portfolios of projects and related activities across an organisation in order to optimise outcomes across the organisation. We propose the need for 'enterprise portfolio management' and suggest that this approach has the potential to improve organisational efficiency, and in the longer term could be a source of competitive advantage.
Project governance can potentially provide the top management support needed for projects to succ... more Project governance can potentially provide the top management support needed for projects to succeed. However, the awareness and adoption of project governance guidelines has been sporadic. This research seeks to overcome any credibility gaps that may exist by developing a theoretical model to explain why project governance should work and testing the model against industry data. The research found five of six theoretical constructs for project governance correlated significantly with project success and different constructs were more important at different at different stages in the project lifecycle. The contribution of the research is firstly to show project governance can be explained by agency theory and theories of planned change. The second contribution is to provide evidence that project governance leads to project success.
Disclaimer Case Studies are produced as a means of simulating discussion among management scholar... more Disclaimer Case Studies are produced as a means of simulating discussion among management scholars and students. The facts herein do not make imputation on the management of the company.
This paper summarises the literature on the lack relevance in IS research. It then introduces the... more This paper summarises the literature on the lack relevance in IS research. It then introduces the concept of an IS Relevance Index as an initiative to help address the issue and summarises the status of its development. It then presents an exploratory study using ACIS 2005 data to provide a concrete example of how an IS Relevance Index might be implemented in practice and to highlight implications. The findings may be of particular interest to IS Conference Organisers and IS Journal editors. The findings will be of great interest to IS researchers if IS conferences and IS journals choose to adopt the index or some variation.
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Papers by Raymond Young