Mediators between coordination and IS project performance

The software development life cycle (SDLC) is a framework for planning, analyzing, designing, developing, testing, and deploying software. There are many different SDLC methodologies available, each with its advantages and disadvantages. The best methodology for a particular project will depend on factors such as the size and complexity of the project, the availability of resources, and the preferences of the project team. This paper provides an in-depth overview of the different SDLC methodologies used in the industry for IS project management. The paper discusses five significant SDLC methodologies: Waterfall, V-Model, Iterative, Agile, and Hybrid. It also compares and contrasts the traditional SDLC and Agile methodology and discusses using decision support matrices for selecting SDLC methodologies. By providing this comprehensive overview, the paper will help IS practitioners and project managers make informed decisions about the best approach for their specific projects.

To bridge or to bond? Diverse social connections in an IS project team

In order to know the influence mechanism of the trust among project stakeholders on the project performance, hypotheses are proposed and a conceptual model is constructed by taking the knowledge transfer as a mediator. By means of 183 effective questionnaires from different areas, structural equation model are used to verify the proposed hypotheses. Results of the analyses suggest that contractual trust, competence trust, emotional trust of project stakeholders has significant positive effects on project performance while the degree to which trust affects project performance varies with different dimensions. And it has been proved that knowledge transfer plays a partially mediating role between each dimension of trust and project performance. These findings provide some valuable inspirations for project managers that project managers should not only put emphasis on the formation of high level trust, but also promote knowledge transfer among stakeholders to achieve great project performance.

User commitment and collaboration: Motivational antecedents and project performance

Planetary health is the health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which it depends. (The Lancet commission on planetary health). Climate change puts planetary health under considerable strain. Climate health adaptation is defined as ‘designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating strategies, policies and programs to manage the risks of climate-relevant health outcomes' (WHO 2014). This workshop focuses on the perspective of governance, focusing on three basic coordination issues. Firstly, since climate health adaptation is a relatively new issue, it has not (yet) been organised into laws and regulations assigning clear responsibilities, capacities and resources. As a result, proponents turn to the judiciary for litigation of nation states' compliance with international agreements. Secondly, since climate problems manifest themselves across national borders and continents, there is a need for multilevel governance that requires both local community-based action as well as supranational agreements in resolutions and programs (= vertical coordination). Thirdly, since climate change affects many environmental and social health determinants, such as food systems, migration and water management, climate health adaptation requires a Whole of Society/HiAP approach. Necessary action extends far beyond the health system across different policy sectors, large and small businesses, civil society organisations as well as community initiatives (= horizontal coordination). As a result of these complexities, climate health adaptation rarely reaches the stage of actual policy implementation and goal achievement. This workshop aims to: explore existing literature on planetary health for issues, experiences and possible solutions to the governance and organisation of health adaptation to climate change; introduce principles, methods and institutional examples of multilateral and multilevel governance for planetary health; present examples of early arrangements and strategies for the vertical and horizontal coordination of climate health adaptation to climate change. (EU Green Deal program; Climate Pact; regional climate platforms; climate diplomacy). The workshop consists of three short presentations followed by an interactive panel discussion. After 30 minutes the floor is opened by means of a Mentimeter with which the audience can actively engage in the debate, as well as entering their questions, comments and suggestions through available facilities for interaction. The workshop will end with identifying the current and future necessary roles, responsibilities, capacities of the public health researchers, policymakers, and professionals for climate health diplomacy, network management, and setting up arrangements that offer stable rules for integrative action across different sectors, levels and borders. Key messages We can learn from policy sciences about how climate health adaptation can be organised by multilevel governance (vertical coordination) and Whole of Society governance (horizontal coordination). Working transdisciplinary, public health workers needs to develop skills for climate health diplomacy, network management, and setting up arrangements that offer stable rules for integrative action.

While the number of substantive investments in IS projects continues to grow, the number of failing projects also continues to increase at an alarming rate. Both the academic and industry literature suggests that inadequate attention to risk and its management continues to be a key factor in project failure. The typical approach taken is to identify and map potential risks, to act as a planning and diagnostic tool, and to prepare a contingency plan has been a factor-based approach. While it remains a valuable tool for mapping anticipated risks the factor-based approach is less effective when viewing project risks as emergent phenomena that un-fold during the course of the project, and require ongoing attention and risk management. In-formed by a case study of a failing university IS development project, this paper focuses on the phenomenon of risk escalation. The case findings suggest that rather than being defined ahead of the project, some project risks may emerge during the project as a consequence of escalation factors that were both antecedent to and a consequence of actual risk management decisions. The article concludes with suggestions as to how project managers can better man-age the emergent rather than static nature of risk phenomena.

This observational study of local government coordination brings fresh assessment of institutions and processes of District Coordination Committees (DCCs) in facilitating horizontal coordination across local governments and vertical coordination between federal, provincial, and local governments in Nepal. Necessary qualitative data – observational notes, interview transcripts and selected official publications – were generated based on researcher's two year's professional experience at the DCC in a remote district of Rasuwa in Nepal. Analysis is conducted in line with what John Halligan (2020) has explained as analytical elements of horizontal and vertical coordination. Findings suggest that although DCCs seem less effective local institutions in fostering both horizontal and vertical coordination, they are increasingly providing the most plausible avenues for politicians, administrators, and ordinary people to get together in materialising the constitutional thirst to implement cooperative federalism in Nepal.

SUMMARYRecent literature suggests that to make value chains in changing agrifood systems in sub-Saharan Africa more inclusive, intermediary institutions should foster coordination. The hub concept has been applied as such an intermediary institution that coordinates advisory services, input supply and smallholder access to markets. This study unravels hub coordination in smallholder dairy in Kenya, conceptualising the hub as a mix between a broker of relationships, a one-stop-shop for services and a cluster of producers and service providers, enabling horizontal coordination (between smallholders) and vertical coordination (between smallholders and value chain actors and service providers). Findings indicate that, in resolving challenges that limit smallholders’ integration in value chains, synergies emerged as the hub combined different types of horizontal and vertical coordination. This was done by simultaneously organising clusters of farmers and input and service providers (clustering role) and actively facilitating delivery (broker and one-stop-shop role), where the hub structure stimulated the matching of demand (better articulation) to supply (better organised access). However, tensions emerged in the combination of horizontal and vertical coordination as farmer organisations as hub operators had to balance a role as an honest broker between farmers with the intent of enhancing collective action and as a business-oriented entity which resulted in the exclusion of some farmers who cannot deliver the quantity and quality required to minimise coordination costs. Given these tensions and capacity problems of farmers’ organisations, complementary intermediary arrangements may be necessary to fulfil some coordination roles.

Despite the increasing attention to global IS work, there is limited understanding of why and how global IS development projects succeed or fail. Based on the literature on IS success and global teams, we develop a conceptual framework for global IS development project success. We also conducted interviews with nine global IS project managers to validate this framework through a qualitative attribution analysis to identify common themes and patterns of the interview results. Global project managers identified time separation, cultural differences and geographic distance as the most significant barriers to project success. Organizations implemented various communication mechanisms, task programming, and project control methods to mitigate global risks, leading to project success.

Purpose: Since the servant leadership of project managers is seemingly related to the project performance by influencing project team members’ positive attitude and behavior, this study attempts to provide empirical evidence for a link between servant leadership and project performance. In addition, the present study investigates the mediating effects of customer satisfaction on the servant leadership-project performance relations.Methods: The data of servant leadership and project performance were collected from 185 project team members of a company providing IT service, and customer satisfaction data were collected from 100 project clients served by the company. Before testing the hypotheses, we calculated aggregation statistics(e.g., rwg, ICC(1), and ICC(2)) to ensure appropriate aggregation of servant leadership scores. The statistics confirmed the use of 67 team level servant leadership scores with project performance and customer satisfaction.Results: The results show that servant leadership is significantly related to three project performance measures(perceptions of performance contribution and sales contribution, and actual project profits) in the current team-level sample. Results also indicate that the clients’ perception of customer satisfaction shows a mediating effect in the process of servant leadership affecting sales contribution of project performance.Conclusion: The present study empirically confirms that servant leadership plays a major role in enhancing project performance on team level analysis. The results suggest that servant leadership increases customer satisfaction since the project managers serve and care for their team members which translate into effective customer service. Theoretical and practical implications are reviewed, and limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are addressed.

Although prior studies increased our understanding of the performance implications of new product development (NPD) team members' functional backgrounds and demographic variables, they remained relatively silent on the impact of underlying psychological characteristics such as the team members' cognitive styles on project performance. The goal of this study is to explore the effects of NPD teams' cognitive styles on project performance in different kinds of NPD projects. Based on survey data from members of 95 NPD teams gathered in four Dutch manufacturing companies, hypotheses about the relationships between teams' cognitive styles and project performance of radical and incremental NPD projects are tested. Results of linear regression analyses show that the level of teams' analytical information processing positively affects project performance in both incremental and radical NPD projects, whereas the relationship between the level of teams' intuitive information processing and project performance depends on the radicalness of the project. These findings contribute to the academic discussion on team innovation, suggesting that, next to demographic and functional characteristics, cognitive styles in teams also significantly influence project performance.

Regarding the COVID-19 situation, the purpose of this study was to compare the efficiency and outcomes of information technology (IT) project implementation in the office versus in a remote environment with respect to factors such as productivity, effective teamwork, enjoyment of work, stress and pressure management, and opinions on working styles. The focus was mainly on the role of team members in the engineering mindset. Data was collected through a survey of IT project performance from team members. The questionnaire, which was developed for this study, included 105 respondents and was divided into three parts: 1) general information, 2) project performance results, and 3) engineering mindset concept. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The results of the study indicated that there are significant differences in outcomes between project managers and other team members (such as developers, business analysts, and quality assurance) in terms of the studied factors, Project managers who need to communicate and collaborate with various team members may face challenges or limitations when working remotely. On the other hand, other roles in the project team that can be completed independently and do not require frequent communication with the rest of the team may find remote work more convenient and flexible. Importantly, the survey results also demonstrated that a team member's engineering mindset is a critical factor in the success or failure of projects. Those with a strong engineering mindset tend to implement and deliver projects effectively. Therefore, IT projects are more likely to be successful when the team has a good engineering mindset.

The general objective of this research was to assess the risk management process and project performance. The descriptive research design with a mixed qualitative and quantitative approach was used to a sample of 118 respondents selected from 168 target population using stratified sampling technique and Sloven’s formula. SPSS Statistical software was used in the analysis of the collected data into descriptive statistics by the help of mean and standard deviation. The inferential statistics were also analyzed as regression and correlation analysis. The results of this research have shown that project risk identification and performance of Mpazi channel construction project has a highly positive and significant relationship, with a coefficient of correlation of 0.970 and sig=.000, which is less than 0.05 level significance. The correlation results have also revealed r=0.979 and sig=0.00 which is less than 0.05 level of significance, hence proving a highly positive and significant relationship between project risk management strategy and performance of Mpazi channel construction project. The correlation results have also shown an r =0.985 and sig=0.00 which is less than 0.05 proving significant and positive relationship between project risk plan response and Mpazi Channel construction project performance. The research also found that a combination of project risk identification, risk management plan and risk plan response contributed to 97.5 percent (R2= 0.975) of the Mpazi Channel construction project success. Thus, the researcher concluded that the project risk management procedure has an impact on the performance of the Mpazi Channel construction project. Basing on the findings of the study, researcher recommends that a formal and planned project risk management procedure should be implemented throughout project planning to key construction personnel, support staff, and laborers. Keywords: Project Risk Management Process, Project Performance, Construction, Rwanda

Although the Earned Value Method (EVM), a multi-dimensional project control system, has been widely used since 1960, there has been little research focused specifically on its application in IS implementation. The management of IS projects--including the accurate forecasting of project duration--is complicated by the strong impact of the learning curve on the effectiveness of EVM. This study makes new contributions by advancing formulas for the accurate prediction of project duration, and by developing a decision support model in which the learning curve is fully integrated with EVM, and performance changes due to learning are isolated from other factors affecting project duration. The study makes three contributions to the understanding and use of EVM in IS implementation: (1) It provides an extended version of EVM, (2) it provides an illustration of the application of EVM to a real project situation based on empirical data from an ERP implementation project, and (3) it provides a theoretical basis for empirical studies of IS project control techniques. The decision support model can be used to determine both the learning curve coefficient and the project completion date during the early stages of a project, and it thus offers a significant practical contribution to the management of IS projects.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to emphasise the importance of high levels of trust and collaboration for increasing the likelihood of project management (PM) success. However, the link between these three constructs remains unclear.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the authors use structural equation modelling (SEM) based on the findings from an international survey of 151 project practitioners to demonstrate the significance of project team trust and collaboration for increasing the likelihood of PM success.FindingsThe results indicate that PM success becomes more likely as the degree of collaboration improves which, in turn, is influenced by an increase in the level of trust between team members. The two factors of PM success are project performance and knowledge integration and innovation. The six factors of the degree of collaboration that were studied are physical proximity, commitment, conflict, coordination, relationships and incentives. The three factors of the level of trust investigated are expectations, knowledge exchange and imported trust.Practical implicationsThe results of the study are expected to provide insight for project practitioners to increase the likelihood of PM success by taking cognisance of the factors that influence collaboration and trust. The results of the study may also provide insight into teaching and learning in tertiary education, in terms of professionalism and integrity issues.Originality/valueThis paper presents a new perspective for investigating PM success. SEM techniques are used to determine the likelihood of PM success by promoting trust and collaboration in the project team. This unique approach highlights the “human factors” that influence perceived PM success which should benefit both researchers and practitioners.