Lecture 2 - Implementation, Configuration (And Failures) Flashcards
Implementation - What is that? Mention the 5 bullet points from the slide.
Source: Walsham, G. 1993 - Interpreting information systems in organisations.
1) An IS is a complex technical and organizational innovation involving far more than just an adoption decision or hardware installation
2) IS implementation is project oriented
3) IS is often developed through cooperation of internal and external parties
4) Both small and large organizations
5) IS is intended to affect organizational functioning to a significant degree
What is the definition of Implementation?
Source: Walsham, G. 1993 - Interpreting information systems in organisations.
“an on-going process which includes the entire development of the system from the original suggestion through the feasibility study, systems analysis and design, programming, training, conversion, and installation of the system”
What is the definition of Change Processes?
Source: Walsham 1993; p. 223
“change process can be facilitated and influenced by actions and activities aimed at producing new social structures, involving such elements as revised interpretative schemes on the nature and importance or work activities, or changed norms and values regarding the function and importance of the work of particular
stakeholder groups to the organization”
Source: Walsham 1993; p. 223
An information system consists of:
Source: Lektion 2, slide 10 (Billede)
Activity system Human activity system Information system Information technology system Source: Lektion 2, slide 10 (Billede)
Which factors are Change Processes influenced by?
Source: Lektion 2, Model on slide 11
(Kilde: http://net2change.dk/dit-netvaerk/viden-om-forandring/ForandringsTeori/Leavitt-Ry-modellen)
Surrounding world History Vision/Values/Goals Compensation systems Physical environment Culture Technology Task Structure Actors
Explain the four phases in an ERP life cycle, identified by Markus & Tannis (2000)
1.Chartering
› Decisions defining the business case and solution constraints
2.Project
› Getting the system and end users up and running
3.Shakedown
› Stabilizing, elimination “bugs”, getting to normal operations
4.Onward and upward
› Maintaining systems, supporting users, getting results, upgrading, system extensions
What are the four IS failure concepts, and how do they differ from each other?
Source: Lyytinen, K., & Hirschheim, R. (1987). Information systems failures-a survey and classification of the empirical literature.
- Table 1. Four Failure Notions
- Correspondence failure
- Process failure
- Intraction failure
- Expectation failure
Explain the new concept: Expectation Failure, in the article: Lyytinen, K., & Hirschheim, R. (1987). Information systems failures-a survey and classification of the empirical literature.
This concept catches up on the missing parts of the three traditional failure concepts, which naively forgets environmental, economic and historical factors together with softer aspects such as culture, people and the underlying values.
What are the eight useful criteria for failure to use for comparing and determining the concepts?
Source: Lyytinen, K., & Hirschheim, R. (1987). Information systems failures-a survey and classification of the empirical literature.
- Dimentionality
- Type of measurement scale
- Nature of assessment
- Temporal aspect of assessment
- Nature of assessment technique
- Assessment time frame
- Assessment participants
- Nature of assessment process
The article classifies failures into four different domains to identify different failure types regarding both development and use of IS. Mention these four domains:
Source: Lyytinen, K., & Hirschheim, R. (1987). Information systems failures-a survey and classification of the empirical literature.
The four domains are:
- Organizational
- User
- Data
- Technical
These four domains are not enough for identifying all the IS failure types or their underlying reasons. Additionally, interaction are identified as interference problems, and stakeholder concerns over the processes are identified as development problems.
Mention the 4 categories of classic mistakes:
Source: Nelson, R. R. (2007). IT Project Management: Infamous Failures, Classic Mistakes, and Best Practices.
- people(43%)
- product(8%)
- process(45%)
- technology(4%)
Try and see if you can explain what this article is overall about: Nelson, R. R. (2007). IT Project Management: Infamous Failures, Classic Mistakes, and Best Practices.
In recent years, IT project failures have received a great deal of attention in the press as well as the boardroom. In an attempt to avoid disasters going forward, many organizations are now learning from the past by conducting retrospectives—that is, project postmortems or post-implementation reviews. While each individual retrospective tells a unique story and contributes to organizational learning, even more insight can be gained by examining multiple retrospectives across a variety of organizations over time. This research aggregates the knowledge gained from 99 retrospectives conducted in 74 organizations over the past seven years. It uses the findings to reveal the most common mistakes and suggest best practices for more effective project management.
Source: Executive summary from the article by Nelson
Try and see if you can explain what this article is overall about: Lyytinen, K., & Hirschheim, R. (1987). Information systems failures-a survey and classification of the empirical literature.
Summary:
The article provides a literature review, which results in the formation of the new concept expectation failure. This concept catches up on the missing parts of the three traditional failure concepts, which naively forgets environmental, economic and historical factors together with softer aspects such as culture, people and the underlying values.
The article lists eight useful criteria for failure to use for comparing and determining the concepts.
The article classifies failures into four different domains to identify different failure types regarding both development and use of IS. The four domains are organizational, user, data, and technical, respectively. These four domains are not enough for identifying all the IS failure types or their underlying reasons. Additionally, interaction are identified as interference problems, and stakeholder concerns over the processes are identified as development problems.
It is not enough to identify the failure type as a single event since it might be originated from failures’ affection on each other which reveals deeper connections across the domains and failures types.
From this article it is concluded that any IS has something that works and something that does not work. It depends on the person you ask, because each person has its own perception of whether “the IS failure” is positive or negative. Therefore, it is important to focus on critical factors for IS which include stakeholder mapping, problem mapping, linking the problem map to the failure reasons, and finally make an agenda for the IS use and development process.
Source: Group presentation document
The paper describes in detail 7 classic mistakes and recommends a set of best practices to avoid them. Mention these mistakes and some of the best practices:
Source: Nelson, R. R. (2007). IT Project Management: Infamous Failures, Classic Mistakes, and Best Practices.
- Avoiding Poor Estimating and/or Scheduling
- Avoiding Ineffective Stakeholder Management
- Avoiding Insufficient Risk Management
- Avoding Insufficient Planning
- Avoiding Shortchanging Quality Assurance
- Avoiding Weak Personnel and/or Team Issues
- Avoiding Insufficient Project Sponsorship
Best practices:
Some of the recommended best practices include agile development, project management office, and conducting retrospectives:
Explain what the Project Phase Model (PPM) consists of.
Source: Shanks, 2000: A model of ERP project Implementation
The PPM consists of two concepts: implementation
phases and critical success factors.
p. 291
