IT Project Implementation Failures Free Essays

Before an IT project can begin, the acquisition process must be successful. Once the implementation process beings, however; many things can start to go wrong because there are many factors and people involved that may not work together. Although the acquisition process is very stressful and important too, the implementation of planning a project and choosing the right team to do the job is not always as easy as it sounds. We will write a custom essay sample on IT Project Implementation Failures or any similar topic only for you Order Now As hard as it may be to effectively navigate through these potential failures, project failures such as the ones illustrated in the case study, Memorial Health System CPOE Implementation, can be evaded. At the beginning of the implementation process, Fred Dryer and Joe Roberts agreed and established a plan to get the CPOE system effectively enough for the staff and other employees to use. Stakeholders did not agree with Dryer and Roberts that this system would be meaningful and eventually disagreed with them. This must be a common problem with the implementation process, because it is very difficult to get so many people to work together cohesively. The organization undergoing the IT process must be a cohesive unit in believing in the project as well as being on the same page about what needs to happen. Since the stakeholders have too much power in the process, Roberts and Dryer left the project. The other project failure demonstrates the difficulty of choosing the right team members and management personnel to effectively run the project. The interim CIO, Melvin Sparks, was, to put it mildly, the wrong person for the job. He illustrated many of the project failures. He was unable to effectively communicate with his staff, made decisions that negatively affected the project and ultimately committed a huge mistake by changing the scope of the project during the implementation process. The project manager in the case study was yelled at to give good news or no news at all to Sparks. Not only is it completely inappropriate for CIO to yell at staff, but communication is integral in the implementation process, whether it is good news or bad. Changing the scope of the project during the implementation process creates chaos. A good acquisition process will create an environment where large deviations from the initial project scope are not accepted. Another vital problem in the case study was the lack of testing done on the system. Testing assures the team of the functionality as well as the problems that may arise from the system, and gives time to fix it. Sparks created no confidence in the team and showed none in the initial project. Conclusion: The case study’s project failures could have probably been avoided. The main job of the implementation team, besides implementing the project, should be to create a strong team with strong management and staff. Without this backbone, the process is doomed from the start. There are steps and procedures that can be implemented in order to avoid these types of failures in the future. I would recommend cross-training between management to insure everyone knows what steps to take in order to have a successful IT project. How to cite IT Project Implementation Failures, Papers It Project Implementation Failures Free Essays IT Project Implementation Failures By: Jennifer Dobelstein University of Phoenix Professor: Jason Koller System implementation starts as soon as an organization has acquired the system and continues through the early stages that will follow through to when the day comes where the system can be in use by everyone! Also, the system means applying the plan that is discussed with the team and implementing all the factors together. An implantation process can most defiantly differ from one organization to another one. I am going to explain a short overview of what the implementation process is. We will write a custom essay sample on It Project Implementation Failures or any similar topic only for you Order Now First off, there has to be a team in this process. The team will consist of: Physician, Nurse Manager, Lab Manager, Radiology Director, CIO, IT Analyst, and a Business Manager. Evaluating the strategic plan for the process is good because this way everyone can hear each other’s thoughts and plan accordingly to the plan. Evaluating is a key factor because you must evaluate and figure out more information in creating a plan. The second part of the process is creating a vision for the team so that everyone can work up to that vision and make it a success. Thirdly is to select team members to help implement this plan. Fourth are the schedule meetings to discuss the progress and discuss concerns if any have arisen/and discuss progress reports. Lastly but not least, making sure that upper management is involved in this process if needed. The roles and responsibilities that can be involved in system implementation can be identifying different strengths and weaknesses of the different types of implementing partners. Also, figuring out what types of capacity building the project needs to plan for and selecting the criteria for implanting partners in this plan. The process described in this case study did fail to include the fundamental activities. Some of the fundamental activities that should have been included are: organizing the implementation team and to identify the system champion. Another is to establish and institute a project plan and to determine a project scope and what the expectations are. In this case study, the process seemed rushed and some of the key workflow and system integration were missed. That also means there were twelve months left to complete this project which is not a lot of time. Their resources were getting smaller and had to start being budgeted, so the team got reduced and meant more work for the remaining team members. The project budget was already consumed, two months before being launched. Requirements were not met because of lack of the end-sure training that should have been done. Causes of the project failures can stem from many different things like: lacking clarity and purpose which was noticeable in this case study. This case study lacks clarity and purpose because it seemed this whole project was rushed with no help and hardly a purpose. Then the project kept getting behind each month and the communication was not good at all. Lack of believing in the project is also a project failure. In the case study, Sparks was not happy with the news that was brought to his attention and his attitude made it seem like he just did not believe in the project anymore. There was not enough leadership support and that was a huge problem. It seemed like Martin did not have any support in the project implementation. For each one of the indicators that I mentioned above, I defiantly would had done some things different. First off, I would had made sure that the project plan was clear from the beginning and made sure that there were meetings held regularly to discuss changes or questions. I would have had full faith in my organization with little to no doughts. I say even when things are not going their best, having a positive attitude will increase chances of succeeding. Also, I would make sure that there is enough people on the team and that budgeting was being done correctly. Making sure that the team is being supportive as well and helping is a must I would had done differently. Without leadership support, it is extremely difficult to stay on top and focused. How to cite It Project Implementation Failures, Essay examples