tailieunhanh - IT Project Management from a Systems Thinking Perspective

The Master of Business Administration will enhance student analytical skills related to management, people, markets, finance, and technical knowledge. Graduates will be able to solve complex organisational problems and be able to manage change through the mastery of particular skills related to creativity, information literacy, and self-reflection. The program focuses on how to demonstrate leadership in global sustainability and how to understand the nature of ethical decisions across contemporary business practice. The MBA program will enable graduates to work in virtual and non-traditional work environments and increase personal mastery in oral and written communication | IT Project Management from a Systems Thinking Perspective Pascal van Eck Maria Laura Ponisio University of Twente Department of Computer Science . Box 217 7500 AE Enschede The Netherlands @ Abstract Purpose - We proposes a Systems Thinking approach to the study of IT project management and show how this approach helps project managers in controlling their projects. Systems Thinking is a holistic problem solving method in which system behaviour emerges from the interaction of system components. Design methodology approach - To illustrate our proposal we present an example model of the dynamics of IT outsourcing projects. The example model explains these dynamics in terms of feedback loops consisting of causal relations reported in the outsourcing literature. Findings - The model provides insight in how coordination trust information exchange and possibilities for opportunistic behaviour influence each other and together influence delivery quality which in turn influences trust. Practical implications - The integration of these insights provided by applying the Systems Thinking perspective helps project managers to reason about how their choices influence project outcome and therefore to better control their projects. Research implications - From the viewpoint of academic research we discuss how the Systems Thinking perspective can serve as an additional tool in the study of IT project management and how results obtained in a specific case can be generalized. To develop methods and tools specific for IT project management applying the Systems Thinking perspective also calls for additional research in which this perspective is itself the object of study. Originality value - The value of our proposed approach is that it provides a way to integrate isolated theoretical insights into a practical tool for project control. Keywords Systems Thinking Systems Dynamics IT Project Management IT Outsourcing Coordination Trust 1 Introduction Many