Lin, A.Y. and Parinyavuttichai, N. (2015) IS Project Risks as Emergent Phenomena: Towards a Model of Risk Escalation and its Management. Australasian Journal of Information Systems , 19. pp. 1-22. ISSN 1449-8618
Abstract
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 factorbased approach. While it remains a valuable tool for mapping anticipated risks the factorbased approach is less effective when viewing project risks as emergent phenomena that unfold during the course of the project, and require ongoing attention and risk management. Informed 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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015 Lin & Parinyavuttichai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Australia License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and AJIS are credited. |
Keywords: | information systems project management; risk; risk management; risk escalation; project escalation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Information School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 04 Mar 2016 09:35 |
Last Modified: | 04 Mar 2016 09:39 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3127/ajis.v19i0.929 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Australasian Association for Information Systems |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3127/ajis.v19i0.929 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:95890 |
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