How user risk and requirements risk moderate the effects of formal and informal control on the process performance of IT projects

Abstract

Improving the management of information technology (IT) projects is of prime concern to both IS researchers and practitioners, as IT projects are notorious for poor process performance, frequently running over budget and behind schedule. Over the years, at least two separate streams of research have emerged with the aim of contributing to our understanding of IT project management. One of these focuses on the exercise of formal and informal controls, while another focuses on identifying and managing key risks such as those associated with requirements and users. Proponents of the control stream would argue that the exercise of formal and informal controls can improve process performance and there is some evidence that this is so. An obvious question that emerges, however, is how effective these controls are in the presence of particular risks. In this study, we seek to answer this question by developing and testing a research model that integrates these two streams of research. On the basis of data collected from 63 completed IT projects in China, we examine the moderating effects of requirements risk and user risk on the relationship between control (both formal and informal) and the process performance of IT projects. We contribute to the current state of knowledge by clearly demonstrating that both types of risk moderate the effects of formal and informal controls on performance. Specifically, both requirements risk and user risk were found to reduce the positive influence of controls on process performance, implying that implementing solid controls is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition to ensure good process performance.

Keywords:

• IT project management
• formal and informal controls
• requirements risk
• user risk
• process performance

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark Keil

About the authors

Mark Keil is the John B. Zellars Professor of Computer Information Systems in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. His research focuses on IT project management and includes work on preventing IT project escalation, identifying and managing IT project risks, and improving IT project status reporting. His interests also include IT implementation and use. Keil has published more than 100 refereed publications including papers that have appeared in MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Decision Sciences, Strategic Management Journal, and many other journals. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, and the Information Systems Journal. He has also served on the editorial boards of MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems.

Arun Rai

Arun Rai is the Regents’ Professor and the Harkins’ Chair of Information Systems at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. He has published over 170 refereed articles, including 80 journal articles in outlets such as Decision Sciences, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Information Systems Research, Journal of the Association of Information Systems, Journal of Management Information Systems, Management Science, and MIS Quarterly. He has served as a Senior Editor for Information Systems Research and Journal of Strategic Information Systems, as an Associate Editor for Decision Sciences, Journal of Management Information Systems, Management Science, Information Systems Research, and MIS Quarterly, and as an editorial board member for IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management and Journal of the Association for Information Systems. He has served as a Guest Editor for journal special issues, including the Information Systems Research 2007 Special Issue on the Digitally Enabled Extended Enterprise.

Shan Liu

Shan Liu currently works at School of Management in Huazhong University of Science and Technology as a post-doc. He holds a Ph.D. from the School of Management in Huazhong University of Science and Technology of China. His main research interests focus on IT project management with particular emphasis on software risk management and IT project control. He earned his Bachelor's degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and he was a visiting research scholar in the Department of Computer Information Systems in the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.