Towards a regional ontology for information systems project management

The extant research literature on Information Systems (IS) project management illustrates that there is considerable confusion about the true nature of IS project management. The bewilderment is expressed in a number of ways. Practitioners are reporting that there is considerable mismatch between the prescribed practices they are socialised into and their actual experiences of project work. Appropriately, there are also debates about what constitutes project success and about what factors influence project success and failure. Whilst these fundamentals are being debated there are also concerns expressed about the lack of adequate underlying theoretical constructs to give coherence to the kinds of questions raised. As the essence of IS project management is being debated there is evidence suggesting that the project-driven organisational form is growing in popularity. Together with the concerns there are proposals being offered as alternatives to improve understanding of project management. The review undertaken in this thesis illustrates that alternatives are emerging despite the existence of an entrenched value system that makes society prone to unwittingly accept and be attracted to the adoption of best practices such as PMBOK, which is central to the debate taking place in IS project management.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Information Systems

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Sewchurran, Kosheek

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Smith, Derek
• Roode, JD

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11176

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/11176