Abstract
M.Com. (Business Management)
Information systems projects are becoming more and more synonymous with failure. Despite this, the capital investment by financial services companies in South Africa in these projects is increasing. A number of studies, both academic and corporate, have been undertaken to address the root causes of failures in information systems projects in South Africa across sectors. Despite these attempts, the problem persists.
For information systems projects, project success varies from organisation to organisation and even from project to project. What is common in these projects is that they are undertaken by project teams. The composition of the project team is essential to the outcome of these projects. For the project to succeed, the project team as a whole has to possess certain competencies that will collectively improve the chances of project success.
This study addresses the problem of the high failure rate of information systems projects in financial services companies in South Africa by looking at the people who are responsible for implementing such projects. This is done by identifying the competencies that are required in each role-player who takes part in these projects in order to improve the success rates of these projects. The approach in this study is holistic in nature, as it addresses the needs of the project team and not the needs of a particular role-player alone.
To pursue the aforementioned, a survey was conducted among information systems professionals within the financial services industry in South Africa. A structured questionnaire method was used to collect data for this purpose.
Overall, the respondents’ responses where role agnostics and biasness were not detected depended on the current role of the respondent. For project managers, respondents agreed that, for a project to have a higher chance of success, a project manager must be able, among other things, to lead people and to manage stakeholders. For business analysts, the respondents stated that, for business analysts to have a positive impact on project success, they need to, among other things, be able to elicit requirements and to communicate clearly and concisely. For software developers, the respondents concurred that a successful software developer must display, among other competencies, creative and futuristic thinking skills, and also show concern for quality. For software testers, respondents agreed that people performing in this role must, among other things, be thorough and accurate in their work.
The study is significant and contributes to both research and practice. The core competencies identified in this study will contribute to existing literature. Also, the framework proposed in this study will be beneficial to organisations and the project community to assist them with the identification of talent, recruitment of that talent, as well as the development and retention of that talent in project roles.