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Chp 14. Healthcare Information Systems.

Understanding IT Initiative Failures

Project failure occurs when a project is significantly over budget, takes much longer than the estimated timeline, or has to be terminated because so many problems have occurred that proceeding is no longer judged to be viable. The project failure rates suggest that management should be more worried about IT implementation than IT strategy. IT strategy is sexier and more visionary than implementation. However, a very large number of strategies and visions go nowhere or are diminished because the organization is unable to implement them. Why is this failure rate so high? What happens?Here are several classes of barriers that hinder large IT projects:

⁃ Lack of Clarity of Purpose - Any project or initiative is destined for trouble if its objectives and purpose are unclear. Sometimes the purpose of a project is only partially clear.

⁃ Lack of Belief in the Project - At times the objectives are very clear, but the members of the organization are not convinced that the project is worth doing at all.

⁃ Insufficient Leadership Support - The organization’s leaders may be committed to the undertaking yet not demonstrate that commitment.

⁃ Organizational Inertia - Even when the organization is willing to engage in a project, inertia can hinder it. People are busy. They are stressed. They have jobs to do. Some of the changes are threatening. Staff may believe these changes leave them less skilled or less instrumental or with reduced power. Or they may not have a good understanding of their work life after the change, and they may imagine that an uncertain outcome cannot be a good outcome.

⁃ Organizational Baggage - Organizations have baggage. Baggage comes in many forms. Some organizations have no history of competence in making significant organizational change. They have never learned how to mobilize the organization’s members. They do not know how to handle conflict. They are unsure...