Case Study and IT Research: Key Reasons for IT Implementation Failure

Running Head: CASE STUDY 1
Assignment 3: Case study and IT Research
Student name
Course
Affiliation/University

CASE STUDY 2
1. What were the key reasons for the
IT implementation failure?
There are many reasons that lead to
IT implementation failure. However, the
following are key reasons:
 Poor documentation of requirements.
Requirement collection is the first
procedure for project development.
Therefore, it determines success or
failure of a project (Marchewka,
2014). Regarding Queensland Health
implementation project, system users
had to prepare requirement
documentation. However, it is
evidenced that they failed as there
were other requirements that were
added in system development
process, and afterwards, resulted in
increased cost and time for
implementing the system.
 Unclear responsibilities assigned to
stakeholders. For any project to be
successful, roles and responsibilities
that are assigned to stakeholders
must be defined explicitly (Kerzner,
H. & Kerzner, H. R., 2017).
However, implementation process
began without stating duties and
responsibilities of relevant
stakeholders. This resulted in
confusions, therefore; leading to
project implementation failure.
 Improper management of entire
implementation process. For
instance, lack of specific project
management methodology was also a
problem. For instance, successful
implementation of system requires
choosing best methodology as there
are several, for example, agile and
waterfall methodologies (Wysocki,
2011). Also, system was
implemented in accordance with the
Department of Public housing.
However, this resulted in problems
as there is more complexity in

CASE STUDY 3
Queensland Health. Also, the system
was not tested properly prior to
going-live.
 Communication issues. Lack of
understanding between stakeholders
is one of the main issues resulting in
implementation failure. For instance,
having one objective between
stakeholders is not an option for
successful project implementation
(Kerzner, H. & Kerzner, H. R.,
2017). Regarding Queensland
Health, CorpTech officers doubted
IBM, therefore; resulting in less
faith. Also, other people believed
that IBM had not assigned
responsibilities to its highly-skilled
team rather than less-skilled,
therefore; ineffective communication
contributed vastly to the
implementation failure.
2. In your view, who is responsible
for the failure and why?
In my views, IBM is responsible for
the implementation failure. For instance, it
did not follow any project management
methodology such as agile while
implementing the system. Also, it
underestimated complexity in Queensland
Health. For instance, it has implemented
Workbrain in smaller corporations that have
less complexity as compared to Queensland
Health. Therefore, this resulted in risks
associated with integration of Workbrain,
thus leading to implementation failure.
Regarding complexity, IBM also failed to
understand that Department of housing
solution has less complexity as well as did
not integrated Workbrain, and afterwards,
followed its implementation structure which
resulted in issues. Besides, the entire process
in which IBM was contracted to implement
Queensland Health project is questionable.
Moreover, IBM did not test the system
properly before going-live.