Analysing and Comparing IT Project Failures: A Case Study Approach

This case study provides a comparative analysis of IT project failures, focusing on Queensland Health in the Southern Hemisphere and packaged software implementation failures at Cambridge and RMIT Universities. The analysis examines factors such as executive support, governance, user involvement, project management, and resource allocation. Key issues identified include poor project management, lack of organizational engagement, and inadequate risk management. The study draws from auditor reports, royal commission findings, and witness statements to highlight the financial and societal implications of these failures, emphasizing the need for strong project managers, robust control systems, and thorough user acceptance testing. Desklib offers this case study along with a wide range of academic resources to aid students in their studies.

Title Page
Comparing and analysing case studies
"The Largest Admitted IT Project Failure in
the Southern Hemisphere: A Teaching Case" and ""Lessons from
the Packaged Enterprise Application Software “Go Live”
Failures at Cambridge and RMIT Universities"
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Introduction
Rebekah Eden and Darshana Sedera has stated that the implementation of project failure at
Queensland Health is seen one of the greatest IS failure. This has been happening at the southern
hemisphere till date. It has costed about 1.25 billion AUD. The authors highlights the significance of
the systematic analysis of the project failure.
On the other hand, Peter B. Seddon has explored the causes for the various going-live
failures while deploying packaged software. This has been for the case of student administration
system. The expense was of about 12 million dollars at the RMIT University. This took place during
2001. Further, the Cambridge University’s financial system that has been Oracle based. It occurred
during 2000.
Executive Support
In the first case, the main reason behind the issues at the universities has been the
assimilation of poor project management, poor project governance and lack of organizational
engagement with user involvement at respective projects. The executive support from the paper has
been the explaining of the reasons behind the issues due to those couple of case-study business.
This has also involved the ways they have led those huge issues to move to live scenario.
In the second case, the executive support has been the illustration of various factors
contributing to the project of the disastrous implementation at Queensland. Further, there has been
the project of health disastrous deployment. This has been also used to investigate the wider
applications of the failure of the project. It has been on the state and various national legislations
with studying the industry sectors. These teaching notes ad case narrative has been suitable for the
postgraduate and undergraduate students who have been learning the project management and IS
subjects.
Sound Governance
In the first case the Queensland Government has comprised of predominantly three kinds of
organizations. They are government departments and agencies. Then, there has been common
statutory bodies and government owned corporations. Here, all of them has been reporting to the
Treasury of Queensland State and respective ministers at the Queensland Parliament. Having the
government elections happening at the Queensland states happening all the years, corporate goals
and ministers has been changing to become reflective to the strategies of the political party resent in
power.
For the second case, a survey is done on about 400 members of the PMI. This is to
determine the factors of critical project success. It has been on the basis of the study on 35,00
projects. They have emphasized on the significance of the contextual factors and the factor external
the project to gain the project success.

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User Involvement
At the first case the Queensland Health has involved the staff members. They were end
users of the systems. They has been taking place during the project implementation. Next, the IB M
has been the prime contractor of the project. Lastly, there has been the CorpTech who are liable for
controlling the role of prime contractor. In the second case, the executive sponsors has been
providing the legitimacy of the project. They has been providing the project’s vision. Here, they have
been supplying the funding and various important resources and choose the sponsors. It has been
vital for the executives for the vested interest for successful results. Secondly, the project managers
has been supporting the executive sponsors for bringing he project to be fruitful.
Experienced Project Manager
For the first case, the project managers has been liable to see the project with the help of
successful completion. They have been motivating and mediating as needed. It has been more about
managing risks than managing the people. In the second case, the fostering of collaborations or
reporting tools with the file sharing, chat and additional means has been tagging the discussions at
the task levels. As it requires the systems at proper place for facilitating commutations. The tools are
helpful to connect the in group settings and one-to-one like presentations and meetings.
Clear Business Objectives
For the first case, there has been the following objectives.
 Receiving and remaining to be profitable.
 Productivity of resources and people
 Employee retention and attraction
 Core values that are mission driven
In the second case the objectives has been the following:
 Remaining ahead of competition
 Reaching proper customers
 Dealing with the changes
 Making sustainable growth
Firm Basic Requirements
For the first case they have included the following.
 Employees who are taught for thinking such as innovators.
 Shared and sharp definition of innovations
 Metrics of comprehensive innovation.
In the second case they have involved the following:
 Capable and accountable innovation leaders
 Processes that has been innovation-friendly

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Organizational Commitment to Change
For the first case it has involved the affection to job like affective commitments. On the
other hand, there has been sense of obligations of staying or normative commitment.
Here, both the models has been helpful for the people in experiencing the affective
commitments. It is to assure that one never misuse the normative and affective commitments for
keeping the people tied to the organization or team. In both the case studies the team has been
functioning the best as they use their energy to develop the organizational commitments to
affective.
Adequate Resources
The resources in the first case are the assets. Here, the primary role has been to carry out
particular project or tasks. The resources has been time and finances. On the other hand, tools and
people are considered in the second place. Here, most of projects needed various resources for get
completed. The resources has been allocated and analysed prior the project begins. Nonetheless,
poor resource planning has been resulting to run out resources at the midway of the project. It has
also involved delaying deadlines and delivering the ultimate services and products.
Flexibility
The flexibility of the project management at the first case has been permitting the managers
to become consistently organize the resources and workloads. In the second case, they has been
evenly spreading the toughs and peaks in staggering and demands .It has made the cash flows and
schedule to become constant and the overall lives to be stressful. Apart from this, the PMOs has
been finding themselves to manage various projects at the same time. It has been through design
instead of the convenience. Here, the benefits has been clear. Here, more projects can be run by the
business. Here, more revenue has been accruing and quicker they has been growing.
Clear Communication
For the first case, there has been push communication. Here, the data has been passed to
the recipients. Here, the feedbacks has not needed immediately. Here, the project managers has
been using the communication medium to send the meeting notes and additional data. Thus they
are able to use the mechanism or passing data to the stakeholders with the help of press release. In
the second the case, the pull communication has been effective. It has been proper the large-scale
audiences, who are found to access the data at the individual convenient time.
Managing Stakeholders
For the first case, there has been high need of development of various in-depth plans
with important milestones. This is needed to get approved by top management. This is
during the design and planning phase of the current project. The top management is needed

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to be relate to the project for the data and reporting frequency and needs for the second
case. Here, the methodology of status reporting has been created. It is required for getting
distributed on the scheduled basis. They must be informed about the risk of projects and
potential effects at every time.
Vendor Support
The first case the following supports are required.
 Development the strategy of vendor management
 Developing criteria or vendor selection
 Creating bid document
In the second case the following supers are needed:
 Managing vendor relationship
 Negotiating contracts
Conclusion
In the initial case, they have examined the organization case details, auditor report, royal
commission report and various statements of about 120 witness statements. They have pertained to
the implementation project of Queensland Health. Apart from this there has been inconvenience for
various students and staffs. This occurred during the initial couple of years of implementation. Here,
the projects ended up to cost up to about 50 million pounds and 9 million pounds respectively.
Besides, in the second case, the systems has been implemented subsequently and appearing to run
in satisfactory way. It asides the societal and financial implications. These are related to failure of
implementation of Queensland Health. It has been national and consisted of industry wide
ramifications. Till any senior manager appoints the strong project managers, it has been establishing
smart control system. This is to control the progress of the important projects. It has been insisting
and robust user acceptances to test prior going live. This has consisted of the important issues.

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