تناسب بین تئوری مدیریت ریسک و عمل در فروشنده هنگ کنگی : هدایت پروژه های IT

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study comparing risk management practice of project managers from Hong Kong IT vendor firms, with theoretical prescriptions. Prescriptions and practice were closely aligned at pre-sales stages, but there was substantial variation during project implementation. The hand-over from pre-sales to implementation teams was often a weak link, with project managers failing to follow-up risk management plans prepared at pre-sales stage. In particular, gaps in the management of contingencies added to schedule and budget to address specific risks suggest that firms may not be fully benefiting from the contingency planning prepared at pre-sales stage. The importance of ensuring that risk assessors at pre-sales stage were independent of the implementation team was highlighted, but it was noted that this practice might compound the problem of ensuring on-going risk monitoring by removing the implementation manager’s sense of ownership of the risk management plan.

Reports about problems with IT projects have appeared regularly in the popular and academic literature for over 30 years, including several well-publicized major failures [1] and [2]. Risk management practice has been identified as one critical factor for project management success [3] and [4], and with the growing demand for high quality of service and delivery in IT projects, appropriate practice for management and containment of risk in these projects has become increasingly important.

Risk management of IT projects is a critical process for all organizations, and while there is a substantial body of knowledge supporting project managers in this area, some authors e.g. [5], [6] and [8] have suggested that failure to apply this knowledge in practice has contributed to past IT project failures. In this study, the areas of congruence identified between practice and theory contribute to our understanding about when and how risk management prescriptions are applied in practice. On the other hand, the areas of variance highlight some potential areas of weakness that warrant further investigation.