A framework for the life cycle management of information technology projects: ProjectIT

Abstract

As international competition continues to intensify, significant numbers of organisations are investing large amounts of resources into information and communication technologies as they seek to gain competitive advantage. Information Technology (IT) is increasingly being implemented for strategic reasons, so as to enable improved efficiency and to improve the control and productivity of internal processes. However, the failure of realising expected IT-induced benefits has led to a growing number of senior executives to question the value of IT investments. This research study was inspired by the perceived lack of a structured framework for the life cycle management of innovative IT projects (ProjectIT). Such a framework consists of three modules representing each phase of the IT project life cycle, namely, IT project selection (SelectIT), strategic IT implementation (ImplementIT) and IT performance evaluation (EvaluateIT). Moreover, industry practitioners require a user-friendly software tool to assist them to undertake this arduous task. This paper provides a description of each module of the ProjectIT framework and the current progress towards the development of the companion software package. ProjectIT should assist firms to rapidly select IT projects based on a range of monetary and non-monetary benefits and risks, implement these projects in a well-planned strategic manner and evaluate the short- and long-term value generated from them.