Impediments to Effective Management of Project Interdependencies: A Study of IT/IS Project Portfolios

Sameer Bathallath, Åsa Smedberg and Harald Kjellin
Additional contact information
Sameer Bathallath: Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, Sweden
Åsa Smedberg: Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, Sweden
Harald Kjellin: Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, Sweden

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO), 2017, vol. 15, issue 2, 16-30

Abstract: Interdependencies between projects have come to play a more active role in the decision on IT/IS portfolios and their constituent projects. However, managing these interdependencies can be a complex task, especially when the number and degree of interdependencies among projects are high. In times of uncertainty, unexpected challenges can seriously disrupt projects and, consequently, their interdependencies. This may threaten the project portfolio from achieving its final goal. The study aims to investigate the difficulties associated with managing project interdependence along the development cycle of the project portfolio. The study was conducted using a qualitative approach and semi-structured interviews with managers from four leading organizations in Saudi Arabia. The findings reveal three main categories of factors that increased the difficulty of managing project interdependencies in large IT/IS project portfolios: insufficient understanding of human responsibilities in the whole portfolio, unpredictability of the environment, and technology barriers and constraints.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve. ... 4018/JECO.2017040102 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:igg:jeco00:v:15:y:2017:i:2:p:16-30

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO) is currently edited by Pedro Isaías

More articles in Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO) from IGI Global
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journal Editor ().