Neeraj Parolia

The presence and development of competency in IT programs

Information technology (IT) programs are coordinated IT projects with a common business objective or underlying similar theme. Driving success in an IT program requires that the projects all work to achieve more global organizational goals than those of each individual project. These goals are better achieved in the presence of critical program team competences that include personnel development, dissemination of methodologies, and a key customer focus. These competences need to be developed to promote higher program performance where programs are dedicated to achieving business objectives of an organization. We propose a model based on the human resource model that considers the development of the critical competences when essential self and social competences are present in team members. Participation mechanisms of interpersonal cooperation and mutual support assist in the development of the critical competences. The model is supported by data collected from both quantitative survey and qualitative interviews with matched pairs of IT program managers and IT project managers. The results confirm the need to insure the presence of certain competences in team members and the construction of an environment that builds mutual support and cooperation. The human resource model is thus extended to include the inter-team environment of IT programs and further variables important to vendor competence.

Conflict resolution effectiveness on the implementation efficiency and achievement of business objectives in IT programs

ContextThe information technology (IT) field presents a unique context for the management of multiple projects because of the variety of stakeholders involved, the complexity of interdependencies among projects, and the frequent use of external vendors. In practice, IT vendors typically employ advanced project governance techniques such as program management to work effectively with the numbers and variety of clients while still pursuing the benefits of a single oversight. These structural features lend themselves to conflict across teams with individual requirements. However, little research exists on program management, much less in the IT context, that represents conflict across IT project teams. ObjectiveIn this study, the effectiveness of conflict resolution on the implementation efficiency and fulfillment of business objectives is studied through the lens of constructive controversy theories. A number of hypotheses are derived by tailoring the constructive conflict resolution concepts to IT context and making a comprehensive literature review to identify the mediator and dependent variables. A model is developed to consider the management of conflict across multiple projects combined into a single program. MethodA quantitative questionnaire related to the program environment was developed for five variables to include conflict resolution, cognition-based trust, interpersonal cooperation, business objectives and implementation efficiency. The hypotheses were tested by performing a survey study, where a number of well-established measures in the literature were used. 92 paired responses from program teams in 38 organizations located in India were obtained and represent a variety of individual characteristics, and program sizes. ResultsThis study identified the composite role of constructive conflict resolution and cognition-based trust in improving interpersonal cooperation. The impacts of constructive conflict resolution on business objectives were not fully mediated by cognition-based trust and interpersonal cooperation, although implementation efficiency is fully mediated. ConclusionThe management of conflict promotes trust and interpersonal cooperation necessary to improve the efficient completion of the program and benefits to the organization.

Exploring the Impact of Team based Reward on Project Performance in Outsourced System Development

Outsourcing system development to international information technology vendors working in project teams can notably facilitate the successful implementation of client information system development ISD projects. Reward structures in such culturally different environments, however, are not well defined or understood. The authors examined the effects of team performance based reward structures on ISD project performance. A total of 194 responses were solicited, obtained, and analyzed. The results indicated that reward based on team performance can improve the level of task cohesion which in turn facilitates increased information utilization. Both task cohesion and information utilization enhance project performance. Directions for management practice and future research are discussed.