DOI: / CONTECSI/PS-588 IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT SUCCESS: THE INFLUENCE OF PROJECT MANAGER COMPETENCIES AND TEAM COMMITMENT

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DOI: 10.5748/9788599693100-11CONTECSI/PS-588

IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT SUCCESS: THE INFLUENCE OF PROJECT MANAGER COMPETENCIES AND TEAM COMMITMENT

Cíntia Cristina Silva de Araújo (Universidade Nove de Julho, São Paulo, Brasil) -

Cristiane Drebes Pedron (Universidade Nove de Julho, São Paulo, Brasil) -

Information technology (IT) project success is a research topic that has received attention of academics and practitioners, at least, in the lasted two decades (Atkinson, 1999; Delone & Mclean, 2002). Organizations have been making increasing investments on IT to improve productivity and quality of processes (Assis, 2011). Despite all research and investments on IT, the rate of failures on this kind of projects is high (The Standish Group, 2013). Two research questions drive this paper: (1) Do project manager competencies influence team commitment to the IT project success? (2) How can the project team’s commitment affect the success (or failure) of an IT project? In order to answer these questions, we did twelve in-depth interviews with IT project managers of different companies. The main findings show that IT professionals believe that soft skills are indeed more important to guarantee project success than technical skills. The research indicated that project managers who developed soft skills can coordinate their teams better and build commitment within team members.

Keywords: IT Project Management Success; Project Manager Competence; Team Commitment; Organizational Commitment.

SUCESSO DE PROJETOS DE TI: A INFLUÊNCIA DAS COMPETÊNCIAS DO GERENTE DE PROJETOS E DO COMPROMETIMENTO DA EQUIPE

Sucesso em projetos de tecnologia da informação (TI) é um tópico de pesquisa que tem recebido atenção de acadêmicos e praticantes, pelo menos, nas últimas duas décadas (Atkinson, 1999; Delone & Mclean, 2002). As organizações têm feito crescentes investimentos em TI para aumentar a produtividade e a qualidade dos processos (Assis, 2011). Apesar de toda pesquisa e dos investimentos em TI, a porcentagem de projetos mal sucedidos nesta área é alta (The Standish Group, 2013). Duas questões de pesquisa conduzem este artigo: (1) as competências do gerente de projeto influenciam o comprometimento da equipe para com os objetivos do projeto de TI? (2) Como o comprometimento da equipe de projeto afeta o sucesso (ou fracasso) de um projeto de TI? A fim de responder estas perguntas, fizemos doze entrevistas em profundidade com gerentes de projetos de TI de diferentes empresas. Os principais resultados mostram que profissionais de TI acreditam que os soft skills são de fato mais importantes do que os skills técnicos. A pesquisa indica que os gerentes de projetos que desenvolvem soft skills podem gerenciar melhor suas equipes e construir o comprometimento dos membros de suas equipes.

Palavras-chave: Sucesso em gerenciamento de projetos de TI; Competência do Gerente de Projetos; Comprometimento de equipe; Comprometimento Organizacional.

11th International Conference on Information Systems and Technology Management – CONTECSI May, 28 to 30, 2014 - São Paulo, Brazil

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1. Introduction

Information technology (IT) project success is a research topic that has received the attention of many academics and practitioners in the last two decades (Atkinson, 1999; Delone & Mclean, 2002). The importance of IT in organizations can be seen in the investments organizations make in the sector to increase productivity and improve quality (Assis, 2011).

Despite all the research and investments in the sector, the failure rate for IT projects is high. According to Cunningham (cited in Sumner, Bock & Giamartino, 2006), 34% of 7,400 IT projects were over budget or late; 31% were abandoned, canceled or modified. In 2012, Chaos Report showed that 43% of IT projects were late, over budget and/or with less than the required scope; and 18% were canceled prior to completion or delivered and never used (The Standish Group, 2013).

Project manager competencies especially “soft” ones have been pointed out as important factors for IT project success (Belzer, 2001; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Sumner et al., 2006; Wateridge, 1998). Another topic that has demanded extensive research is the influence of team commitment on IT project success (Korzaan, 2009; Xu, Zhang & Barkhi, 2010). Therefore, this paper aims to identify how the project manager’s competencies and team commitment can contribute to IT project success.

Two research questions drive this paper: (1) Do project manager competencies influence team commitment to the IT project success? (2) How can the project team’s commitment affect the success (or failure) of an IT project?

In order to answer these questions, we conducted twelve (12) in-depth interviews with IT project managers from different companies and business sectors.

The paper is structured as follows: introduction, theoretical background about IT project success, team commitment and project manager competencies and research methodology. Finally, we analyze the in-depth interviews and present final remarks.

2. Theoretical background

This section presents definitions for success criteria in project management; organizational commitment and team commitment; and some of the project manager’s essential competencies described in the literature.

2.1. Success Criteria in Project Management

The PMBOK (PMI, 2013) instructs that success criteria should be established at the very beginning of the project or before starting a new phase of the project. Doing so can improve deliverable acceptance, customer and stakeholder satisfaction (PMI, 2013). Wateridge (1998) adds that unless the project team agrees on the success criteria before the project starts, the individuals involved will travel in different directions and some will see the project as a failure.

The criteria for success in project management have raised many discussions among academics (Pinto & Slevin, 1988). In 1969, Dr. Martin Barnes first described the “iron triangle” – cost, time, scope – during a course entitled “Time and Money Contract Control” (Weaver, 2007). Although scholars have not reached a concrete consensus, many argue that the classic Iron Triangle criteria are not sufficient to measure accurately how successful a project is (Atkinson, 1999; Pinto & Slevin, 1988). There are examples of projects that concluded within the schedule and budget but turned out to be failures; and other examples of projects which, despite not succeeding in the traditional parameters of management, ended up achieving profits for their sponsors and organization (Pinto & Slevin, 1998).

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Pinto and Slevin (1998) designed a more general measure for project success. As shown in figure 1, they incorporated three criteria to measure project implementation success: technical validity, organization validity and organization effectiveness. The intersection of the three spheres represents the “real” project implementation success.

Figure 1: Key factors in successful project implementation Source: (Pinto & Slevin, 1988, p. 69)

Technical validity implies that the project must “work”, in other words: the project does what was specified. Organization validity means that the project must satisfy client and user needs. If the project does not please the clients, it is likely that they will not use it; and all the effort and resources used to implement the project will have been wasted (Pinto & Slevin, 1988). Organization effectiveness assesses if after implementation, the project has a positive or negative impact in the organization. These criteria can be measured subjectively, based on the sense of effectiveness of operations and client satisfaction, or objectively, based the sales and profit indicators (Pinto & Slevin, 1988).

Furthermore, Pinto and Slevin (1988) developed the Model of Project Success, a framework to assess project success. In figure 2, we can see that project success is composed of internal and external factors. According to Pinto and Slevin (1988), the

internal organizational factors are those related to variables controlled by the project manager and the project team: schedule, budget and performance (the grey half of the circle). The external organizational variables (the blue half of the circle) refer to the real and the perceived impact of the project – usage of the project, client satisfaction and the clients’ sense of the project’s effectiveness.

Figure 2: Model of project success

Source: Adapted from Pinto & Slevin (1988)

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Shenhar, Levy and Dvir (1997) argue that the project manager should not see the project only as a task that must meet time, budget and specification. He/she needs to view the project in a broader sense (Shenhar et al., 1997). They elaborated a multidimensional framework to assess project success, as illustrated in figure 3.

Figure 3: The multidimensional framework of project success Source: (Shenhar et al., 1997, p. 11)

The success dimension of project efficiency indicates if the project was completed on time and within the budget. If a project succeeds in this dimension, it can indicate that the project was well managed. However, it does not imply that impact of the project on the organization is positive (Shenhar et al., 1997).

Impact on the customer is a dimension that addresses customer requirements and needs. To Shenhar et al. (1997), meeting the performance goals, the functional requirements and the technical specifications, refer to this dimension instead of the dimension of project proficiency. From the contractor’s view, this dimension also includes customer satisfaction, the extent to which the customer uses the product, and the client’s willingness to buy the next generation of the same product (Shenhar et al., 1997).

The third success dimension is about business and direct success. This dimension refers to the direct impact the project has on the organization. “Did it provide sales, income, and profits as expected? Did it help increase business results and gain market share?” (Shenhar et al., 1997, p. 11). In this dimension, we can also evaluate performance time, cycle time, yield and the quality of the process. Finally, the fourth dimension, preparing for the future, aims to prepare the organizational and the technological infrastructure for the future. It refers to the factor that enables the organization to build new competencies, skills and technologies in order to construct competitive advantage (Shenhar et al., 1997).

Wateridge (1998) claims that IT project managers focus so much on meeting time and budget targets because they are assessed by their superiors based on these criteria. As IT project managers emphasize short-term criteria, they neglect user satisfaction (Wateridge, 1998). In his thesis, Wateridge (1996) states:

“This is again not surprising as many project managers come from a technical or computing background and were systems analysts before moving into project management. The emphasis on meeting time and budget constraints is instilled in technicians early in their working life and this appears to stay with them throughout.” (Wateridge, 1996, p. 118)

In a research done with IT professionals (project managers, users, sponsors, systems analysts), Wateridge (1998) found out that the most important criteria in IT projects are (in order of importance): meeting user requirements, achieving purpose, meeting timescale, meeting budget, happy users and meeting quality.

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Delone and McLean (1992) presented a success model for IT projects. The primary D&M success model (DeLone & McLean, 1992) contained six dimensions of success:

system quality, information quality, system use, user satisfaction, individual impacts and organizational impacts. In 2002, Delone and Mclean (Delone & Mclean, 2002) updated the model to synthesize the results of their studies on ISPS (see figure 4).

In the updated model, the variable quality was divided into three dimensions:

information quality, systems quality and service quality. Each of these dimensions should be controlled separately to ensure use (of the project after its implementation) and

user satisfaction. From this use and user satisfaction, net benefits will occur. If the net benefits are positive they will reinforce and motivate more use of the systems and increase user satisfaction (Delone & Mclean, 2002). This is the feedback loop proposed by the revised D&M success model (figure 4).

Figure 4: The reviewed version of D&M model for IS Success Source: (Delone & Mclean, 2002)

Based on literature, Atkinson (1999) proposed a conceptual framework to define success criteria. The author divided the dimensions that had been used to evaluate IT project success into four categories, as shown in table 1. Atkinson (1999) named this perspective The Square Route (figure 5).

Table 1: Details of the success criteria of Atkinson’s Square Route

Iron Triangle The Information System Benefits (Organization) Benefits (stakeholder

community) Cost Quality Time Maintainability Reliability Validity

Information – Quality Use

Improved Efficiency Improved Effectiveness Increased Profits Strategic Goals Organizational Learning Reduced Waste Satisfied Users Social and Environment

Impact Personal Development

Professional Learning Contractors Profits Capital suppliers, content

project team, economic impact to surrounding

community Source: (Atkinson, 1999, p. 341)

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Figure 5: Atkinson’s model to assess ISPS Source: (Atkinson, 1999)

As Atkinson’s framework of IT project success criteria (Atkinson, 1999) contemplates the major characteristics declared for another authors, this frame was chosen to be the foundation on IT success criteria axis of this research.

2.2. Team commitment and IT Project Performance

Team commitment has become a major issue in IT project management (Kappelman, McKeeman & Zhang, 2006; Korzaan, 2009). Lack of team commitment to project goals is one of the early signs of IT project failure (Kappelman et al., 2006).

A key element to prevent project failure is to report status so that the team can address issues as fast as possible (Korzaan, 2009). Unfortunately, people are commonly reluctant to report “bad news” - the so called mum effect (Smith, Keil & Depledge, 2001). Building team commitment can minimize this problem since committed members are more likely to report critical status in order to achieve a goal (Korzaan, 2009).

Porter, Crampon and Smith (1972) define organizational commitment as the individual's identification and involvement with a particular organization. Organizational commitment can be characterized by three factors (Mowday, Steers & Porter, 1979): (1) strong belief in and acceptance of the organization's goals and values; (2) willingness to put effort and use abilities on behalf of the organization; and (3) strong desire to remain as an employee of the organization.

According to Mowday et al. (1979), commitment goes beyond passive loyalty to an organization. It involves an active relationship with the organization in which the individual is willing to give something of him/herself to contribute to the organization's goals. “Commitment could be inferred not only from the expressions of an individual's beliefs and opinions but also from his or her actions.” (Mowday et al., 1979, p. 226).

Mowday et al. (1979) tested the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) – an instrument to measure employee commitment to the organization. The OCQ instrument has been used in many research projects to predict employee turnover.

Based on the OCQ, Allen and Meyer (1990) developed a model to measure employee commitment. According to Allen and Meyer (1990), this model divides organizational commitment into three components:

1. Affective component refers to the employee's emotional attachment, identification and involvement with the organization. A person with strong affective commitment stays in the organization because he/she wants to. The preceding characteristics of affective

commitment are personal, job, work experiences and structural characteristics.

2. Continuance component refers to commitment based on the costs that the employee associates with leaving the organization. Someone with strong continuance commitment

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stays in the organization because he/she needs to. Continuance commitment develops

according to the magnitude and/or number of investments (or side-bets) people make and according toa perceived lack of alternatives.

3. Normative component that relates to the employee's feeling of obligation to remain in the organization. A person with strong normative commitment remains in the organization because he/she ought to do so. This component will be influenced by the

individual's background.

Allen and Meyer's model contains the scales used to assess the individual's organizational commitment: affective commitment scale (ACS), continuance commitment scale (CCS), normative commitment scale (NCS) (Allen & Meyer, 1990).

According to Rossy and Archibald (1992), there are two levels of commitment in a project environment: organizational and personal. Organizational commitment refers to commitment of money, people and other resources to a task or project. Personal commitment relates to the individual's dedication to his/her responsibilities. Committed people tend to have a sense of duty and to do what is necessary to make the project successful (Chang, Sheu, Klein & Jiang, 2010).

In an IT project environment, commitment can be defined as the individual's acceptance of the goals of the project, his/her willingness to engage with the other team members and desire to remain in the project team (Chang et al., 2010).

Uncommitted members tend to have non-productive behavior such as work avoidance, defiance and aggression. On the other hand, committed individuals are (1) willing to participate in IT development activities, (2) are more flexible to deal with unexpected events and (3) are more prone to share critical information (Chang et al., 2010).

Korzaan (2009) has studied the influence of commitment to project objectives on IT project performance. She developed a model that shows the relationship between team commitment and project performance, as shown in figure 6.

Figure 6: The influence of team commitment to an IT project Source: (Korzaan, 2009, p. 94)

Korzaan (2009) indicates that project team commitment influences members’ inclination to report project status and their perception of project performance. It is interesting to cite that time pressure can affect team commitment negatively.

Rossy and Archibald (1992) argue that project managers should develop skills to improve team commitment as well as making team members want to exceed expectations and work for continuous improvement.

Time Pressure Commitment to Project Objectives Inclination to Report Project Information Perceived Project Performance Personal Investment

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In this work, we adopted the following definition of commitment:

“Commitment will be measured in terms of the degree to which individual project team members are committed to the budget, schedule, functionality, and quality objectives of a project in which they are currently involved. In other words, commitment in this study is evaluated by the degree team members are attached to or determined to reach the budget, time, functionality, and quality goals of their IT project.” (Korzaan, 2009, p. 90)

2.3. The competencies of an effective IT project manager

In psychology, ability is defined as the power to do a specific task. The ability can be potential, real, inborn or acquired (Manfredi, 1998). In English, there are two words to address the ability to do something: capability and capacity. Capacity means potential ability and capability, the ability acquired through training and exercise. Skill (or competence) refers to the level of efficiency in performing a specific capability (Manfredi, 1998).

Fleury and Fleury (2001) define competence as acting in a responsible way in order to mobilize, integrate and transfer knowledge, resources and abilities to create economic value to the organization and to the individual (see figure 7). For them, competence is not limited to someone’s theoretical knowledge or to the task he/she performs. An individual gains competence through social and learning experiences. Being competent means that a person acts responsibly and gets the recognition of others for his/her actions. Being competent also means mobilizing, integrating and using all knowledge and abilities in a specific setting. Finally, competence should add economic value to the organization and social value to the individuals (Fleury & Fleury, 2001). Exhibit 1 presents the descriptions of the verbs contained in Fleury and Fleury's definition of competence.

Figure 7: Competencies to create value to the individual and to the organization Source: Adapted from Fleury & Fleury (2001)

Doing Mobilizing Transferring Knowledge Learning Committing Yourself Strategic Vision Taking risks responsibly Social Economic Individual Organization Knowledge Abilities Attitude Create Value

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Doing Knowing what and why you do it Knowing how to judge and to make decisions Mobilizing resources Creating synergy and mobilize resources and competences Transferring Knowledge Understanding, working and transfer useful information

Learning Gaining knowledge and experience, self-development Committing yourself Taking risks, engaging to accomplish a goal, being an achiever Taking risks responsibly Acting on his/her own responsibility in order to achieve a goal

Strategic Vision Understanding the business to see new opportunities and alternatives Exhibit 1: Meaning of the verbs presented on Fleury’s and Fleury’s definition of competence

Source: Adapted from Fleury and Fleury (2001)

As project management has evolved, the role of project management has changed. Project managers are no longer required to have technical expertise. Kerzner (2009) claims that “as project management matured, the project manager was converted from a technical manager to a business manager.” (Kerzner, 2009, p. 158).

“In professional firms, personnel are generally promoted to management on the basis of their professional or technical competence rather than their managerial ability. While this practice may be unavoidable, it does tend to promote men with insufficient knowledge of managerial techniques and creates a frustrating environment for the professional down the line.”(Killian, 1971 cited by Kerzner, 2009, p. 172)

Soft skills are a recent and evolving discipline in project management. However,

many researchersstate that soft skills are essential to ensure a Project Manager’s success (Belzer, 2001; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Wateridge, 1998). Soft skills are interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies that include communication skills, intelligence, conflict resolution, negotiation, influence, team building and group facilitation (PMI, 2013; Rao, 2012). Hard skills involve technical knowledge and technical

competence (Rao, 2012).

As the project manager is responsible for developing the project’s team, he/she should develop “skills to identify, build, maintain, motivate, lead, and inspire project to achieve high team performance and to meet the project’s objectives” (PMI, 2013a, p. 274). The project manager is also responsible for influencing the project team to guarantee their good performance and for ensuring that team members follow professional and ethical behavior. According to PMBOK (PMI, 2013), the project manager can use a combination of soft skills – interpersonal and behavioral competencies - to improve team performance.

PRINCE2 describes that the project manager is responsible for ensuring the project delivers the required product or service within time, quality and budget constraints (OGC, 2005). PRINCE2 declares that the project manager can perform the team manager and project support roles. Within the main responsibilities of the project manager, PRINCE2 (OGC, 2005) lists: direct and motivate the project team; plan and monitor the project; take responsibility for overall progress; administrate the project; monitor team’s work; take responsibility for team performance; provide support to project team (advice, expertise on

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tools and techniques); establish project standards and ensure that the team follows them. Exhibit 2 shows a summary of competencies and skills required for effective IT project managers according to literature. It also shows the description of these skills and the authors who mention them.

Ability and

competence Description Authors

Leadership Essential component of project teamwork (Thamhain, 2004). Project managers can create a healthy and collaborative environment through their leadership actions.

(Belzer, 2001; Dulewicz & Higgs, 2005; Keil et al., 2013; Kerzner, 2009; PMI, 2007, 2013b; OGC, 2005; Rossy & Archibald, 1992; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Sumner et al., 2006; Thamhain, 2004)

Motivation Drive energy to achieve results. Ability to balance short-term and long term to pursue a specific objective.

(Dulewicz & Higgs, 2005; PMI, 2007, 2013)

Influence Persuading people to change views bases on an understanding of their point-of-view, providing a rationale for change.

(Dulewicz & Higgs, 2005; Kerzner, 2009; Rossy & Archibald, 1992; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010) Communication Process through which people exchange

information among themselves using a common system of symbols, signs or behaviors. Communication Involves skills required to communicate effectively such as listening (critical to understand others and to identify possible issues and problems in the project), verbal and written skills.

(Belzer, 2001; Dulewicz & Higgs, 2005; Keil et al., 2013; Kerzner, 2009; OGC, 2005; PMI, 2007, 2013b; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Sumner et al., 2006; Thamhain, 2004)

Strategic

perspective Ability to see the “whole picture”. Being aware of the impact of one’s actions across the organization. Ability to see the wider issues and to identify possible problems and opportunities.

(Dulewicz & Higgs, 2005; Keil et al., 2013; OGC, 2005; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010)

Business domain

knowledge It means that the project manager the overall context of the project and how the project will affect the business and the clients/users.

(Keil et al., 2013; Kerzner, 2009; PMI 2007, 2013; OGC, 2005; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Sumner et al., 2006; Wateridge, 1998)

Project

management It involves skills necessary to manage projects. An effective project manager has ability to manage scope, resources and risks. He also has experience with project management tools and techniques.

(Keil et al., 2013; Kerzner, 2009; OGC, 2005; PMI, 2007, 2013b) Technical skills Technical skills refer to skills normally associated

with IT developer. It involves technical knowledge (a specific computer language or tool) as well as knowledge methodologies, processes and techniques used to develop IT systems.

(Keil et al., 2013; Kerzner, 2009; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Wateridge, 1998)

Empowering Encouraging team members to solve problems

independently, giving them autonomy. (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2005; PMI, 2007; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Sumner et al., 2006) People skills Skills required to build and to maintain good

relationships with the individual involved in the project. These skills include relationship building, understanding the psychology of people, conflict management and negotiation.

(Belzer, 2001; Keil et al., 2013; Kerzner, 2009; PMI, 2007, 2013b; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Sumner et al., 2006)

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Organizational Organizational skills include ability to organize and coordinate activities and resources. Project managers need these skills to monitor deadlines and dependencies within tasks.

(Keil et al., 2013; Kerzner, 2009; PMI, 2007, 2013b)

Problem solving Includes skills necessary to identify, analyze and

solve problems and issues. (Belzer, 2001; Keil et al., 2013; Kerzner, 2009; PMI, 2007, 2013b; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Sumner et al., 2006)

Decision-making Ability to assess alternatives to make the best decision in a given scenario, in order to solve problems and achieve project goals.

(Belzer, 2001; PMI, 2007, 2013; Keil et al., 2013; Kerzner, 2009) Flexibility Ability to adapt himself to different situations and

scenarios. Every project is unique and requires different components, skills, tools and techniques.

(Belzer, 2001; Keil et al., 2013; Kerzner, 2009; PMI, 2007, 2013b) Team building Usually, a project team is formed with borrowed

resources from functional areas. The project managed ought to integrate and commit human resources so that they feel involved and committed to project goals.

(Belzer, 2001; Kerzner, 2009; PMI, 2007, 2013; Rossy & Archibald, 1992)

Exhibit 2: Summary of competencies and skills required for effective IT project managers

It is important to note that, based on literature (Kerzner, 2009; Rao, 2012; Skulmoski & Hartman, 2010; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Sumner et al., 2006), we classify as soft skills all competencies described in exhibit 2, except for the technical and project management skills.

3. Research Methodology

This exploratory research has a qualitative approach. As argued by Martins & Theóphilo (2009), the qualitative approach is the most appropriate when researchers aim to collect psychological data and understand the complexity of the elements related to the object of study. In the light of literature, we designed a research model to identify how project manager’s competencies and team commitment can contribute to IT project success as illustrated in figure 8.

Figure 8: Research model

After developing a literature review to build a better understanding of the research phenomenon, we conducted 12 (twelve) 40-50 minute in-depth interviews with IT project managers. “In-depth interview is a qualitative research technique that involves conducting intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents in order to explore

Project Manager’s Competencies Team Commitment Affective Commitment Continuance Commitment Normative Commitment IT Project Success

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their perspectives” (Boyce & Neale, 2006, p. 3). We collected data using in-depth interviews since this technique allows researchers to get a more intense view from respondents. We conducted interviews until we realized that the themes were getting repeated and nothing more relevant was being brought to the discussion.

We selected professionals from different business sectors so that we would understand the dynamism of the elements that interact in the object of our study, as recommended by Martins and Theóphilo (2009). Among the respondents were:

1 project manager of a technology organization in the public sector; 1 manager of a big multinational fashion retail clothing store; 3 project managers of small technology consultancies;

2 project managers of a big multinational technology company; 4 project managers of a multinational in the telecommunication sector; 1 team coordinator of a multinational e-commerce company.

We conducted the interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire with open questions (see appendix A). All interviews were recorded and transcribed in order to fulfill the requisites of qualitative research (Martins & Theóphilo, 2009). The first interview was a pre-test interview. Through this pre-test interview, it was possible to assess the profundity of the questionnaire. After this pre-test interview, we excluded some questions to make the interviews shorter and more objective.

Two interviews were face-to-face and recorded using Evernote. The others were conducted via Skype and recorded using the software Pamela for Skype. All interviews were transcribed using two softwares, Express Scribe and TranscriberAG.

After transcription, the content of the interviews was analyzed using MAXQDA. By crossing definitions taken from literature and the information collected on the interviews, we created categories to analyze the data on MAXQDA. The categories are:

Success Criteria: Inside the Iron Triangle; Outside the Iron Triangle. Project Manager’s Competencies: Soft Skills; Hard Skills.

Organizational Commitment: Affective Commitment; Continuance Commitment; Normative Commitment.

4. Data analysis

The content of the interviews was analyzed according to the categories and subcategories mentioned above.

4.1. Success Criteria for IT projects

All interviewees mentioned the importance of IT projects to meet time, budget and scope constraints. However, they all agreed that these factors are not enough to measure the success of a project. For them, achieving the traditional success criteria does not guarantee that the project will positively affect the organization and the system’s users.

The interviews showed that IT professionals are aware of the fact that many projects arelate and over budget. However, according to them, this situation does not mean that the project was not successful. What really matters is that the user was satisfied and that the project achieved strategic goals. One interviewee said: “(Project) delays happen, but I don’t think that success should be measured by this. If the project goal was achieved, this is the thing that really matters.” Another interviewee reported that one of his successful projects was delayed by three months. However, this did not jeopardize the project objectives. Despite the 3-month delay, the clients were satisfied with the results and the organization saved a large amount of money.

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This finding confirms what many authors have claimed over the years about the need to improve the success criteria for IT projects (Atkinson, 1999; Delone & Mclean, 2002). Many IT projects may not have achieved the criteria of the iron triangle, but they are still a success in the eyes of the clients and organizations.

Another factor that interviewees emphasized was that end-users have not been involved in the process as much as they should. One interviewee argued that, nowadays, the IT development process has been excessively focused on the business analysts instead of the end-users: “What difference does it make? They (business analysts) are not the ones who will use the system. We don’t develop systems for them (business analysts). We develop them for those who are at the end (end-users).” Another interviewee recommended that end-users should be consulted more during the specification of the project requisites in order to prevent misunderstandings and guarantee that the project will truly satisfy the users’ needs.

User involvement and user satisfaction, in fact, are among the crucial factors for IT project success. The 2013 Standish Group Report shows that user involvement is the second most important factor for small IT project success, preceded by executive management support and followed by optimization (The Standish Group, 2013).

Most respondents emphasized the importance of satisfying clients and users on IT projects. One responded that none of the projects she had worked on in the last three years had been successful because “they weren’t delivered in the way the client expected”. This perspective of IT success criteria goes along with what many authors have discussed. Client satisfaction is fundamental for project success (Atkinson, 1999; Delone & Mclean, 2002; Pinto & Slevin, 1988; Shenhar et al., 1997).

4.2. Team Commitment

The respondents’ perspective on team commitment and its influence on IT project success shows that team commitment is extremely important to achieve success in an IT environment. All of them affirmed their belief that team commitment affects project results. “If you feel that you own what you’re working on (a project task or activity), you’ll want that to work, right?” One respondent believed that team commitment was one of the main reasons for the success of a big and complex project he participated in as a manager: “I believe that the commitment of all, of all stakeholders involved… was fundamental.”

Our analysis of the interviews converged with previous research (Korzaan, 2009; Xu et al., 2010). Korzaan (2009) and Xu et al. (2010) which state that team commitment can bring positive results to the work environment and influence project results.

All respondents believed that affective commitment can be advantageous in the project environment as stated by Korzaan (2009) and Xu et al. (2010). However, not all of them agreed that an IT project manager can influence the work environment in order to build this kind of commitment within team members. Two respondents believe that in the organization where they work at is impossible for a project manager to do anything regarding team commitment as the heavy workload and the high number of projects make it impossible for a project manager to create a “climate of involvement”. In fact, one of stated that the organizational culture overemphasizes delivery and results: “We have to make the business run whatever it takes. If it (project) will end with quality or not, it’s something else.”

Another fact that deserves mentioning is the perspective that IT professionals have on normative commitment. According to Allen and Meyer (1990), the normative component of organizational commitment refers to the employee’s feelings of obligation to remain in the organization. Most of the interviewees believe that this kind of commitment

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is rare in today’s society. For them, people are more inclined to remain committed to the organization as long as their personal interests are satisfied. One interviewee said: “Nowadays, people are more concerned with being successful and having their own lives, having more time with their families. The younger generation, especially, focuses much more on themselves than on the organization. This individual will remain in the organization as long as he/she feels there are benefits.”

Regarding continuance commitment, some interviewees responded that continuance commitment negatively affected team performance and others said that this commitment component was irrelevant to project results. One respondent, though, shared a very interesting view about continuance commitment. For him, if the project manager has people in this team that are not motivated to remain in the organization, and consequently, not highly committed to project goals, he can give “small objectives” to these people. This respondent believes that as the project manager sets small or not complex objectives for unmotivated members, he/she can help them recover their engagement since these objectives are easier to achieve, and these individuals can become enthusiastic about achieving them. However, if this technique does not work, it is better to replace these unmotivated members because “one unmotivated member can easily make 3 motivated individuals to become unmotivated too.”

It was almost unanimous among respondents that the project manager must be aware of the team’s commitment and do as much as possible to get the team engaged and enthusiastic about the project. This point of view is in line with Korzaan (2009), as she states that committed people are more prone to share ideas, to work effectively towards the project goals and to talk about critical issues - opposing the common mum effect (Smith et al., 2001).

For respondents, IT project managers develop skills to boost team commitment. In fact, our analysis pointed out a great correlation between soft skills and team commitment. Some of the soft skills that can be used to improve team commitment are:

People skills: “(you can boost team commitment by) knowing your team, knowing the limits of each team member, respecting each one’s limits and communicating very well with them.”

Leadership: “A project manager’s role in team motivation is very important. Many times the project manager inspires the team… the team looks up to the project manager and is inspired by that project manager, that leader. If there isn’t that manager… if there isn’t someone to be inspired by and to look up to, he/she (team member) will not commit to that (the project) because it (the project) has no purpose.”

Empowering: “The Scrum framework allows people to have a voice to decide things. We have planning meetings every ‘X’ weeks in which everyone decides how (project) activities will be developed. With ‘empowerment’ people have power. It (power/authority) is not in the hands of a specific individual.”

Finally, it is important to note that many respondents related team commitment with team motivation. It is interesting to see that Keil et al. (2013) also related team commitment with motivation.

4.3. Project Manager’s Competencies

Mention of the project manager’s soft skills was extremely high in all interviews. It was evident that people participating in research believe that IT project managers need to have more soft skills than hard skills to be effective. This result converges with the literature that claims that today’s project manager success lies in developing soft skills

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(Keil, Lee & Deng, 2013; Kerzner, 2009; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Sumner et al., 2006).

Some of the soft skills mentioned in interviews are:

Communication: “Communication is essential!” “The most needed skill is communication”; Listening skills: “You need to listen, listen, listen… sometimes you can’t see something under your own nose. And then, a “junior” comes and says ‘why don’t you do it like this?’… and the guy is right!”

People skills, leadership, empowering as mentioned in item 3.2.

Strategic vision and knowledge: “He (the project manager) needs to know what he’s doing there, what the project is done for, the importance of the project, its impacts…”

Team building: “Knowing team members well will help you delegate the right task to that person who will be able to execute it the best way” “The leader needs to know what drives the individual to motivate him/her”.

Organizational: “He (the project manager) needs to be very organized”.

Business domain knowledge: “He needs to know the project very well, not superficially”.

Flexibility: “His conduct must not be too rigid... he needs to show that he’s there to contribute to the project, that he is a facilitator and not someone who makes things unpleasant”.

Proactive: “The project manager must be proactive”.

Although technical skills were not mentioned as often as interpersonal and behavioral skills, some interviewees stated that technical skills are important. Some believe that technical skills are needed so that the project manager does not become dependent on someone - “When a project manager is in a project that he doesn’t have (technical) knowledge of, he will need to have someone he trusts and that has technical baggage.” In fact, we noticed that lack of technical knowledge can make the project manager vulnerable.

5. Final Remarks

This paper presents an exploratory study that analyzed the influence of IT project manager competencies and team commitment on IT project results. To achieve this goal, we answered the following questions: (1) Do project manager competencies influence team commitment to the IT project success? (2) How can the project team’s commitment affect the success (or failure) of an IT project?

In order to answer these questions, after a literature review, we did 12 (twelve) in-depth interviews to build a deeper and more consistent view of the object of study. As we did a profound analysis of the interviews, we could take relevant conclusions about project manager’s competencies. Firstly, the interviews showed that IT professionals believe that soft skills are indeed more important to guarantee project success then technical skills. Mention of soft skills was high, showing that interviewees share the same of many authors about the role of soft skills in IT project management (Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Sumner et al., 2006). Secondly, as Belzer (2001), interviewees stated that soft skills help project manager coordinate the project team, determine project goals and build teams commitment. It is important to note that the most mentioned soft skill was communication. That result confirms what many researches have shown: communication is essential to IT project success (Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010; Sumner et al., 2006; Wateridge, 1998).

Regarding team commitment, all respondents affirmed that team commitment does affect project results. In fact, the results of the research attest that IT project managers believe they can influence team commitment by implementing social activities and/or developing certain skills such as leadership and communication. Literature has presented

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similar results such as mentioned by Stevenson and Starkweather (2010), Sumner et al. (2006), Korzaan (2009) and Xu et al. (2010).

Therefore, we can state that this study answered the two proposed research questions: project manager competencies influence team commitment to IT project success and that team commitment can affect the success (or failure) of an IT project.

This finding can bring a series of implications to IT project management:

1. Project managers need to find the fine balance between soft and hard skills: even though mention of soft skills was extremely high, the research does not affirm that hard skills are not necessary. Technical and managerial skills are very important in project management. Hard skills, especially the ones related to cost, scope and time control, are seen as basic competencies by many people. These skills are implicit in the role of an IT project manager. One respondent affirmed: “The project manager must control all project activities and guarantee that they are on schedule.” What this research shows is that project managers need to discern which skills are important according to the type and size of the project (Müller & Turner, 2007) and according to his/her team.

2. More research on project management methodologies is needed to make them better instruments in the improvement of project management professionals. We saw that PMBOK and PRINCE2 give a very concise view of soft skills. It states that interpersonal skills can be valuable assets to develop project teams but do not recommend methods to help project managers to build these skills (PMI, 2013). The fact that the study of soft skills is still new in project management (Belzer, 2001) may explain why project management methodologies give not enough emphasis on soft skills. Certainly, the role of soft skills on project management is a subject for promising studies in the future.

3. Team commitment is an essential factor in IT project success. Therefore, it cannot be neglected. Preceding studies have shown that team commitment directly affects project results (Korzaan, 2009; Xu et al., 2010). However, little is said about team commitment in project management methodologies. The PMBOK cites very briefly about team building and commitment. Once more, no methods or processes are prescribed in order to help project managers to address team commitment related issues neither does the book guide mention the relationship between commitment and project success. Then, we conclude that the influence of team commitment on project management and the relationship between soft skills and team commitment need to be addressed in future researches.

Studies on the essential competencies for effective IT project managers as well as their influence on team commitment can improve the training and formation of IT professionals. The more we do studies on the subject, the more IT professionals know which skills they need to acquire and the more they know how they can make their project teams more efficient.

This exploratory study started from theoretical statements and found empirical evidences that show us the relationship between IT project manager competencies as well as that team commitment relates to IT project success. The next step of this research is to formulate a quantitative instrument to test these hypotheses.

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Appendix A – Interview Questionnaire

Success Criteria for IT Projects(Atkinson, 1999; Delone & Mclean, 2002; Pinto & Slevin, 1988)

Think of the projects you worked on the last 3 years. Focus on the projects that succeeded:

1. For you what were the main reasons for success?

2. What kind of project were these? Big, small, medium size? Tell me about these successful projects.

3. Were clients/users satisfied?

4. Did the project managers of these projects have anything in common? If so, what? What characteristics of this/these project manager(s) caught your attention?

5. Did the project manager’s(s’) leadership style have any impact on the project success?

Focus on the project that failed:

6. For you what were the main reasons for failure?

7. What kind of project were these? Big, small, medium size? Tell me a little about these unsuccessful projects.

8. Were clients/users satisfied?

9. Did the project managers have anything in common? Or what characteristic of this/these project manager(s) caught your attention?

10. Did the project manager’s leadership style have any impact on the project failure? 11. For you, what are the main criteria for IT project success?

12. Is it common to see the project manager, the project team, stakeholders, clients and sponsors agreeing upon the success criteria at the start of the project? Why? If you answered “yes”, give examples.

Team commitment(Allen & Meyer, 1990, Korzaan, 2009; Xu et al., 2010)

13. Is it possible for the project manager to build an environment in which the project team feel emotionally connected to each other and to the project, an environment in which individuals feel like a "family"? Is it worth creating this kind of environment? (A person stays in the organization because he/she wants to)

14. How does it feel for the project manager to have in his team people who are in the project (or in the organization) only to "pay the bills" or with poor prospects of alternatives "It's better for me to stay here because I cannot /I’m not qualified to have a good job in somewhere else"? What/How is the performance of people like these? (A person stays in the organization because he/she needs to)

15. Are there still people that work in an organization with a sense of loyalty and/or moral obligation? Is it possible to have individuals who work in a project with a sense of honor, loyalty and moral commitment to the project? If so, give examples. (A person stays in the organization because he/she ought to)

16. Does team commitment affect project results?

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Project Manager's Competencies (Keil et al., 2013; Kerzner, 2009; Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010)

17. In your opinion, which competencies, abilities or skills are essential for a project manager?

18. What competencies, abilities or skills should a project manager have in order to get the project team committed to project success?

19. Knowing that the project manager is not the “real” boss, does the project manager

really have any impact on project success?