Field Trip Report
System Implementation Success Factors; It’s not just the Technology
Paula J. Vaughan Project Manager Information Technology Services Campus Box 455 University of Colorado at Boulder Boulder, Colorado 80309-0455 Paula.Vaughan@Colorado.EDU The University of Colorado at Boulder, founded in 1876 when Boulder and the State of Colorado chose to build a university rather than a prison System implementation efforts offer extraordinary challenges to information technology professionals and the organizations impacted by the implementations. A successful implementation can reap vast rewards in organizational strengths and efficiencies. A failure can drain an organization of people, funds and vitality. Consequently, many people have puzzled over the reasons for the successes and failures experienced with these implementations. This paper examines these puzzlings as offered through scholarly research and first-hand reports of system implementations within institutions of higher education and discovers that many answers lie outside the bounds of technology. Scholarly works offered the following important considerations for system implementations: • • • • • • The interaction of technology and the organization – a broad concept that lays the groundwork for many of the other factors for consideration. User involvement and participation – influenced by a number of variables that must be carefully balanced in order to ensure success of the involvement. Resistance – can work for or against a project depending upon how it is managed. Commitment – an essential ingredient for success but, because it involves a plethora of forces including the human psyche, is a challenge to achieve and maintain. Planning – more able to be controlled by project managers than other success factors, and involving many critical components. Risks – exist with every project but must be anticipated and managed in order to achieve success.
First hand accounts of implementations prove that scholarly theories
Paula J. Vaughan Project Manager Information Technology Services Campus Box 455 University of Colorado at Boulder Boulder, Colorado 80309-0455 Paula.Vaughan@Colorado.EDU The University of Colorado at Boulder, founded in 1876 when Boulder and the State of Colorado chose to build a university rather than a prison System implementation efforts offer extraordinary challenges to information technology professionals and the organizations impacted by the implementations. A successful implementation can reap vast rewards in organizational strengths and efficiencies. A failure can drain an organization of people, funds and vitality. Consequently, many people have puzzled over the reasons for the successes and failures experienced with these implementations. This paper examines these puzzlings as offered through scholarly research and first-hand reports of system implementations within institutions of higher education and discovers that many answers lie outside the bounds of technology. Scholarly works offered the following important considerations for system implementations: • • • • • • The interaction of technology and the organization – a broad concept that lays the groundwork for many of the other factors for consideration. User involvement and participation – influenced by a number of variables that must be carefully balanced in order to ensure success of the involvement. Resistance – can work for or against a project depending upon how it is managed. Commitment – an essential ingredient for success but, because it involves a plethora of forces including the human psyche, is a challenge to achieve and maintain. Planning – more able to be controlled by project managers than other success factors, and involving many critical components. Risks – exist with every project but must be anticipated and managed in order to achieve success.
First hand accounts of implementations prove that scholarly theories