Abstract
This paper reports on a high potential and under-utilised approach to developing theory to improve IS project performance, a significant and persistent problem for the IS discipline. It presents a multi-disciplinary approach to exploratory research, which is oriented towards solving problems in practice by developing new theory or adapting extant theory to a new milieu. This research approach is based on ‘looking for a gap in practice and finding the theory in the gap’. It presents examples from a program of research that has provided a number of theories to improve IS project management performance. It shows that the IS field may require multiple theories to support the management of projects rather than a single theory of project management.
Table of Contents
This paper focuses on a high potential and under-utilised research approach to improve, through the development and application of new theory, IS project management performance. The development of theory to improve IS project management performance presents a major challenge to the IS discipline since IS project management has limited explicit theory (Shenhar, 1998; Williams, 2005) and delivers poor performance in practice with slow learning over time (Johnson et al., 2001; Standish Group, 2003, 2004).
This paper highlights the potential of ‘exploratory practice-driven research’, which builds on Kilduff’s (2006) comments about the opportunities for deriving influential theories from the observation of real-life phenomena, and uses March’s (1991) concepts of learning and knowledge creation.
Examples of solving problems in practice with new theory development are presented from an ongoing research program to improve IS project management. The research uses a multi-disciplinary research approach based on ‘looking for a gap in practice’ and ‘finding the theory in the gap’. It shows that the IS field may require multiple theories to improve IS project management performance, rather than a single theory of IS project management.
The goal is to formalise a rigorous research approach, illustrated with examples, on which future research can build. We do not contend that exploratory practice-driven theory development is the only approach to improve IS project management performance. Rather, we highlight the research opportunities and describe an approach to improve performance.
The remainder of this paper is organised into four sections. First, we examine the available approaches to developing theory to improve IS project management, and describe the focus of this research. Next, we describe the research approach and theory development process. Following this, we present a number of examples and discuss the strengths and challenges of this approach when applied to IS project management. Finally, we present our conclusions.