Case Study II

VLITP can shift the direction of organizations by introducing new systems and emerging technologies that can serve as a trigger for change to the entire business strategy of an organization. Using VLITP simply for creating new possibilities, new markets, or enabling existing alternatives to be reachable can also trigger much needed change. The implementation of a new technology like RFID implies a direct relationship between business and IT—something that has become of increased importance in the last decade. Airlines are a vital part of the service industry, focusing on the transportation of people, their luggage, and goods from one point to another. RFID brought into the airline industry a system that tracks the location of passengers’ luggage, directly impacting the level of service an airline can provide its customer. RFID introduced new possibilities in luggage handling that are beginning to impact the entire airline industry. In the commercial airline industry, where fiercely competition has been well established, customer satisfaction and service level are important selection factors for passengers. Like its predecessor—the barcode system—RFID tracks luggage and is used to identify which baggage belongs to which customer but using a different technique to do so. RFID, being a lot more accurate then the barcode system, makes the decision by an airline to implement it a move to establish its critical performance indicator.

The Field of Project Management

By examining the history of what was earlier considered project management, this chapter not only points out lessons from past practices but also justifies the selected definition of VLITP. It also explains the role of project management in a fast business environment. The author has demonstrated such importance by representing VLITP in the form of a major initiative that contains a series of relevant processes in the host organization.

Introduction to Very Large IT Projects

This chapter classifies the purpose of project management in IT projects as a means of introducing the topics covered in the book and demonstrates how a successful project manager must simultaneously manage these four basic elements of a very large IT project (resources, time, money, and scope). It also explains the impact of very large IT projects on business and the wider society today.

VLITP Management Framework

The traditional way to achieve the automatic execution of project management processes is to develop or purchase an application that executes the steps required. However, in practice, these applications only execute a small part of the overall process. Execution of a complete VLITP management process can also be achieved by using a framework of software with human interfaces, where needed when applications are not able to execute the management process automatically. Certain aspects of VLITP management process can only be accomplished with human interventions. Due to the complexity of managing VLITP, changing the scope is costly and an overview of the VLITP and their state is difficult to obtain. In order to effectively deliver its objectives, VLITP often requires that the underlying activities be constructed according to the principles of a framework. Thus, it is often difficult to make a suite of existing legacy systems fit with a VLITP. The commercial project management market has focused on specific process models to reduce the complexity of VLITP management This chapter presents a framework that provides the basis for identifying and describing generally accepted principles and practices of VLITP. The purpose is to guide the project management team of VLITP in the execution of one of the most challenging jobs in business today.

Outsourcing and Escalation Issues in VLITPs

VLITP escalation has been documented to be a widespread phenomenon in the 21st century. Nearly every research in this area has portrayed escalation as an irrational decision-making process whereby additional resources are plowed into a failing project. This chapter examines the possibility that some of these escalation issues could be appropriately managed by avoiding irrational actions and rationally responding to various situations that may occur in a VLITP. Later on in the chapter, the author disperses popular belief that VLITP outsourcing is in the nature of partnership and strategic alliances. It exposes that VLITP outsourcing vendors do not share the same profit motives as the host organization who is meant to enjoy the benefits of the VLITP and therefore baring the full cost of the implementation. It further suggests that a tight contract is the only mechanism to ensure that expectations of the host organization are met. Host organizations must negotiate and agree that the contract contains a number key issues including a successful outsourcing relationship between the host organization and the outsourcing vendor.

Service-Oriented Architecture

For centuries, organizations have been trying to exchange information between their applications by linking them together. However, such application integration has not been as successful as organizations have hoped. With the introduction of SOA, application integration is more successful than the previous integration techniques. SOA is a design philosophy in which resources are cleanly partitioned into remotely accessible software components performing self-contained functionalities, called services. The reinvention of SOA in recent times is attributed to the rise of Web Services, which has become commonly used in VLITP to expose services within the host organization. However SOA can also be implemented with other service exposing techniques. SOA is based on the concept of separation of concerns, realizing that no single entity can be best at everything. SOA is usually implemented using an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). The ESB is responsible for routing, prioritizing, scheduling, monitoring, and controlling the flow of traffic between services and therefore forms the middleware for Service Orientation.

Ergonomics of Very Large IT Projects

Medical accidents, such as those that occur as a consequence of errors in medical systems, rarely happen because of a single failure. They are usually the consequence of a multiple breakdown in the system. This chapter explores the potential for risk and, demonstrates the need to improve design interventions in a VLITP context. It considers issues that range from the design, packaging and labelling of VLITP environment in which medical systems error might occur. The ergonomics systems approach to VLITP is an appropriate method for involving all key users and for addressing their needs. This requires generic issues to be considered. Such issues include: task design, interface analysis, communication interface, variation in user characteristics, and needs (including motivation and culture), training needs, work organizational issues, and the evaluation of interventions and current practice.

IT Security

One area that has scarcely received attention in the IT security literature, is the role that individual compliance plays in preventing cyber-attacks. Specifically, how individuals take precautions, how they are motivated to take precautions, and the impact of corporate security policies on individual precaution-taking behaviour have not been extensively researched. Existing literature has underdeveloped conceptualizations of how these control systems work in the realm of information security. This chapter adds to the body of knowledge concerning the socio-organizational perspective for understanding IT security management in the organization that implement VLITP. It examines the VLITP implementation process for achieving IT security management BS 7799 Part 2 certification. The author also gives regards to the role of individual perceptions of the compulsion of controls as a significant part of the IT security process. Focusing more on behavioural aspects of security during the implementation of VLITP, this book considers Information security is to be different from computer security—which is the encompassing of information security in addition to the other aspects of security such as technical aspects, physical security, system security, networking issues, and so forth.. IT security risk considerations cause are capable of causing particular concern on the interdependence of IT systems and inject another element of complexity in the application of the policies governing VLITPs.

Case Study I

The National Programme for Information Technology is the largest civil IT program worldwide at an estimated cost of £6.2 bn, US$ 10 billion, over a ten-year period. Launched in 2002, it provides an opportunity for the IT service industry to develop business models in the UK healthcare sector in which, historically, has seen low investment in IT services. Despite highly publicised large-scale IT outsourcing contracts, many IT vendors have been unable to fulfil the rigid terms and conditions of their contracts. The chapter provides current additional evidence to that found in the literature on emerging technologies in the health sector. It aims to investigate some of the issues that are associated with the implementation of the emerging technologies in the NHS and explores whether the implementation of the National Program, by the NHSIA, would bring value to patient care, and influence staff perception of IS.

Business Process Management

The chapter seeks to advance the practice perspective of VLITP by drawing attention to individual, collective sub-teams and host organizational sense making. It reveals some of the inner workings of VLITP implementation strategies in practice today and attempts to form the theoretical bases for examining a case for BPM in VLITP implementation situations. The chapter looks at various BPM concepts including BPM practices in project management, since the mid 1990’s, though originating from the early 1920s. It introduces three waves of BPM throughout the years before providing a comprehensive definition of BPM in the VLITP situation.