What we Never have, we Never Miss? Decision Error and the Risks of Premature Termination

Review and critique of the information systems development project failure literature: An argument for exploring information systems development project distress

High failure rates of information systems development (ISD) projects continue to trouble organizations and information systems practices. Such a state of affairs has been of great concern for the information systems discipline for decades, motivating information systems researchers to focus on and extensively study ISD project failure. However, the increasing complexity and uncertainty of ISD projects and contemporary system development processes are challenging ISD project failure scholarship. In this article, we ask the questions: What are the contributions and weaknesses of the extant ISD project failure/success literature? What are potential avenues to move the ISD literature forward? To answer these questions, first, we present a literature review that assesses research contributions within the major perspectives on ISD failure (i.e. rationalist, process and narrative). While the extant research within all perspectives make significant contributions to knowledge, we find that researchers remain preoccupied with ‘project failure’ as an end state of an ISD project. They pay little attention to problematic situations arising during ISD projects before they become failed projects. Based on the review and critique of the literature, we then argue that there is a significant benefit in extending research focus from ISD project failure to ‘ISD project distress’, which we define as a harmful project condition involving dynamic and fluid constellation of critical problems that are difficult to identify, understand and resolve. While ISD project distress is an increasingly perilous and consequential phenomenon, little is known about its nature and potential responses. Drawing from the sensemaking literature, we propose a multilevel theoretical framework for understanding the nature and sources of ISD project distress that provides a foundation for exploring early detection and timely response. We demonstrate the theoretical and practical relevance of the concept of ISD project distress and propose a corresponding research agenda.

Escalation of commitment and information security: theories and implications

Purpose

This study aims to explore the challenges that the escalation of commitment poses to information security.

Design/methodology/approach

Two distinct scenarios of escalation behavior are presented based on literature review. Psychological, organizational and economic theories on escalation of commitment are reviewed and applied to the area of information security.

Findings

Escalation of commitment involves continuation of a course of action after receiving negative information about it. In the information security compliance context, escalation affects a firm when an employee decides to break the firm’s information security policy to complete a failing task. In the information security investment context, escalation occurs if a manager continues investment in policies and solutions that are ineffective because of psychological, organizational or economic factors. Both of these types of escalation may be prevented with de-escalation techniques including a change in management or rotation of duties, monitoring, auditing and governance mechanisms.

Practical implications

Implications of escalation of commitment behavior for information security decision-makers and for future research are discussed.

Originality/value

This study complements the literature by establishing the context of escalation of commitment in decisions related to information security and reviewing managerial and economic theories on escalation of commitment.

MIS and Illusions of Control: An Analysis of the Risks of Risk Management

Dysfunctional MIS is an important topic but one that has received comparatively little attention in the literature. This discussion paper attaches new literature to the subject. The new literature centres upon the epistemological status of certain forms of MIS. More specifically, it is argued that MIS, based upon metonymy (part for whole substitution), can seriously mislead managers because the representation gets mistaken for the reality. The demonstration is based on high level risk registers. Risk registers were selected for analysis because they are ubiquitous and important decision support systems. In theory, diligent use of risk registers should virtually eliminate unpleasant surprises. In practice, the result may be an illusion of control. Analysis draws upon sociology and psychology to explain why this may be so.