Professional Practice in Project Management Project

Northumbria University MSc Programme & Project Management LD7005 Professional Practice in Project Management Project Choose research area Preliminary research Decide research topic Decide methodology Submit/present proposal Finalise methodology Conduct research Analyse data Write up

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RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL TEMPLATE 1

PRELIMINARY INFORMATION

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STUDENT # In this section, you must include your Northumbria University student ID

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WORD COUNT 1500 Words

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RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL

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TITLE OF RESEARCH PROJECT Analysing the stakeholder approach to successful completion and adoption of Information Technology projects

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PROPOSAL INTRODUCTION/RATIONALE In this section, you must provide a succinct description of what you intend to do, why it is important to the project management discipline, what you hope to achieve, and how it will benefit project management practice and your own career aspirations. (500 Words) Stakeholders play an integral role in information technology (IT) projects in terms of influencing project outcomes. Diverse stakeholders within the organizational network interact LD7005 Professional Practice in Project Management Project

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over the course of project completion, and this can be construed as a collection of relationships, explicit or implicit, which cover across organizational contexts (Rajablu et al., 2015). Ineffective stakeholder management strategies have an adverse impact on stakeholder satisfaction and subsequent organizational success. Mukherjee (2019) established that projects without committed stakeholders are more likely to fail, leading to disruption in organizational processes and other unpredictable consequences. Therefore, project leaders should recognize the relative impact of addressing stakeholder needs to effectively manage stakeholders.

IT projects are regarded as critical to business strategy and the realization of operational excellence. However, the adoption of new technology-based projects is associated with high prices and risk. The context within which IT projects are implemented is filled with different risks and underlying costs that the project manager should address. The stakeholder theory advances the position that stakeholders are one of the groups that a corporation must serve. As postulated in this theory, anyone that is impacted by an organization or its functioning in any way is regarded as a stakeholder, including personnel, customers, suppliers, local communities, government agencies, and governmental groups. From the project management perspective, the stakeholder model implies considering the needs of each stakeholder with a vested interest in a given project.

The new business context where IT is integrated into project management has a broad stakeholder community, often comprised of decentralized virtual teams working in remote regions. IT project managers are, therefore, confronted with increased diversity and geographical distribution of the project stakeholders. As noted by Mukherjee (2019), the stakeholder theory compels organisations to recognize their responsibility towards parties engaged in organizational processes beyond stakeholders. In this effect, IT project managers apply the stakeholder theory in the creation and enforcement of project stakeholder management approaches.

The rationale of the study is that an IT project manager can increase the economic value of projects by understanding the interest of stakeholders and integrating their knowledge, contribution, support, skills, and expertise in project management. The project is intended at examining the extent of project managers' understanding and adoption of the stakeholder approach to project management impacts on successful implementation of IT projects. Project managers implementing IT projects can increase the economic value realized from these initiatives through stakeholder engagement. One major issue that faces IT projects is the high rate of failures associated with inadequate stakeholder management (Aranyossy et al., 2018).

Differences in perspective between stakeholders who may have opposing interests and expectations may negatively impact project success. Therefore, the project is aimed at building consensus among stakeholders to attain project success in regard to stakeholder management strategies adopted by project managers in charge of IT projects.

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RESEARCH QUESTION/OBJECTIVES The objective of the study is to examine how the project managers' understanding and adoption of the stakeholder approach to project management impacts the success of IT projects.

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INTRODUCTORY LITERATURE REVIEW

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Organizations cannot exist independently, thus stakeholders are considered imperative in helping the successful realization of set goals. Stakeholder engagement in organizational function is a concept that has been extensively researched, and scholars agree that the effectiveness of stakeholder management strategies positively influences organizational outcomes (Oppong et al., 2017). However, there is little consensus on how project managers can effectively implement stakeholder management strategies to attain project success. Harrison et al. (2019) describe stakeholders as parties without whose support the organization would cease to thrive. Research into stakeholder involvement in organizational processes is based on the stakeholder theory, which places emphasis on the importance of integrating the interest of stakeholders in organizational decision-making processes.

Rajablu et al. (2015) assert that organizations have evolved from having minimal interaction with the environment and entities that are actively engaged in their internal and external environments. The stakeholder model was advanced by Freeman, who perceived stakeholders as independent single actors in organizational processes (Harrison et al., 2019). As posited by Aranyossy et al. (2018), stakeholders sit within a broad perspective and the interdependent relationships are important in facilitating their engagement in organizational processes. All stakeholders, both internal and external, play a strategic position in the organization and they have the power to influence managerial decisions.

De Gooyert et al. (2017) investigated the role of stakeholders in operational research using the stakeholder theory perspective. The stakeholder theory posits that organizations and corporations have a mandate to strive to do the right thing by all that stakeholders to attain sustainable success. As asserted by Rose et al. (2018), organizations enter into relationships with organizations through engagement and the company’s actions should be directly aimed at making them feel intrinsically motivated. The stakeholder theory is focused on intrinsically motivating stakeholders for favourable decision-making that considers the interests and needs of the stakeholder. Indeed, the relationship between stakeholders and the organization is interdependent, thus decision-making should consider the needs and interests of stakeholders.

To facilitate the engagement of stakeholders in the execution of projects, project managers adopt the approach of strategic management. Whereas Freeman advocates for the stakeholder theory to engagement, De Oliveira and Rabechini (2019), emphasize the stakeholder management influence on trust in a project and its contribution to achieving project success. Mainly, the application of stakeholder engagement in projects is adopted in the implementation of project strategies to influence the success of different types of projects. Projects ate complex in nature, and adhere to predefined structures, thus the essence of considering the interests and abilities of stakeholders in achieving project success (Harrison et al., 2019). As the project progresses, the project manager may switch from one stakeholder to the other. To this effect, Harrison et al.

(2019) affirm the need of the project manager to engaged different stakeholders at different phases of the project to achieve project success. The rationale for the position is that when stakeholders are engaged at every phase of the project, they have a sound understanding of the project goals and this contributes to enhanced success.

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PROPOSED METHODOLOGY The available approaches to conduct research include a quantitative design that uses numerical data, a qualitative approach that applies non-numeric variables, and the missed approach which incorporates both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The current research is an explorative study to determine stakeholder management strategies applied by project managers overseeing

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IT projects. The goal is to gain a deep understanding of business processes, and procedures and how stakeholders can be engaged in decision making. The qualitative approach is ideal in the given research context as it an in-depth examination of data to facilitate understanding of a subject and the relationship between variables. The variables in the research include stakeholder management and project success. Therefore, the goal is to examine how IT manager adoption of stakeholder management strategies impacts project success. Therefore, the qualitative approach will be adopted to get deep insight into the subject by interviewing the project managers.

To facilitate an in-depth study, a multiple-site study will be conducted to investigate the stakeholder management strategies adopted across different settings. The target population for the study includes project managers in charge of IT projects. The inclusion criterion is project managers who have demonstrated success in attaining project goals. The sampling approach will apply selection criteria to select an ideal sample, comprised of project managers who have been engaged in IT projects. Purposeful sampling will be applied to select the appropriate sample comprised of project managers who have been involved in IT projects. Criterion sampling will be adopted as purposeful sampling that will narrow the extent of variation and select a sample focused on similarities. The sampling criteria will include the selection of participants who have met the predetermined criteria.

The sample size is will be comprised of eight project managers who have been engaged in the execution of IT projects. These participants have experience undertaking projects and are aware of the process and extent to which stakeholder engagement could impact project success. The method that will be applied to collect is through the use of an interview schedule comprised of different concepts regarding stakeholder management and project management.

Ethical considerations will be taken into account when engaging the participants who will be involved in the project. The engagement in the research is voluntary, and informed consent of all participants will be sought before engaging them in the process. Participation in the research will be on a voluntary basis and there will be no compensation for participants. The privacy and confidentiality of the research will also be maintained and the collected data will be solely used for the project.

Qualitative data analysis will be undertaken, and the process will include identification, examination, and patterns, and themes in the collected data. The analysis is undertaken to determine how the emerging patterns and themes are resourceful in answering the research question being investigated. The emerging themes and patterns will then be analysed and represented to establish the relationship between the variables being studied.

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REFERENCES

Reference List Aranyossy, M., Blaskovics, B., & Horváth, Á. A. 2018. How universal are IT project success and failure factors? Evidence from Hungary. Information Systems Management, 35(1), 15-28.

De Gooyert, V., Rouwette, E., Van Kranenburg, H., & Freeman, E. 2017. Reviewing the role of stakeholders in operational research: A stakeholder theory perspective. European Journal of Operational Research, 262(2), 402-410.

De Oliveira, G. F., & Rabechini Jr, R. 2019. Stakeholder management influence on trust in a project: A quantitative study. International Journal of Project Management, 37(1), 131-144.

Harrison, J. S., Barney, J. B., Freeman, R. E., & Phillips, R. A. (Eds.). (2019). The Cambridge handbook of stakeholder theory. Cambridge University Press.

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Mukherjee, S. 2019. How stakeholder engagement affects IT projects. Available at SSRN 3415959.

Rajablu, M., Marthandan, G., & Yusoff, W. F. W. 2015. Managing for stakeholders: the role of stakeholder-based management in project success. Asian Social Science, 11(3), 111.

Oppong, G. D., Chan, A. P., & Dansoh, A. 2017. A review of stakeholder management performance attributes in construction projects. International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), 1037-1051.

Rose, J., Flak, L. S., & Saebo, O. 2018. Stakeholder theory for the E-government context: Framing a value-oriented normative core. Government Information Quarterly, 35(3), 362-374.

RESEARCH PROJECT PLAN Gantt Chart

Choose research area Preliminary research Decide research topic Decide methodology Submit/present proposal Finalise methodology Conduct research Analyse data Write up

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