Faktorer som försvårar styrning av projekt : En fallstudie om projektstyrning vid implementering av affärssystem

AbstractAuthors: Karoline Johansson and Ida VictorinBackground and problem: Organizations are becoming more project centric in order to solve different tasks. The increased use of projects is based both on increased market competition, the need for flexibility and technological developments. Extensive and complex projects are often unsuccessful and the challenge is to use project management and control to avoid negative effects. A project type that suffers from delays, unfulfilled expectations from customers and exceeded budgets is ERP-implementation (Enterprise Resource Planning) projects.Purpose: Based on this, the purpose of this study was to describe the role of project management in these types of projects. The study also aimed at identifying the difficulties encountered during the implementations of ERP systems. The project life cycle enabled the linking if problems to different project phases. As a theoretical basis, previous studies on project management, project control, the iron triangle (time, quality and cost) and project life cycle has been used.Method: The study applied a qualitative research method. Empirical material has been collected through semi-structured interviews with three experienced project managers.Results: The results show that there are several difficulties that may be related to project management and control in the ERP implementations. According to the study, most challenges appear in the initial phases of the project. The study has identified four problem areas related to project management and control. The problems consists of communication between customer and supplier, vendor dependent factors, customer internal factors and project changes. Data collection verifies that these concepts represent prominent problems that challenge project management.