Discuss the role and impact projects have on organizations. IT projects are planned organizational change; therefore, when you take on an IT project you are consciously planning on changing the organization. This can have intended and unintended consequences. In addition, IT projects tend to be very political because they can change the balances of power within the organization and change relationships among people within the organization. As a project manager or project team member, you must understand the organizational environment; otherwise, you can run the risk of walking into a political or cultural beehive.
Answered Essay: Discuss the role and impact projects have on organizations. IT projects are planned
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Organizations need to continuously transform, change and develop to stay relevant in the marketplace, stay ahead of competitors, enable business growth and efficient operations. Information Technology has become the key enabler for efficient business operations. Hence, to spearhead the transformation, firms are executing large IT projects which can result in both positive and negative consequences as highlighted below –
Positive consequences
1. Integration of business processes and transactions
2. Making the processes more efficient by establishing standard operating procedures captured in IT systems
3. Ease of audit of transactions
4. Lowered operational costs and reduced lead times
Negative consequences
1. Failure of systems would result in a standstill of operations
2. If firm’s resources are not well-skileld to handle the system issues, it would result in sever loss
3. Resistance to change and adapt to IT systems by the employees
