Effects of Organisational Maturity on IT Initiatives

Achieving organisational maturity has been a long
standing Information Technology initiative
delivery issue. Maturity in organisations becomes
increasingly more important as IT initiatives
expand at such a pace that they create a need for
appreciation between IT and Business as to what each
uniquely bring to further the success of IT
initiative delivery. The purpose of this research
was to determine whether lack of maturity of
organisations creates precipitating factors which
lead to unsuccessful IT initiative delivery.
The findings were: There are low levels of maturity in organisations. There are low levels of IT initiative delivery. The importance of IT was acknowledged strongly but
the influence of IT on delivery was weak.
These results show that there is a lack of maturity
in organisations, influenced by poor governance and
alignment of processes and people management,
leading to failure to achieve successful outcomes
for IT initiatives.
A case study was provided as an example, through an
in-depth contextual study, of how a mature approach
to IT initiative induction was instrumental in
improving the success of a business.

Autorentext
David Funchall works for Southpaw Solutions, a leading consultancy company offering solutions for managing change in a great number of diverse blue-chip companies. David holds a Masters degree in Information Technology (Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria) and is currently working towards a Doctorate in Information Technology.

Klappentext
Achieving organisational maturity has been a long standing Information Technology initiative delivery issue. Maturity in organisations becomes increasingly more important as IT initiatives expand at such a pace that they create a need for appreciation between IT and Business as to what each uniquely bring to further the success of IT initiative delivery. The purpose of this research was to determine whether lack of maturity of organisations creates precipitating factors which lead to unsuccessful IT initiative delivery. The findings were: . There are low levels of maturity in organisations. . There are low levels of IT initiative delivery. . The importance of IT was acknowledged strongly but the influence of IT on delivery was weak. These results show that there is a lack of maturity in organisations, influenced by poor governance and alignment of processes and people management, leading to failure to achieve successful outcomes for IT initiatives. A case study was provided as an example, through an in-depth contextual study, of how a mature approach to IT initiative induction was instrumental in improving the success of a business.