The Impact of Organizational Structure and Culture in IT Projects
As an Implementation Analyst at a major healthcare organization in Nashville, TN, my role involved providing, updating, training and supporting proprietary software to over 300 users. On average, the company provided three to four upgrades a quarter and approximately one new implementation a year. The biggest issue completing the job involved the fact that the employees’ workday could not be interrupted for the time required to check configurations for compatibility; the entire process had to be coordinated around 24/7 work schedules. The team consisted of eight employees, one lead and five analysts and employees of other departments.
The project involved the implementation, testing and training of a proprietary software package designed to facilitate responding to customer inquiries and to track categorically the types of call received. There are ongoing day-to-day repetitive processes in the organization that follow existing work procedures. According to the PMBOK, “a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result” (Project Management Institute, 2013). The fact that the task was temporary with a beginning and end in its engagement and longevity categorized it as a project (p. 3). The outcome after the ninety days that were required resulted in a unique service. Theoretically, the best approach was to deploy by department. The team that consisted of employees from technology, implementation, help-desk support and project management made it difficult to find a rhythm. The members of the other department brought prejudice about certain aspects of the project, as did our team. Collectively we all failed to consider the impact of vacations, new hires, transfers and employees that were out sick. An important factor in any project is time and the amount of time redoing certain aspects of the project and missed deadlines was a reflection of poor...