Drivers and Barriers Related to Project Management Software Implementation in Romanian Organizations: A Force Field Analysis

Theoretical Background

Few studies explicitly illustrate the differences between managing PM software implementation in public and private organizations. PM software frameworks have been developed and tested in the private sector and blindly adapting some frameworks to the public sector often lead to pitfalls (Cats-Baril and Thompson, 1995). Unlike private enterprise, public administration institutions do not encounter the competitive pressures that drive the organization to implement IT solutions in the short-term. While their survival as an institution is generally assumed, politics and politically motivated actions generally serve to disrupt long-range planning associated with and needed for effective software solutions (Bozeman and Kingsley, 1998). The public sector objectives in terms of PM technologies adoption are affected by the bureaucratic structures that are the primary inhibitors of change (Holmes, 2001), due to rules of operation, standard operating procedures, bureaucratic culture, levels of hierarchy and a variety of other factors (Keiser, 2011). PM software implementation success is a matter of perception and various project stakeholders would likely exhibit diverse expectations; critical success factors identified as relevant for PM software to the private sector must be assessed within the specific context of public administration implementation projects in order to determine their portability (Rosacker and Olson, 2008).

Project managers in the public sector face team management challenges such as: the inability to clearly link performance and reward and compensation systems that are considered unethical and the incapacity to select project team members based on their expertise (Wirick, 2011). In private organizations, sharing recognition for project success with the entire project team is perceived one of the biggest project team management challenges (Kerzner, 2013).

In the case of private organizations, the commitment to achieve project objectives is in line with the capability to share the project vision among the entire team. While in the case of public administration, the professional competencies in the area of PM relate to the execution of the public policies, being influenced to a great extent by the political competences, which are connected with values and power (Jałocha et al., 2014).