De-Escalating IT Projects: The DMM Model

• Main Authors: FLYNN, Donal, PAN, Gary Shan Chi, KEIL, Mark, Mahring, Magnus
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2008
• Subjects: Accounting; Management Information Systems; Technology and Innovation
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soa_research/766; http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1562764.1562797
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Taming runaway Information Technology (IT) projects is a challenge that most organizations have faced and that managers continue to wrestle with. These are projects that grossly exceed their planned budgets and schedules, often by a factor of 2--3 fold or greater. Many end in failure; failure not only in the sense of budget or schedule, but in terms of delivered functionality as well. Runaway projects are frequently the result of escalating commitment to a failing course of action, a phenomenon that occurs when investments fail to work out as envisioned and decision-makers compound the problem by persisting irrationally. Keil, Mann, and Rai reported that 30--40% of IT projects exhibit some degree of escalation. To break the escalation cycle, de-escalation of commitment to the failing course of action must occur so that valuable resources can be channeled into more productive use. But, making de-escalation happen is neither easy nor intuitive.This article briefly examines three approaches that have been suggested for managing de-escalation. By combining elements from the three approaches, we introduce a de-escalation management maturity (DMM) model that provides a useful framework for improving practice.