Week 7: Background & Problem Statement

24 - 28 Oct 2011

After reading more from the literature and some books lent and proposed from the supervisor, it could be said that the term between IS & IT are interchangeable. 

Research Background:

The background of the research explicitly tells in an overview of what the project is consisting of a brief description upon; effective communication, outsourcing, stakeholder view (as the effective communication for the outsourcing is viewed from the perspective of "Stakeholders" - discussed upon Stakeholder Relationship Management Maturity (SRMM) with PM Aishah; yet to be included).

Problem Statement:

The difficulty of communicating in IS outsourcing projects leads to the escalation of negative synergy between client and vendor and in some way directs the outsourced projects to face failure.

A preliminary interview conducted with Mrs. Razilah Bt. Doraman, the Information Technology Officer, at Lembaga Urus Air Selangor (LUAS), stated that communication is one of the major problem that exist between the employee of the agency and the vendor in outsourcing projects.

A Communication Manager for a major Outsoursourcing Account claims that:

“Less than optimal communication tends to lie in lack of true understanding of the importance of communication. What happens when communication does not work? Basically, anything can happen – and whatever happens is likely to do so in an uncontrolled manner. Thus, communication is a key factor in delivering successful   outsourcing results.”

IS project failure has often been associated with the inadequacy of needs resulting from poor communications (Avison, 2008). To further strengthen the statement, another literature analysis stated that one of the issues experienced in IS outsourcing project, is a breakdown in communication among the client and vendor (Smuts, Kotze, Merwe & Loock, 2010).

This project will provide an implementation of effective communication model to assist LUAS for their communication management for future IS outsourcing projects and concurrently may minimize the chance of having unclear understandings and alignment between the client and vendor of the outsourcing project and reduce the possibility for the project to face failure.