The document discusses the importance of communication, collaboration, and teamwork for the successful completion of information systems projects. It notes that these factors are crucial for managing complex software projects, especially those that are globally distributed. Effective communication, collaboration, and teamwork help ensure projects are completed on time, within budget, and meet requirements. When these factors are lacking, projects are more likely to fail or run over budget.

1. Communication, collaboration, and teamwork are increasingly important for the
successful completion of information systems projects.
Abbas Ahmed
Student ID: 20026831
Email: abbas.ad.ahmed@gmail.com
MSc in Global Financial Information Systems
Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland
ABSTRACT
The paper identifies the factors whichcontributein success of information systems development projects. Organisations are encouraging their employees to
engage in the process to completethe softwareprojects in a cost effective manner anddeliverthe highquality products on time. Inrecent years organisations
are communicatingwith enduser of the product in order tomeet the consumerrequirement. Thepaper examines the relationship between communication,
collaborationandteamwork in completionof informationsystems projects. The paperexamines the issues relatingto the globally distributed projects where
teams are dividedgeographicallyandrequires high level ofcommunicationin ordertocomplete the projects. In order to maintain the quality of software
throughout the project the collaboration plays an important role to help customer in problem solving. Thus the organisations with the high level of
collaboration, communicationandteamworkcan succeedto meet theobjectives of the project. Properlyexecutedinformation and positive feedback helps to
deliver project more effectively.
Keywords: Communication, Collaboration, Teamwork
1. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this report is to explore some issues in managing
information systems project and importance of communication,
collaboration and teamwork in completion of software projects. The
companies are becomingmore complex in terms of their structure and
increasing volume of data. There is rapid increase in the software
industry. The companies need to design software in order to stay
competitive in the market.
Software industry is changed from webto mobile appdevelopment where
smart phones and tablets are playing an important role to meet the
consumer requirement.The success of softwaredevelopment depends on
the good project management skills in order to meet the customer
requirement. Research shows that most of the software projects fails
because lack of project management skills. Theauthor will highlight the
issues related to information systems projects and their complexity.
In recent years the increasingdemandof mobile computing technology
and globalisation has changed the business activities. The demand of
informationsystems projects are increasing with high volume of users.
Projects are managedin different location as a result of outsourcingsome
of the activities in order toreduce the cost ofthe software. Information
systems projects success depends on its system quality, usage, and
customer behaviour and consumer satisfaction.
The literature identifies many issues in execution of software projects.
Project delays can cost companies millions in additional cost.The success
of the project depends on the structure ofthe organisation. Organisations
are tryingtoget moreandmore data in order to create a better image in
the market. Project managers need a proper planning in building and
informationsystems development.The selection of software is the first
step in project.
The challenge to software industry is the participation of user in the
software development process. Inthe last couple ofyears the changes in
technologyhas forcedthe companies to change in their systems and to
meet the demand of the market these companies are updating their
systems. The biggest challenge to project manager is to keep the old
system running while updating or designing the new one.
In the last number of years information systems project have been
distributedglobally. The author will further discuss the importance of
communication, collaboration and teamwork in globally distributed
projects where teams are distributed geographically. The globally
distributedproject fails due to lackof understanding of culture, politics,
social and technical knowledge.
One of the complexnatures of information systems projects is system
migrationprojects. It takes high level of communication, collaboration
and teamwork to complete the project.
2. IMPORTANCEOF COMMUNICATION IN
COMPLETION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
PROJECTS
Communication is veryimportant in software projects to connect every
member of project teamtoachievethe targets and goals associated with
the projects. Softwareprojects arecomplex in nature and organisations
cannot affordthe overly budget projects tostay in a competitive market.
The success of software projects depends on communication between the
project team and it helps projects to complete within the budget and
delivery of product ontime.The communication is increasinglyimportant
in every stage of the projects. Software projects involve many people
with different background, skills, and experiences which need an
effective communication to discuss the outcome of the projects.
Accordingto Wolf et al, 2009communicationis important in distributed
software projects where projects include wide range of activity in the
process. Wolfstatedthat poor communication can affect to a successful
collaborationin the projects. There aredifferent types ofcommunication
methods in completion ofsoftware development projects such as face to
face meetings, video conferencing, phone calls, text chat and email but

2. most effective way is face to face communication (Cockburn, 2002;
Stapel et al., 2009). Theknowledge of communicationmethods is vital in
completionof software projects in order to understandthe complexity of
the projects and it is important to choose the right method of
communicationin completionof software projects (Damianet al., 2007;
Herbsleb, 2007). Accordingto (McGrath 1996)the software projects are
knowledge base andthe success of projects depends on the information
sharedbetween the teaminvolve in the software development. McGrath
statedthat communication between stakeholders is very important in
order to produce the market oriented software product. The research
shows that encouragingcommunication in thesoftware projects strength
the relationship between the different functions in the project.
The Agile Manifesto (Beck et al, 2001) explains the importance of
communication between business customers and developers in
completing the agile software development projects.
The above diagramexplains therole ofcommunication in the software
development projects. Input describes the teammembers andthesystem.
The model explains that project success cannot be achieved without
communication. Communicationplays an important role where all the
informationis processedandsharedbetween theteams. One of the Agile
approachis oral communicationwith the customerto identify the issues
andcustomer requirement in the software development. It is found that
the companies with a higherlevel ofcommunicationare more likely to be
success in information systems projects.
Accordingto Pikkarainen,2012, the communication can be challenging
where team members of the project involves in theother projects at the
same time andit can increase the level of responsibility to achieve the
target of one particular project. The time is one of the major issues in
communicationwhere team is engagedin manyprojects andthere is not
enough time toorganise facetoface meetingor email orcommunication
over the phone. According to Tom L. Roberts, Paul H. Cheney, and
Paul D. Sweeney, organisations are relying on teams and increasing
number of groups. The organisationperformance in Information systems
projects depends on thereliability andeffectiveness of the information
sharedbetween the groups. Thecommunicationplays an important role
in flowof information betweenthe groups when projects become more
complex and involves large teams and groups. The communication
infrastructureis necessaryin organisation as it helps teams to understand
the objective of the project. The studies show that the success of
InformationSystems project depends on effective communication and
poor communication has results the project tofail. Inrecent years there is
increase in communicationbetween end users and the software project
teams to gather information about the user requirement for the new
system and it has a positive impact on organisational performance.
Informationsystems projects require thecommunication between three
groups such as stakeholders, software project team andmanagement. The
goodcommunicationin each stage of Informationsystems project allows
all the team members to focus on their role and its relation to the
successful completion of the project.
Figure 2. Roberts et al(2002): Project characteristics and group
communication
The above diagram explains the group communication level in the
InformationSystems projects.The projects with higher complexity tend
to have higher communication level and projects with moderate
complexity have lower communication level.
Geaney, 1995; Bloom, 1996 highlighted the importance of necessary
skills in managingthe softwareprojects such as ability to manage people,
communication, stress and emotion.
3. IMPORTANCEOF COLLABORATION IN
COMPLETION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
PROJECTS
Accordingto Faraj & Sproull, 2000collaboration is a complex process
andit requires great attentionin eachstage ofthe project. Project success
andperformance depends on the level of collaboration amongthe teams.
The collaboration requires motivation among the team members which
helps them to achieve the targets related to the projects. Personal
satisfaction is an important element of collaboration where groups or
teams are working together on Information System projects. Some
projects needglobal collaborationwhere teammembers are collaborating
with other teammember in different countries. Managingglobal software
projects require knowledge of different culture and time zone in
collaborating with teams in a different geographical location and it
creates additional challenges to theteam involves in information software
projects. According to DeMarco (1982) that 15% of the software
development projects do not provide any results and fails to deliver the
user requirement. The common issues in software projects are delays,
over budget, poor reliability,maintenance problem and poor reliability
(Abdel-Hamid and Madnick, 1990).
Collaboration brings the skills andexpertise together in order tocomplete
the task relatedto projects. Effectivecollaboration depends on the level
of encouragement andcontribution ofall themembers or group involve
in the project (Katherine Alison Lawrence, 2005). Collaboration is a
mutual effort of groups or teams involve in the software development and
they share the responsibility. Information systems projects need a
collaborative technologies in order to meet the projects outcome.
Software projects are growing in a fast pace, teams are distributed
globally to complete themultiple tasks andusers varies in terms of their
requirement (Nitchi, StefanIoan; Mihaila,Alin,2009). The collaboration
is a complex process in large software projects where projects where
activities are distributedglobally andproject success depends on the team
involve in the project and lack of collaboration can be problem in
achievingthe objective of the project. Effective collaboration in large
projects helps teams to worktogether to achieve the target associated in
completionof software. Generallylack ofcommunication contributes in

3. failure of software projects but on the other hand lack of collaboration
between project teams can damage the projects.
Gray 1989; Mattessich et al. 2001, described the importance of
collaboration in software projects and importance of trust. Trust is
important element ofcollaborationandit helps teams toshare their ideas
and facilitate the disclosure of information. The one of the issue in
collaborationin the projects is conflict between theteams. There are high
level of conflict in globally distributed projects where teams have
different goal andtargets. The globally distributedteams need high level
of collaboration and coordination in project to success (Peffers, Ken,
2005).
The success of systemdevelopment projects depends on the tools use in
the development process and collaboration mechanism (Carmel,
1999; Majchrzak et al.,2000; Herbslebet al., 2002).The companies with
goodICT infrastructure use reliable collaborative technologies such as
email, instant messaging, phone, video conferencing and electronic
meetingin order totransfer data more quick andeffectively. Theglobally
distributedISprojects are farmore complexas comparetosingle location
projects andcollaboration becomes morecomplex in terms of distance,
time zone and cultural difference.
Software development involves collaborative and coordination effort
amongthe teams (David Arve, 2010). The collaboration level varies
dependingon thesize of the projects. “Weneedtofindways to decrease
the amount oftime spent [coordinating] and increase the time available
for designing, codingandtesting.” – Babichin. Theinformationsoftware
projects are structured in terms of coordination between developers,
management andtesterin order tospeedthe delivery ofthe product tothe
customer anddirection helps themtocontrol ofeach stage of theprojects
(David Arve, 2010).
Figure 3. Collaboration pattern (David Arve, 2010)
The above figure explains the collaboration pattern in software
development. Coordination is important in all stages of software
development in order to make some changes in the design, system
migrationor updatingthe oldsoftware. Lackof coordinationbetween the
project teams can cause delays and incur cost to the project. Many
organisations followthe collaborationpatternin order to solve problemin
the software development.
4. IMPORTANCEOF TEAMWORK IN COMPLETION
OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS PROJECT
Organisations are highlydependingon team based structure in order to
complete the projects successfully. Team members share their knowledge
andexpertise to meet the projects requirement. Teamwork increases the
ability of all members to deliver the project on time and in budget.
Accordingto Nikhil Mehta (2006) team involves in software projects
depends on knowledge integration,team related issues to these projects
include teams’ knowledge heterogeneity, relational capital, and
boundary-bufferingprocesses. Knowledge integration between theteams
is very important in the software projects it helps team to gather
informationandknowledge fromexternal andinternal source and utilise
the skills, expertise andknowledge to process the informationin order to
deliver the projects outcome (Grant 1996b; Tiwana et al.
Organisations are spendingbillions onsoftware development in order to
meet theuser requirement. Effective teamworkis becomingimportant in
the organisational issues in order to execute projects successfully.
Research shows the large numberof softwareprojects does not finish on
time anddoes not function properly.There are challenges toteamwork in
every stage of the software projects. Theperformance of team is highly
dependent onthe effectiveness of the teamworkcoordination (Kraut and
Streeter 1995, Nidumolu 1995, Wholey et al).
Implementingsoftwaredevelopment is one ofthe biggest challenges for
any organisation.Organisationis concernedabout the project failures and
quality of software.Teamworkis an essential part of the project and it is
extremely important in qualityof theproject.The success of the project
depends on the trust between software developer’s team, project
managers andteamleaders (BernardWong, Mahwish Bhatti, 2009). The
informationsystems industryhas a high labour turnover and it requires
substantial amount of work and innovative skills of each individual
workingon the projects. The teams involve in the information systems
project shouldbe highly creative in order tounderstandthe complexityof
the project because teammembers are theoneresponsible for the project
outcome.Coordinating, teamwork and shared knowledge of teams are
very important in the success of the projects. The information system
projects if conductedin teams have greaterproductivity and deliver the
better performance (Ancona & Caldwell, 1992).
In recent years organisations are encouraging the importance of
teamwork in managing the projects. It helps to share expertise and
knowledge of team members from different areas which leads to the
performance ofteam. AccordingtoOslon, (2001)software development
is considered innovative projects and developing software has a high
level of complexity in the process. For instance providing software
solution to an organisation includes technical information, data
requirement and upgradingor customisationof existingsoftware canlead
to high uncertainty in the process.
5. CONCLUSION
In conclusion theimportance of communication is crucial in success of
informationsystems projects. Effective communication helps to achieve
the projects objective. The most of the software projects have a good
starts but as the project progress teams need to communicate with each
other in order to stay focus on the objective of the project. The
collaborationhas a bigimpact on completing the information systems
project. Software projects are innovative and technical nature where
collaborationplays an important role to share the expertise and skills to
complete the project on time. Teamwork is one of the major factors
which contribute tothe success or failureof informationsystems projects.
Workingin a team canreduce the risk in theproject. Informationsystems
project teams include project managers, developers, testers and
consumers. Most of the projects are distributed globally so
communication, collaborationandteamworkare increasingly important
in completion of information software projects. Organisations are
investingbillions to improve theirstructureof effective communication,
collaboration and teamwork in order to stay competitive.

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