The Evolving Roles of the IS Project Director

It is recognized that the implementation of a cross-functional enterprise system requires a more sustained and comprehensive change management program than is the case for classical IS application development. We can presume that the tools and techniques used to conduct such projects will differ, as will the roles and the responsibilities of each contributor to the projects. The impacts of this type of project on the organizational culture command the presence of an active and increased leadership. Confronted with this new challenge, companies are putting into place project management organizations that take into account the technological and the organizational complexity of their IS enterprise projects, as well as the presence of external contributors (software package suppliers, integrators) and internal stakeholders (end-users, process owners, IT support personnel). These organizations are usually headed by a project director, an internal resource whose concerns lie not only with the technological aspects of the Copyright © 2004. HEC Montréal 3 The Evolving Roles of the IS Project Director Carmen Bernier, Lucie Léveillé et Vital Roy project, but principally with the overall business solution aspects that the new system purports to introduce. This is what justifies our interest in the study of the managerial roles played by this principal actor in the implementation of cross-functional enterprise systems. The primary objective of this case-based research consists in identifying the dominant managerial roles exerted by the internal project directors in the implementation of a cross-functional enterprise system. For this purpose, we propose to compare the roles of project directors engaged in high organizational transformation projects to those of project directors engaged in low level of transformation IS projects. Evidence shows that, in order to comply with the allotted budget and schedule, the project director must adopt a sometimes transactional, sometimes transformational style of management. In an IS project involving a high level of organizational transformation, the transformational roles of the internal project director were found to be more dominant than in an IS project with a low level of organizational transformation. Conversely, within a low level of organizational transformation project, the transformational roles and transactional roles were both exerted by the internal project director to differing degrees, but the transactional roles were more dominant. Contrary to our expectations, however, in high level of organizational transformation projects, the transactional roles and the transformational roles appeared to be exerted at a comparable level.