Exploring the role of un-enacted projects in IT project portfolio management

Abstract

From the IT governance point of view, one central project portfolio management task is to ensure that official projects draw upon assigned human resources. However, a common phenomenon is that resources thought to be available often turn out to be actually unavailable. Previous research indicates that numerous unofficial initiatives are a typical cause of this observation. These un-enacted projects are those projects that have not been officially evaluated but do exist although they are not known to a company’s project portfolio. The result is that unofficial initiatives compete for scarce resources. Despite these resource issues, previous research has barely investigated unenacted projects. By building on four in-depth case studies, this exploratory study investigates the major drivers of the occurrence of un-enacted projects and their specific characteristics and found a great variety in respect of the type of un-enacted projects and the reasons for them being triggered in organizations.