Understanding enterprise integration project risks: A focus group study

The prerequisites of success and reasons for failure for enterprise integration projects are still not well-understood as evidenced by large failure rates, including cost or schedule overruns, abandoned projects, and projects delivered with diminished functionality. These failures point to the inherently human activities of planning and overseeing that are critical to successful large-scale integration. In spite of a rich stream of research on systems development risks, few research efforts have attempted to understand enterprise integration risks. This paper reports preliminary findings, based on an analysis of data gathered via focus groups at an organization poised to embark on an integration project, about how organizational participants perceive these risks. The analysis shows that risk perception is fuzzy, it differs significantly across organizational actors, and points to considerable information asymmetry between risk managers and project participants.