A Systemic Exploration of the Risk Factors in Zimbabwean Information Technology Projects

This paper explores the risk factors threatening Zimbabwean Information Technology (IT) projects and build a systemic model demonstrating how the identified risk factors are interconnected. Drawn on systemic thinking, a soft systems approach called Interactive Management (IM) was adopted to identify the risk factors. The Interactive Management session involved the relevant stakeholders to interactively produce the systemic model through four major phases: idea generation, idea clarification, idea structuring, and interpretation of the structured ideas. The output of the Interactive Management process is a digraph showing the causal relationships between the identified risks. Six risk drivers were identified through the Interactive Management process: limited computer literacy, poor communication, lack of executive support, complexity of design, bureaucracy, and employee turnover. The constructed model demonstrates how the identified risk factors are interconnected. It also shows that non-linear relationships exist between risk factors. The output from this exploration has the potential to be used as a starting point to mitigate the risks impacting on Zimbabwean IT projects. Different from the output of frequently used approaches, the risk drivers identified in the systemic model inform decision makers to exploit the effective strategies in preventing other risks from materializing.