The notion of Web 2.0, PM 2.0 and web technologies in general having positive impacts on organizations and especially projects is a popular discussion topic. Ranging from blatant marketing hype, to somewhat dubious web surveys, to actual refereed journal articles, there is a huge amount of information floating around.
This months IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Volume 57, Number 2, has a paper titled "The Strategic Implications of Web Technologies: A Process Model of How Web Technologies Enhance Organizational Performance, Barney C. C. Tan, Shan L. Pan, and Ray Hackney, pp. 181-197.
The abstract of the paper states
The lack of knowledge on 1) how Web technologies support the business strategies of an organization and 2) how Web technologies enhance organizational performance are gaps in the existing literature that may account for the inability of the majority of Web-based firms to leverage their investments in Web technologies. To address these knowledge gaps, a theoretical lens is constructed from five core logics in organizational literature that represent the different possible ways of enhancing organizational performance. ... Specifically, our study reveals that the process through which Web technologies enhance organizational performance is contingent on the state of the organizational environment. When the environment is in a state of equilibrium,Web technologies can enhance organizational performance by facilitating the attainment of competitive advantage through three distinct mechanisms: the logics of positioning, leverage, and opportunity. Conversely, when the environment is in a state of revolution,Web technologies can give rise to performance gains by supporting the attainment of legitimacy through two distinct mechanisms: the logics of optimality and social congruence.
So when there is a claim of benefit, whether from a product supplier or an interested party conducting a survey, care is needed to establish a domain and context for these claims.
The authors conclude:
This underscores the central premise of this paper that ... the effective leverage of Web technologies, is not dependent on technical excellence but rather the intricate fit between technology, strategy, and the external environment. By tracing the underlying process through which Web technologies enhance organizational performance in its entirety, and providing prescriptions on how to achieve the requisite technology-strategy-environment fit, it is hoped that if existing investments in Web technologies have not translated to better organizational performance, the process theory developed in this article can be used as a roadmap to help managers and practitioners to identify the “missing link” in the process, so that they may adopt the appropriate remedial measures to realign their investment to the path of success.
Success starts not with technology - never has never will - but with processes aligned with the strategic initiatives of the organizations.
It ain't the tools, it's the process
