Cultural and Political Factors in the Design of ICT Projects in Developing Countries

In the quest for success and failure factors in ICT projects in developing countries, it has become clear that the search should focus on the environmental acceptance of such projects. In setting up an effective project organisation, management should not try to design a project as a self-sufficient unit that is isolated from its environment, but should try to develop it as a process of interaction with the environment. Only in this process of interaction can an optimum be reached between the technical quality and the environmental acceptance of an ICT project. This research report argues that the project environment should be divided into a political and a cultural dimension. Both dimensions are difficult to direct, but by analysing them it is possible to foresee problems between the project organisation and its environment. Instead of directing the political and cultural forces, the art of management lies in anticipating them in advance.

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