Towards a Description of the Lifecycle of Digital Transformation Projects

Digital transformation projects (DTP) enable new kinds of either inter- or intra-organizational collaboration on the foundation of digital technologies such as the Internet of Things/ industry 4.0 and bring about organizational change. The speed of innovation; the interconnectedness of technologies; a diverse stakeholder environment; dependencies with other business activities; activities of business process management and change management all turn the management of DTP into a challenging endeavour. This is particularly true for their budgeting that does not seem to match descriptions of project management lifecycle models from recognized international project management standards. Based on this observation, a secondary analysis of interview data from two series of qualitative interviews was performed. In this article we scrutinize the applicability of popular lifecycle models to DTP. Therewith, this research contributes to a better understanding of DTPs’ lifecycles and builds a foundation for the development of a methodology for their management.

digital transformation

digital transformation
projects

grounded theory

project management
standards

project management lifecycle

qualitative research