IT projects driven by regulatory forces : A case study of project management execution of regulatory IT projects within Nordea

Information Technology (IT) projects suffer from high failure rates, a fact that could not haveescaped organizations. The increase of IT projects is evident within the financial sector, partlydue to the regulatory landscape that has evolved after the financial crisis in 2007-08, resultingin that large IT projects are initiated. To facilitate the managing of IT projects, projectmanagement is commonly incorporated as support for the execution. Through conducting acase study of two large on going regulatory IT projects within Nordea, this study answers thequestions “How is project management executed in regulatory driven IT projects?” and“What factors are of particular importance in the studied context?”. The empirical findingswere analysed by using theory from the field of project management that emphasizes the useof people- and tool factors in the execution, which were found applied in Nordea. Thefindings also found the project manager, possession an retention of IT- business- andregulatory knowledge, communication, Time Management, Quality Management, RiskManagement and the Business Case to be of particular importance to comprehend inregulatory IT projects. However, some of the factors of the project management execution arenot utilized to its full potential, which further inhibits the possibility of achieving projectmanagement success