My research aimed to address the question of how public sector organisations engage with external suppliers and consultants on IT projects.
Public sector expenditure on consultants and on IT projects is growing. To use consultants correctly and provide benefit to clients, the National Audit Office recommends building client and consultant commitment to a project through engagement. But how do people engage and how does engagement link with value?
That's the question I researched for my Phd at the Open University Business School.
- 2011 submitted my thesis.
- 2010 writing, analysing again, working out what all these people together have told me about engagement, and what the constraints in the public sector are, and what the constraints on IT projects are.
- 2008-2009 collected case study data - thank you to those organisations and individuals that shared their time and experience. I learned to use Nvivo software for qualitative analysis and I started writing up each case study as I gathered the data.
- 2007-2008 spent the first year of the PhD reading around my topic, learning about systematic reviews, intellectual property rights, Endnote and drawing software. I observed to learn from my senior student colleagues. I wrote a proposal and honed my research skills.
- 2006 I took a Master's in Research Methods.
