Framework for IT Project Management During the COVID-19

Pandemic

Victoria Marciano

and Tevin Moodley

Academy of Computer Science and Software Engineering, University of Johannesburg,

Corner Kingsway and University Road, Johannesburg, South Africa

Keywords: Pandemic, Work from Home, COVID-19, IT Project Management.

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many restrictions enforced in our daily lives in an attempt to curb

the virus and protect people. However, there are many scenarios in which working from home is not possible.

The pandemic has also caused the distribution of misinformation, resulting in behaviours that affect the health

and safety of employees. This paper aims to discuss the effect of COVID-19 on Information Technology (IT)

Project Management and formulate a framework to assist organisations in effectively handling the

management of IT projects during future similar events. Three areas of concern were identified from a

literature review: The management of physical space to prevent the spread of disease and ensuring that service

level agreements with clients contain clauses pertaining to provided services under extreme conditions such

as a pandemic. Secondly, the people management aspect ensures employees are productive and placed in

teams where they are most effective. Finally, the Agile approach used as a whole ensures that the organisation

is always prepared to deal with change. This paper combines these concepts to provide a framework that

tackles the problems that arise in the management of IT projects during COVID-19 and any future similar

crises.

1 INTRODUCTION

Recent years have seen the COVID-19 virus have a

drastic impact around the world in a variety of

different ways. A significant impact on working

people has been the restriction of working from home

in order to avoid transmission of the disease. Working

from home is beneficial when the work-life balance

is properly maintained (Chu et al., 2022). However,

many jobs do not suit working from home (Lund et

al., 2021). The Information Technology (IT) sector

within the context of this study refers specifically to

those dealing with hardware on-site, such as the

maintenance of server rooms and company machines,

or having to deal with sensitive data that should not

leave company premises and should only be accessed

through the local intranet network (Anand, 2021).

It was found that there was insufficient research

into methods and guidelines that could guide IT

Project Management during a pandemic such as

COVID-19, which prompted this study.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0474-7967

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5330-3908

The majority of work in IT, such as software

development and hardware maintenance, cannot be

completed by a singular person and requires

teamwork, which means that in the case of COVID

and in any future disease outbreaks on such a large

scale, there needs to be a reliable framework on how

this kind of work can be done in order to be completed

effectively and safely for everyone involved.

This framework must involve any processes that

the organisation usually undergoes regarding IT and

should also include the education and training of

employees in combatting misinformation they may be

exposed to that could jeopardise the organisation or

the individual.

The remaining paper follows with Section 2, a

literature review of related works in the field of IT

Project Management relating to the current pandemic.

Section 3 discusses the method followed to

deconstruct this problem by using the associated

works found and separating them into areas of

concern. Section 4 contains the results found and the

Marciano, V. and Moodley, T.

Framework for IT Project Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

DOI: 10.5220/0011756600003494

In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Finance, Economics, Management and IT Business (FEMIB 2023), pages 68-75

ISBN: 978-989-758-646-0; ISSN: 2184-5891

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

discussion of the formulated framework. Finally, the

paper concludes with Section 5, which outlines the

conclusions, limitations, and further research areas.

2 PROBLEM BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in sweeping

changes to the world of work in recent years,

including in the IT Project Management sector, such

as the move from working in an office to working

from home and in-person meetings going online

(Nguyen-Duc et al., 2022). The pandemic forced

organisations to change the way their employees

worked, as well as how they communicated with their

customers.

Shamin (2022) compiled a report on the various

impacts that the pandemic had on project

management; it was found that the first notable

impact was on communication; organisations had to

move to remote work, so communication happened in

online meetings rather than in the in-person. These

meetings were held in virtual teams, and chats were

used for minor issues that did not warrant full

meetings. Managers were found to detect problems

faster due to this constant communication; however,

participation rates in online meetings were low (Hale

& Grenny, 2020). The subsequent impact was that

project planning was found to take longer due to

uncertainties and delays in the initiation phase

because stakeholders became unsure of the future.

Some projects that required face-to-face interaction

were also delayed, and their operations had to be

paused due to the restrictions on working on-site.

Employees also felt more pressure due to work and

home responsibilities overlapping, resulting in

increased working hours and isolation. Many project

teams had to shift their focus to the essential and

critical processes and infrastructures that were

required for the business function to continue during

the pandemic, sometimes finding innovative ways to

accomplish their goals. For example, software such as

Google Drive was used to form a centralised data

store where all relevant documents could be accessed

by all team members anytime, allowing project

managers to monitor progress more efficiently

(Shamim, 2022).

Having discussed the impacts that COVID had on

Project Management (PM) processes, the problematic

effects of the pandemic on PM will be addressed in

the following section, starting with the impact of

misinformation.

2.1 Related Works

2.1.1 Infodemic

The term Infodemic refers to the “information

epidemic”; that is, the overload of information being

spread during a disease outbreak, with most of it false,

misleading, and/or harmful. According to the World

Health Organisation (WHO), an infodemic can lead

to the public mistrusting their health authorities and

governments, as they will regard all information with

suspicion, even those coming from trustworthy

sources. It undermines the public health response,

which can lengthen or intensify an outbreak, as the

public could be unsure about the manner in which

their health can be protected and the health of those

around them (WHO, n.d.). These effects can be felt in

the workplace, which must be prevented to ensure the

health of employees and customers.

The growing use of social media and the internet

during the world’s digitisation has resulted in the

rapid spread of information, and due to the freedom

of social media sites, the vast majority of this

information is not fact-checked or reliable. (Basol et

al., 2021) states that this amplifies harmful messages,

which are specifically aimed at catching the attention

of a large number of people through the use of

alarmist language and outrageous claims.

The misinformation being spread covers a wide

range of topics, some of which are extremely

dangerous and can cause hospitalisation or even

death. There are also many conspiracy theories

surrounding the entire outbreak, such as the origin of

the epidemic being a deliberate biological terror

attack, a mistaken leak from a lab that was covered

up, the consumption of a bat in a restaurant, etc.

Theories that governments are causing coverups to

hide facts have caused people to think that authorities

cannot be trusted. This misinformation has been

shown to travel further and faster through social

media than legitimate, accurate information. Due to

the sheer amount of misinformation and repeated

exposure, people are more likely to believe in this

false information. The misinformation poses a

problem in that any policies put forth in an

organisation can come to nothing if those who are

meant to abide by such policies to protect their own

health and that of their colleagues instead believe the

misinformation. Thus, organisations must do their

utmost to ensure that misinformation is kept at a

minimum from the very beginning.

The WHO lists the following four methods that

are mainly used to fight an Infodemic and show the

community that their concerns are heard and that all

Framework for IT Project Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic

reasonable possible measures are being taken to

combat such a disease outbreak (WHO, n.d.): the first

method is that of listening to the concerns of the

community and their questions. Secondly,

organisations should promote awareness and

understanding of health risks and expert health

advice. Thirdly organisations must build resilience to

misinformation. Finally, engaging with and

empowering communities to take positive action

ensures that employees can focus on their work

because they are being kept up to date with reliable

information instead of jeopardising their colleagues’

health and the progress being made on the project

they are working on.

2.1.2 Agile Transformation

Bushuyev, Bushuiev & Bushuieva (2020) explored

the phenomenon of the COVID-19 Infodemic and

proposed that an Agile Transformation be used in

managing projects and programs to deal with

misinformation. It was found that the first key

principle to consider in this topic is that of ignoring

resistance to change, which refers to the fact that the

majority of people are resistant to change and cling to

the old (Bushuyev et al., 2020); ignoring this fact can

result in failure. Secondly, the lack of change being

comfortable refers to the fact that when lack of

change is the status quo, it becomes a challenge to

deal with because remaining the same is easy and

known territory. In contrast, change is unfamiliar and

can give rise to fears. For example, if rewards have

always been given to individuals, how does one come

to work in a team? How does one learn to self-

organise if they have always been under strict

subordination? This means that change is a long,

arduous process and must be implemented carefully,

leading to the next point, which is teamwork.

There are three common mistakes when creating

a team for agile projects. Firstly, selecting team

members based on psychological compatibility. A

common goal and teamwork should be used instead

to unite the team. Secondly, reforming existing teams

for potential psychological compatibility destroys the

team’s foundations; creating a new team in a new

environment is more effective. Finally,

underestimating the value of diversity as people with

dissimilar personalities and backgrounds are more

effective because they bring in more differing

background experiences and enhance relationships

(Bushuyev et al., 2020).

It is also important to note that while a team must

be cohesive in order to work effectively and

efficiently, a balance must be kept as the impact of

having a team that is too cohesive can have

disadvantages in decision-making. When team

members think alike, a small number of options are

considered in group decisions, and initial goals are

not further reviewed or contested. To avoid changing

the course of action, newly discovered risks are not

considered, and decisions that have already been

rejected are not re-examined when new information

is found. Furthermore, no external experts can bring

their knowledge and experience. The group might

also prioritise information supporting their original

decisions and ignore those conflicting with it. Finally,

the group does not consider the effects of bureaucracy

and their organisation on their decisions as they are

too used to working within the group.

Figure 1 (Bushuyev et al., 2020) illustrates the life

cycle of a project manager presented as a Kuber-Ross

curve for personal changes. It demonstrates that the

beginning stages of a change are met with resistance

and a drop in performance due to shock, denial,

frustration, and depression, which affect both the

project management team and beyond. This is

followed by experimentation, decision and

integration as the change is slowly accepted and

implemented (Bushuyev et al., 2020). By using agile

methodologies, one can become more accustomed to

this lifecycle and react to changes faster, resulting in

less time being spent languishing in phases 1 and 2.

Rather, the more productive phase 3 will be

predominant.

Figure 1: A figure illustrating the curve of an IT Project

Manager’s personal changes. (Bushuyev et al., 2020: 8).

It is found that in order to manage these problems

of the maladaptive defences (Bovey & Hede, 2001)

causing resistance to change in phases 1 and 2

successfully, the following rules should be followed

(Bushuyev et al., 2020):

1. There must be mutual trust when implementing

tasks, social-ethical norms should be followed, and

work must be oriented towards fruitful cooperation

and commitment.

2. All tasks, roles, jargon, etc., must be clearly

defined and explained.

FEMIB 2023 - 5th International Conference on Finance, Economics, Management and IT Business

3. There must be good availability for any

professional skills that might be needed for the

project.

4. There must be a common space where

stakeholders can meet and engage professionally,

with a minimum set of engagement rules.

The use of specialised agile tools such as Kanban,

P2M, Kaizen, and others should be implemented to

increase the effectiveness of project implementation.

These tools can be used in all aspects of project

management, such as development and operations in

IT.

2.1.3 Impact on Security

There are two main areas of work in IT; that is,

Development and Operations (Ng et al., 2020).

Software Development can be completed anywhere

by collaborating online with tools such as GitHub or

Bitbucket. Operations sometimes need to be on-site,

typically at data centres, because tasks that need to be

completed usually include the maintenance of Client

and Service-Level agreements, as well as the

installation, monitoring and maintenance of hardware

systems (Pnet, n.d) in order to protect against

breakdown and cyber-attacks by installing patches

that close off vulnerability and gaps in security. This

patch management and the processes related to it are

often required to be completed in a controlled

environment on-site in order to prevent security

breaches.

In order to ensure that project managers can lead

their teams by maintaining motivation rather than

forcing employees to work, an agile approach should

be implemented both in day-to-day project

management as well as in crisis. This will accomplish

multiple goals, which include that of team motivation

as well as others that align with Agile principles. The

following considerations have been identified that

align with the agile manifesto (Ng et al., 2020):

The first point of concern is that when considering

the interactions of individuals, ensure that meetings

are made virtual whenever it is possible to do so.

Regular meetings should be virtual, and multiple call

centres should be set up to ensure a backup of

spatially separated service delivery in the event of an

outbreak. Next, contract negotiations with clients

should be held in which service-level agreements are

redefined to include clauses that allow for deviation

from the contract under extreme circumstances, such

as a pandemic or some other such crisis, in order to

focus only on critical business functions rather than

maintaining the entire system. Finally, Standard

Operating Procedures should be re-examined and

altered to promote resiliency when making changes,

which requires some level of expertise to anticipate,

detect and evaluate shocks.

2.1.4 Employee Exhaustion

The changes COVID-19 has caused in organisations

have caused immense stress on employees. Dealing

with change is stressful even in normal times

(Sutherland & Cooper, 2006). Transitions and other

pressures caused by the pandemic have taken an extra

toll on the well-being of employees. Due to the

inherent need for collaborations in projects, many

organisations have minimised face-to-face contact as

much as possible and rather implemented full-time

teleworking, which has resulted in adjustments being

made in the workplace to ensure employees keep up

with their tasks.

The exhaustion of employees can be measured by

recording the number and types of unfinished tasks an

employee has once they have finished working.

Trends have shown that employees are likely to

prioritise tasks related to COVID-19, resulting in

neglect of other everyday tasks. Persistent unfinished

tasks are a strong indicator that an employee is

exhausted.

Agile project management is an effective

management approach that aims to support

adjustment to change within an organisation

(Bergmann & Karwowski, 2019). Employees who

work in environments that apply agile methodologies

experience high levels of autonomy and freedom, as

well as equality and iterative delivery of work items.

Employees do not need to adhere to long-term plans

and are, therefore, more adaptable to change (Koch &

Schermuly, 2021), which means they are less likely

to experience exhaustion and burnout.

Employees suffering from mental and physical

exhaustion are more likely to make mistakes in their

work, perform poorly in their duties, and even

become physically sick and therefore need to take

time off during a critical time (Kim & Wright, 2007).

2.1.5 Critical Success Factors in Managing

IT Projects

A research study was conducted in Indonesia by

surveying 83 people in various positions and

companies that work on IT projects. The study

identifies 12 critical success factors (CSF) in IT

Project Management, and a further 12 success factors

were identified that were deemed to have a lesser

impact on project success but that are still important

(Wahbi et al., 2020):

Framework for IT Project Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Table 1: Critical Success Factors in Managing IT Projects.

Critical Success Factors Other Success Factors

The efficient use of an

Information Technology

Communication tool, such

as Zoom, Email, Microsoft

Teams, etc.

Intellectual knowledge

of technical skills

required for the project.

Commitment from the

highest levels of

management.

Skills relating to

technology, networking,

and multidisciplinary

skills.

Support from heads of the

family when working from

home.

Experience and

knowledge when

working with virtual

teams.

Perception of the work-life

balance by family when

working from home.

Composition of the

team.

5. Integrity.

Adaptivity

regarding cultural and

regional differences.

Being part of a project

team that is competent.

Leadership being

inclusive.

Leadership skills from

managers.

Set goals being

achievable.

Tolerance of family to

share interior spaces when

working from home.

Qualification of leader.

Having team members’

roles and responsibilities

clearly defined.

Set goals being

measurable.

10.

Organisational

Culture

The skill sets of

team members are

diverse.

11. Comfort.

The freedom to

choose work tasks.

12.

Actions by leadership

to create and foster trust.

Having changeable

goals.

3 METHOD

A narrative literature review was conducted, which

found three main areas of concern that affect the

management of IT projects during a pandemic which

will be used to formulate the framework in Section 4.

3.1 Physical Space and SLAs

One of the big problems faced during COVID was

that of working on-site. Certain industries, such as

those providing essential services, must stay working

to keep society functional, and IT services can be

classed as essential, especially when everyone

working remotely relies on IT to be able to do so.

As Ng, Navaretnam and Wei (2020) mention,

physical locations are important for IT companies, so

decisions must be made regarding what must be done

when these locations are impaired (Ng et al., 2020).

The obvious solution is to have multiple backup

locations in case a primary location becomes

unusable. However, in the case of a pandemic, the

issue is not an entire site becoming unusable but

rather the number of people who can work on that site

safely to limit the spread of the virus. The South

African Government (SA Gov, n.d.) has regulations

in place for employers, including rotating shifts and

staggered break times, the use of physical barriers

where social distancing is not possible, and the use of

personal protective equipment (PPE). This must be

applied to any situations where employees must work

on-site; for instance, in the case of hardware

maintenance, the number of employees allowed to

work at the same time should be limited, and they

should be wearing PPE during that time.

The negotiation of SLAs assists in lessening the

burdens on staff by containing clauses that specify the

required minimum capacity of services to be provided

in such times of crisis rather than requiring all

operations to be run as usual.

3.2 Human Resources

It is important to remember that everyone working in

an organisation is only human, and meeting their

needs will ensure they are productive. COVID was

found to impact employee exhaustion (Koch &

Schermuly, 2021) (Shamim, 2022). This results from

the blending of work and home responsibilities in

those working remotely, resulting in longer work

hours and the prioritisation of COVID-related tasks

over other work tasks. Exhausted employees are less

productive and are prone to making mistakes.

Measuring tasks can ensure that management can step

in and prevent employees from reaching this state.

The organisation should also take steps to prevent

the spread of misinformation among employees.

COVID was accompanied by an infodemic that

should be stopped whenever possible by giving

employees reliable information from trustworthy

sources to ensure that employees do not undermine

the company’s efforts to keep them safe by believing

and spreading misinformation (WHO, n.d.).

The CSF above show that in IT PM, many social

factors influence a project’s success, which must be

kept in mind (Wahbi et al., 2020). Teams should be

formed with careful consideration to ensure that they

work well together and yet not so well that they cause

problems (Bushuyev et al., 2020).

3.3 Agile Approach

All these factors should be accomplished while

following agile methodologies. Agile focusses on

FEMIB 2023 - 5th International Conference on Finance, Economics, Management and IT Business

change. It assumes that change is always a factor and

that everything should be based on change; therefore,

it promotes rapid adaptability in times of uncertainty

to produce something of value (Wangsa et al., 2022).

Daily meetings with stakeholders to discuss

progress and changes and Kanban boards to

collaborate are methods used in Agile. Agile is

already widespread in IT, especially in software

development, and has shown many benefits. By

adopting this as a management framework as well,

personnel are likely to become more used to the

concept of change. This means that when needing to

adapt to significant changes, such as those caused by

the pandemic, people are more likely to respond

positively in more productive ways, such as humour

and anticipation, rather than maladaptively, such as

with denial and disassociation (Bovey & Hede, 2001).

The Agile PM framework has principles that

guide management in running projects in such a way

that changes are expected and incorporated into the

daily routine. This is done by following the Agile

Manifesto by stating how projects should develop and

what should be prioritised.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

There are many factors to consider. Throughout the

framework, the CSF listed in Table 1 must be kept in

mind to continue implementing the project

successfully while protecting the health and safety of

employees.

The framework illustrated below in Figure 2

combines concepts into a comprehensive set of

instructions that allow an organisation to manage IT

projects effectively during a pandemic like COVID-

19.

Figure 2: The proposed Framework for IT Project

Management during COVID-19.

This framework has the bottom-most stage being the

most important and the top-most stage being the least

important. Agile Management is the most important

stage, as it forms the basis of the stages that follow.

The people management stage is built upon the Agile

methodology and requires that it be in place.

Likewise, the final stage of Physical Space and SLAs

requires that the previous two stages are in practice.

This is because agile management must take into

account the practices of the organisation as a whole,

which guides the management of personnel. Physical

Spaces and SLAs are much easier to manage and

change than the mindset of an organisation and must

therefore be built upon the basis of the other two tiers.

4.1 Agile Management

The most important aspect of Agile is adaptability.

This stage is fulfilled by ensuring that the

organisation follows Agile principles. This will fulfil

four central values: Trust, Flexibility, Empowerment,

and Collaboration. Agile is already used in software

development, as it combines traditional aspects with

modern requirements to use an iterative approach to

continually improve the work at hand. These

principles are also used in project management, as

outlined in the Agile Manifesto (Bergmann &

Karwowski, 2019). This ensures that when changes

must be made, especially in the field of IT and when

a crisis such as a pandemic occurs, employees are

adaptable and prepared to accept and implement the

change. The type of change that will be faced in times

of crisis cannot be foreseen, but by adopting an agile

methodology, people become used to the concept of

change, and when facing sudden change that cannot

be avoided, are more likely to respond efficiently and

effectively rather than maladaptively. This is done

mainly by having regular meetings, which should be

made virtual whenever possible and using agile tools

such as Kanban boards to assist in this approach.

This is accomplished by fulfilling the following

(Bergmann & Karwowski, 2019):

1. Approach All Project Management with an

Iterative Approach. This will ensure that nothing is

set in stone, as factors covered in the planning phase

will be revisited throughout the project, allowing for

adaptive changes.

2. Enable Constant Collaboration Between

Stakeholders to Ensure Customer Satisfaction and

Team Understanding. This step is essential for this

framework, as any big change requires that all parties

are informed and can make key decisions based on

this new information. Team members also require

clear communication daily in order to work

Framework for IT Project Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic

effectively and efficiently. Such interactions between

the individuals involved in the project are more

important than the processes and tools used, as they

will make the best use of available resources. During

a pandemic such as COVID-19, full use should be

made of available technologies for remote work, such

as online meetings, and collaborative tools like Git to

prevent the spread of disease.

3. Break Up Projects Into Smaller Segments

which Are Then Prioritised and Tackled in order

of Priority. In this way, large projects can be

completed part by part, allowing each part to be

completed and tested before it is added to the whole.

4. Prioritise Working End Products Over

Comprehensive Documentation. Documentation is

important, but when facing an emergency situation,

the focus should be on ensuring that the main

requirements of the project are met, as documentation

can still be completed after the deadline.

4.2 People Management

People are precious resources and are integral to the

success of a project. As such, it is of vital importance

that they are managed effectively in order for them to

be productive and safe.

1. Compose Effective Teams. Project team

members should be carefully selected to ensure that

they have a diverse skill set that complements each

other and that they can work well together but not so

much that they form cliques to the detriment of the

project. This ensures that in times of crisis, team

members can depend on each other to be productive

and effective without being reduced to petty social

conflicts (Bushuyev et al., 2020).

2. Combat Employee Exhaustion: Use

consistent unfinished tasks as a metric to detect when

employees are exhausted and susceptible to poor

performance (Sutherland & Cooper, 2006) so that

employee burnout can be reduced, especially at times

when staff shortages can result in significant damage

to an organisation being strained by a crisis such as a

pandemic. This ensures that employees are mentally

healthy and keep up productivity.

3. Combat Misinformation: This is

accomplished by raising awareness about it and

educating employees about correct information

distributed by proper authorities (WHO, n.d).

Misinformation can undo any policy or guideline an

organisation has in place. Hence, it is important to

pre-emptively combat this and ensure that employees

are well-informed and aware of the facts at all times

and can stay as safe as possible.

Once the People Management aspect of the

framework has been addressed, and the foundational

aspects that should be in place during normal

circumstances have been implemented, the

framework will address pandemic-specific changes.

4.3 Physical Space and SLAs

The final tier of the framework addresses the changes

that must be made once the pandemic does affect the

organisation (Ng et al., 2020):

1. Managing the Physical Workspace.

Physical on-site spaces should be increased to ensure

adequate space for employees to work together when

necessary while maintaining enough distance to be

safe. Suppose a large enough space is not available.

In that case, this can even be implemented by way of

splitting up separate rooms with ventilation so that

while team members need to work together on a

project in close communication, they will not be in

direct contact in close quarters.

2. Negotiate SLAs. Negotiate agreements with

clients to make provisions for extreme circumstances

such as COVID-19 to ensure that in such cases,

requirements for the project shrink to only require

core services rather than entire system maintenance.

This ensures that critical services stay running rather

than straining resources to maintain non-critical

systems resulting in unaffordable downtime.

5 CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, this paper has found three main areas

of concern regarding the effects of COVID on IT PM:

physical space, human resources, and the agile

approach. Using these identified areas of concern, a

framework was formulated that aims to help protect

on-site and remote employees during a major and

prolonged disease outbreak. It was found that the

combination of these methods by using the

framework in Section 4 offers the best scenario for

keeping workers safe during a situation such as the

COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper first introduced the problem in the

introduction and then conducted a narrative literature

review of related works on the topic of dealing with

COVID-19 in IT PM. This was used to formulate a

framework to help solve the identified problems, and

then the framework was presented and discussed.

Limitations of this research that could be handled

in future works entail surveys gathered from IT

companies to further explore each topic mentioned in

this paper in depth to determine how effective such a

FEMIB 2023 - 5th International Conference on Finance, Economics, Management and IT Business

framework is in the industry and how it can be

improved upon.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work is based on the research supported wholly

by the National Research Foundation of South Africa

(Grant Number MND211014645184).

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Framework for IT Project Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic