WHAT CHARACTERIZES SUCCESSFUL IT PROJECTS

Author(s):  
JAN TERJE KARLSEN ◽  
JEANETTE ANDERSEN ◽  
LIVE S. BIRKELY ◽  
ELISE ØDEGÅRD

This paper presents empirical research aimed at studying what characterizes successful information technology (IT) projects. There are often doubts about what characterizes project success and who actually defines it. In this paper, we have reviewed the literature and present significant contributions to the discussion of what characterizes successful IT projects. Furthermore, a survey was conducted in Norway to collect data on successful IT projects. Research results show that the five most important success criteria are: (1) the IT system works as expected and solves the problems, (2) satisfied users, (3) the IT system has high reliability, (4) the solution contributes to improved efficiency and competitive power, and (5) the IT system realizes strategic, tactical and operational objectives.

Author(s):  
Emad Abu-Shanab ◽  
Ashraf Al-Saggar

Information Technology (IT) projects have high failure and escalation rates because of the nature of domain and the rapid technology changes. It is important to understand the factors causing IT project success or failure. This chapter reviews the literature related to project failure and escalation and concludes with 17 important factors that cause IT projects to fail and 10 factors that contribute to the escalation of projects in time, cost, or scope. The concluded factors are utilized in an empirical study to explore the Jordanian environment and check the rank of these factors as perceived by Jordanian specialists. Conclusions and future work are stated at the end of this chapter.


Author(s):  
Chad J. Cray

Considering the high failure rate of information technology (IT) projects over the last 40 years, project managers should use all the tools at their disposal in order to make their project a success; however, more than half of all project managers fail to use a powerful tool that is readily available – a development methodology. A development methodology provides structure to a project, which facilitates communication, establishes expectations, enhances quality and promotes consistency. One potential reason project managers do not employ a development methodology is that selecting the correct methodology from among the hundreds available can be an overwhelming task. For this reason, understanding the decision-making process, and identifying those factors that influence it, is a worthwhile endeavor. While empirical research in this area is lacking, a review of the extant literature reveals several factors that are important when choosing a development methodology. In this chapter, many of these factors are identified, a model for categorizing them is proposed, and a model for selecting a methodology is presented.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 80-91
Author(s):  
Scott Winnard

Information technology (IT) tends to be viewed as ancillary to core government functions. Consequently, IT is often outsourced to the private sector. Unfortunately, there is a long line of failed outsourced projects. This article uses two New Zealand case studies, the particularly public failure of the recent school payroll system and the successful introduction of electronic immigration processing, to examine how the design and governance of outsourced government IT projects could be improved. It concludes that an awareness of historic trends is important for project success, that governments need to be more active in combating market based transaction costs and that contract management becomes a core government competency when projects are outsourced. It also argues that better change management and cognisance of design-reality gaps would positively impact the outcomes of future projects.


Author(s):  
Leonardo Lopes ◽  
Antonio Vico Mañas

The Information Technology (IT) has undergone profound and rapid changes in recent decades. In this context, organizations must be prepared to implement these technologies, on the form of projects, as quickly and effectively as possible, providing results before its competitors. Therefore, it can be noted that the delivery of a project on time, ever shorter, is essential. Considering these observations, the main purpose of this study is to explore how failures in IT project stakeholder management may impact, directly or indirectly, the deadlines of these projects. The empirical research, qualitative in nature, is of the exploratory type and counted with the participation of IT project managers and managers of IT project managers, who answered a semi structured interview and provided documents in support of the research. The transcripts of the interviews as well as the provided documents were used for the analysis of data content. As a final result of this study, the main failures in the stakeholder management that may compromise – mostly indirectly – the timely delivery of IT projects are identified and explored.


Author(s):  
Carl Marnewick ◽  
Josef Langerman

Information technology (IT) projects are not adding value to organizational strategies. This is due to the high failure rates of these projects. Agile is perceived as a possible solution to this dilemma and preliminary evidence indicates that this is actually the case. To enhance the success rates of IT projects, agile principles need to be adopted and this can only be done through a process of maturity. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the importance of agile in IT project success and to show how agile maturity can be achieved through the application of maturity models. Agile maturity models themselves are not the answer as organizations themselves should be agile mature. This is achieved through a new way of thinking and working. The conclusion is that there should be a new way of managing IT projects in order to achieve value.


Author(s):  
Habiba Shah ◽  
Syed Danial Hashmi ◽  
Iram Naz

Using evolutionary perspective of gossip and knowledge-based view, the study proposes knowledge sharing behaviour as the underlying mechanism that helps in establishing the relationship between positive workplace gossip and success of IT projects. The study used multi-source and multi-layered data collection technique; data were collected from 304 employees working in information technology (IT) projects within Pakistan. The study used peer reports for knowledge sharing behaviour, while gossip and project success were self-reported. Results of the study show that positive workplace gossip has a positive relation with project success. The study also found support of partial mediation of knowledge sharing behaviour between positive workplace gossip and project success. These results have crucial implications for policy makers and project managers of IT projects. The findings reveal the importance of informal social networks of project team members towards project success. Managers shall device such mechanisms that allow for propagation of informal networks and knowledge sharing. Keywords Critical Success Factors, Information Technology Projects, Knowledge Sharing Behaviour, Positive Workplace Gossip, Project Success.


Author(s):  
John Nicholas ◽  
Gezinus Hidding

Success in information technology (IT) projects remains elusive, even after decades of efforts to improve it.   Most of these efforts have focused on variations of the traditional project management paradigm as promulgated by PMBOK.  We suspected that a potential cause of high IT project failure is with the paradigm, which focuses on the project itself and on meeting time and cost targets.  A new paradigm called Value-Driven Change Leadership (VDCL) originated from discussions of a panel of project management experts.  This paper describes the principles of that paradigm.  It also reports the results from a survey of four project managers on the association between project success and management principles from VDCL and PMBOK.


Author(s):  
Dothang Truong ◽  
Thawatchai Jitbaipoon

Dynamic and unpredictable business environments in the information technology (IT) sector have led to a rapid growth of agile methodologies. Organizations claim that using agile methodologies can enhance the success of IT projects in such environments. However, fluctuating patterns of successful and failed agile IT projects recently raise a question about a path to successful IT projects using agile methodologies. The purpose of this research is to examine agile driven factors and relationships between them and IT project success. Data collected from a pilot survey of agile practitioners were used to confirm important agile driven factors: Agile Team Capability, IT Development Agility, and Agile Culture. The research also tested a structural model that examined indirect impacts of IT development agility and agile culture on project success via a mediation of agile team capability. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Yuhendri L.V

The development of information technology has spawned the innovation of learning technology, one of which is the application of E-learning that develops along the paradigm of learning changes. Implementation of E-learning in addition to providing benefits are also still faced with various problems that become challenges in the application of E-learning resulting in a variety of perceptions that develop in society. This article aims to describe the opportunities, challenges, and implementation of E-learning in Indonesia. This paper is a literature review by using relevant sources related to theoretical and empirical reviews of E-learning challenges, opportunities, and implementation. Sources of theoretical reviews use books, other documents on E-learning, while for empirical reviews using research results published in scientific journals.


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