Time, Budget, and Functionality? - IT Project Success Criteria Revised

Abstract

Every time the Standish Chaos report is issued, it provides pessimistic data according to which more than 60% of IT projects turn out to be challenged or failed. Small positive changes in these statistics over the years do not respond to the concurrent improvements in the fields of project management, IT knowledge and risk management. The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants of the Enterprise Systems’ implementation projects’ success evaluation from the perspective of the adopting organizations, and to make a proposal of success criteria that are in line with perceptions of project success within these organizations by answering the following research questions:

• What criteria are used in the evaluation of a project success/failure? • Is the alignment with the budged and/or schedule a determinant of project success perception within the organization? • What criteria determine the project evaluation as a success or failure? • How the context of the budget/schedule deviations from the plan affect the project success perception?

The empirical research is based on a mixed quantitative-qualitative approach.

Keywords: IT project success evaluation, project success criteria, empirical study

JEL Classification: L86