Question

Hi, can you answer this question in more detail?

Subject: Project Management

1.

Consider the criteria for successful IT projects. Why is IT project success often so difficult to assess? Make a case for some factors being more important than others.

Answer 1

Project success is determined by different factors. These factors can usually be measured that will define the success of the project. The project success criteria refer to measurable terms of what should be the outcome of the project that is acceptable to the end user, customer, and the stakeholders. In other words, the project success factors consist of activities or elements that are required to ensure successful completion of the project. In order to deliver project value, the success criteria should be well defined. Defining the project success criteria should be a practice of conciseness.

The three key factors that can define project success include the following.

• The Iron Triangle (Cost + Scope + Time)
• Realized Benefits
• Stakeholder satisfaction.

Projects can be rated as successful even though they do not or only partly fulfill the Iron Triangle's criteria. This is due to the fact that the Iron Triangle only measures the success of the project management process and thus only one aspect of the overall success. As a result, project success should be seen as multidimensional and should be measured with respect to all dimensions. Project success depends on the perception of the involved stakeholders. It is thus possible that a project manager would considers a project a success while a customer perceives it as failure because of its lack of business success. During the life cycle of a project serious modifications arise frequently due to altered requirements. The developed model consists of internal and external factors for calculating a success rating. The internal factors time, cost and performance refer to the implementation of the project and are relevant for the project manager and his team. They form the organization's internal view on the project. The external factors use (by intended users) satisfaction and effectiveness (benefits) comprise the external perspective of the customer. The more time passes, the higher the external factors' relevance becomes for the end rating: During the project the internal factors are of major significance. After completion it's the external factors.

In order to develop a model from a management’s viewpoint, only those persons' perspectives should be captured, who belong to the organization's management circle and are confronted with the evaluation of success of IT projects. This seems tempting since no model exists yet, which was solely derived from management's perspective.

Success criterion:

Reasonable resource planning: Adherence to resource planning, avoidance of capacity overload

User perspective: Positive user behavior, perceived usability, user satisfaction

Impact on organization: Achieving strategical benefits, support of company culture, advancement of organization

Evaluation of utility costs: Consideration of follow-up costs

Adherence to budget: Adherence to budget

Use of generated result: Intended use, easy adjustability, sustainable use

Achieved quality: Adherence to quality requirements

Realized scope: Realized scope

Customer perspective: Customer retention, customer satisfaction, recommendation

Team perspective: Human resources development, personal goals of team members, team satisfaction

Cooperation in project: Performance of project team, cooperation in project

Adherence to schedule: Adherence to schedule

Value of project: Reasonable cost-benefit ratio, contribution to business result, profitability

Goal-oriented proceeding Efficient implementation, extensive preparation

The criteria reveal several reasons why IT projects success would be difficult to evaluate. System quality such as ease of use and the level of quality information can be very subjective and judged in many ways since so many customer/users can be involved. The system quality can only be as good as the original request to the IT group. Vagueness or inaccuracy of the criteria due to lack of upfront research can be cause for waste of the project. It’s critical that key users are involved in determining as a group what would be optimum for everyone. Some of the benefits for one user may not apply or be a disadvantage for another user. System users will perceive quality in only the information they are generating or actionable. Use may vary depending on the need by certain parties. The system could met all the criteria in the original scope but if not used as planned would be difficult to assess level of success. This can skew results related to user satisfaction. Individual impact is also difficult to assess for several reasons.The main one is that there is no criterion that can meet the standard of every user. Varying degrees of system usefulness and varying degrees of importance of certain aspects of the system make it difficult. The most important factors would be those that relate to the generation of quality information and the impact this has on the individual and the organization. Information must be accurate to be of value and efficiently obtained.