I.T. Project Success: Practical Frameworks based on key Project Control Variables

TL;DR

This paper develops practical frameworks based on key control variables like cost, time, scope, quality, risk, and benefits to enhance IT project success, emphasizing their interdependencies.

Contribution

It introduces frameworks that illustrate how interdependent control variables influence IT project success, based on qualitative interviews with industry professionals.

Findings

Control variables are interdependent and affect project success.

Key activities for controlling variables were identified.

Frameworks demonstrate variable dependencies and impact on success.

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to research into the interdependencies IT project control variables, and also come out with frameworks to help IT project managers understand how to effectively control these variables to ensure the success of IT projects. The study employed six control variables: Cost, Time (Schedule), Scope, Quality, Risk, and Benefits. A qualitative approach was adopted, where selected IT program and project managers of the Telecom industry in Ghana were interviewed individually and in a group based on a set of questions. The findings, espoused in the frameworks, reiterated the theory of the dependence of one control variable on the other, and the fact that varying one affects the others positively or negatively in relation to IT project success, as is the case for the iron triangle. Again, key activities of the control variables necessary to ensure IT project success were discovered.