IT Project Showstopper : The view of practitioners

TL;DR

This paper identifies critical showstoppers in IT projects within the SDLC through interviews with managers in Ghana, highlighting key factors like expertise, strategic alignment, and funding that influence project success.

Contribution

It provides a novel categorization of 19 critical IT project showstoppers across the SDLC based on practitioner insights in Ghana.

Findings

Expertise and availability of project teams are crucial.

Strategic alignment and business case are essential for project success.

Funding and approval processes significantly impact project continuity.

Abstract

The study intended to unravel critical IT project showstoppers which tend to halt IT projects temporarily or permanently, and ultimately cause them to fail, by positioning them in the systems development life cycle (SDLC) framework. Interviewing 8 IT project and program managers of the banking and telecommunications industries in Ghana individually and in a group, 19 critical showstoppers were identified spanning the whole SDLC. Generally, it was observed that for the successful completion of IT projects, the expertise and availability of project managers and team members are critical. Again, the project manager must be able to prove that the project is in line with the objectives and strategic direction of the business, is being mounted to gain competitive advantage, and has a solid business case. Thirdly, funding is key at all stages of the cycle, as well as approval for continuation at various stages.