Project Managers’ Perceptions of IS Project Success Criteria – A Repertory Grid and Laddering Investigation

The traditional approach to assess information system (IS) project success is adherence to planning (ATP) – meeting budget, schedule, and requirements. Today, scholars agree that ATP is insufficient to adequately assess IS project success, but an agreed-on set of success criteria is still missing. Many works on this topic are based on theoretical considerations rather than empirical inquiries. We analyze practitioners’ perspective by investigating which criteria IS project managers consider relevant for IS project success assessment. We interview eleven experienced project managers in Germany, applying Repertory Grid and laddering to minimize potential biases. Our results yield eight success criteria, indicating that criteria like process efficiency and stakeholder satisfaction must be considered beside ATP. Scholars can use our findings applying the identified success criteria in future studies. Practitioners gain insights into the expert perspective on project success and might rethink the way of assessing success in their projects

Customer Satisfaction in IS Projects: Assessing the Role of Process and Product Performance

Despite extensive research over the past several decades, assessing information system (IS) project success is still a challenging endeavor. While the traditional approach takes process performance (time and budget) and product performance (functional and non-functional requirements) into account, the contemporary perspective acknowledges the more comprehensive character of project success and emphasizes the criticality of stakeholder satisfaction. Continuing previous research, we propose and test a model with customer satisfaction as the uppermost criterion of IS project success and process performance and product performance as its determinants. Following recent calls for researchers to investigate the explicit linkage between success factors and success criteria, we also analyze the influence of process transparency on process and product performance. We conducted a survey via a questionnaire with IS experts in Germany. We contribute to a deeper understanding of IS project success by indicating that customer satisfaction is less a matter of time and budget and that a stronger emphasis should be placed on product performance. Moreover, our results illuminate the role of process transparency in IS projects showing that it contributes to both process and product performance

Ladder to Success – Eliciting Project Managers’ Perceptions of IS Project Success Criteria

The traditional approach to assess information system (IS) project success is adherence to planning (ATP) – meeting budget, schedule, and requirements targets. Today, scholars agree that ATP is insufficient to adequately assess IS project success, but an agreed-on set of success criteria is still missing. Many works on this topic are based on theoretical considerations rather than empirical inquiries. We analyze practitioners’ subjective perspectives by investigating what criteria IS project managers consider relevant for IS project success assessment. We interview eleven experienced project managers in Germany, applying Repertory Grid and Laddering to minimize potential biases. Our results yield eight success criteria, indicating that criteria like process efficiency and stakeholder satisfaction must be considered in addition to ATP. Scholars can use our findings to apply the identified success criteria in future studies. Practitioners gain insights into the expert perspective on project success and might rethink the way of assessing success in their projects

Influencing Factors in the Conception Phase of IS Projects – Lessons from a Case Study

While scholars have dedicated great effort to investigating influencing factors in (IS) projects in general, considerably less attention has been paid to factors specific to individual project phases. Especially in projects that follow the traditional sequential approach, changes in later project stages are more expensive than those in early stages. It is therefore particularly important to steer the project in the right direction from the very start. We explore factors that are most important in the conception phase of internal, sequential IS projects. Conducting a single-case, multi-method, exploratory case study at a medium-sized IS service provider in Germany, we gain in-depth insights into the influencing factors in the conception phase of IS projects conducted in that organization. The concrete approach taken in the conception phase at the case organization and nine most important influencing factors are presented and discussed

PROJECT MANAGERS\u27 PERCEPTION OF IS PROJECT SUCCESS FACTORS – A REPERTORY GRID INVESTIGATION

The success of Information Systems (IS) projects is of great relevance in IS research and practice. However, scholars barely agree on a definite set of IS project success factors. In order to gain insights into such success factors, we conducted an empirical qualitative study. We interviewed eleven experienced project managers concerning the factors which have influenced the success of their IS projects. In the data collection, we used the Repertory Grid Technique and extended it by \u27Laddering\u27. Having collected a total of 78 unique factors from the interviews, we applied content analysis to categorize the factors and arrange the emerging 19 categories hierarchically in a causal map via cognitive mapping. We contribute to developing a list of IS project success factors

Eliminating Failure by Learning from It – Systematic Review of IS Project Failure

Researchers analyzing project success and failure emphasize the prevailing challenge of successfully completing information system (IS) projects. We conduct an extensive systematic literature review of factors that contributed to failure of real-life IS projects. Our resulting overview entails 54 failure factors, which we grouped in 10 categories applying data-driven qualitative content analysis. We extend our holistic overview by linking the factors to specific project failure dimensions and integrating a stakeholder perspective to account for failure responsibility. Our analysis yields widely acknowledged failure factors like insufficient stakeholder involvement as well as less common factors like history of prior successes. Researchers gain insights into project failure factors along with responsible stakeholders and affected failure dimensions, and can use our overview to identify factors or areas of concern to guide future research. Our overview provides a pillar for IS practitioners to learn from others and to eliminate failure by avoiding past mistakes

Influence of Communication on Client Satisfaction in Information System Projects – An Expectation-Confirmation Approach

The problem of adequately measuring success of information system (IS) projects has not been sufficiently solved. Whereas the traditional approach of assessing IS project success in terms of adherence to budget, schedule and requirements is said to be insufficient, there is lack of agreement on a multidimensional approach using further or different criteria. As success is seen as matter of perspective, project stakeholders’ subjective perceptions of project success are supposed to be important criteria. Thereby, especially the satisfaction of the client organisation is relevant as it is crucial for the contractor’s reputation and assignments of follow-up projects. However, IS developing companies and success reports predominantly assess IS project success using only the objective adherence-to-planning criteria. We believe that client satisfaction in IS projects highly depends on the confirmation of client’s expectations concerning project (process and product) performance. We thus apply the Expectation-Confirmation Theory (ECT) to the context of IS projects aiming to explain the satisfaction of the client organisation. As managing expectations may influence satisfaction, we extend the ECT by client-vendor communication. We assume that client-vendor communication manages expectations, that is, it moderates the relationship between expectation and confirmation. We present and argue for our hypothesized model and according measures for a quantitative analysis. As our study is one of few focussing on the client perspective, we propose an innovative approach to further improve the understanding of IS project success

Increasing Customer Satisfaction – How to Manage Expectations in the Process of Developing Information Systems

Considering success of information system development (ISD) projects a matter of perspective, stakeholder satisfaction is often seen as an important success criterion. When evaluating satisfaction, expectations are essential – in case of ISD projects expectations concerning both process and product. While previous research focuses on the management of expectations concerning the product, lack of research exists concerning the process of ISD projects. To close this gap, we explore the approaches that can be applied to manage expectations and guide customer satisfaction with the process in ISD projects. By means of qualitative expert interviews, we focus on both types of situations – those in which the experts were successful and less successful in managing customer expectations concerning the ISD process. Our results from twelve interviews yield both concrete customer expectations (e.g., being involved by the contractor) and approaches to manage those expectations (e.g., creating transparency). Researchers can use our results to further investigate concrete expectations and expectations management approaches. Practitioners are provided with means to manage customer expectations, thus increasing customer satisfaction and the likelihood of project success

Influence of Communication on Client Satisfaction in Information System Projects – A Quantitative Field Study

Divergences between perception and measurement of information system (IS) project success are phenomena known as successful failures or failed successes. Such projects either satisfy stakeholder expectations or are completed according to their plans, but do not succeed in both terms. Based on expectation-confirmation theory, we advance the understanding of project success by observing the role of client-vendor communication regarding the interaction of client expectations, perceptions, and satisfaction. By means of a quantitative field study with managers of IS projects on the client side, we show that perceptions of product performance are more relevant than perceptions of process performance for meeting client expectations in IS projects. Expectations towards the process (i.e., budget and schedule) are revealed to be considerably less relevant, which is a likely consequence of many projects failing to meet such expectations. An avenue for future research resulting from our study is the investigation of differences concerning communication mediums by contrasting agile and non-agile development projects