The evolutionary growth of information technology, during the past few decades, has created the impetus for change in the organizational workplace from a focus on narrow and specific tasks, carried out by individuals, to a focus on collective efforts reflected through IT project teams (Nonaka 2001). With the increased abundance of IT project teams operating within and between organizations in the current business environment (Bolan 2001; Abdel-Hamid 1992 and 1989), a number of academic studies have focused on identifying the critical success factors for effective IT project success. Researchers in IT project management have pointed to the importance of IT personnel sourcing as a critical success factor (e.g. Nonaka 2001; Bolan 2001; Abdel-Hamid 1992).The issue of appropriate project IT personnel sourcing decisions has gained recognition as one of the core factors behind effective software project management (Agarwal & Feratt 2002, and Abdel-Hamid 1989). Some studies have in fact shown that the utilization of appropriate sourcing decisions does increase the likelihood of completing IT projects on time (Abdel-Hamid 1992) and within budget (Bolan 2001). While highlighting the importance of appropriate IT project sourcing as a key component for successful IT project management, these studies highlight a need for understanding how IT project personnel sourcing is determined. The purpose of this research study is to take an initial step towards understanding the "how" of project IT personnel sourcing decisions by developing and testing an IT personnel sourcing model for IT projects, based on theoretical and grounded perspectives
