The impact of size and volatility on IT project performance

Sauer, Chris; Gemino, Andrew; Reich, Blaize Horner

doi:10.1145/1297797.1297801

Cited by 149 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

106

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…BCS, 2004;Goldfinch, 2007]. On a positive note, in recent years there has been some noticeable improvement in organisations' ability to deliver technical artefacts to meet budget, schedule and scope expectations [Sauer et al, 2007;El Emam & Koru, 2008]. However, as Sauer & Davis [2010;p.…”

Section: Discussion: From Systems Development To Benefits Deliverymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Standish, 2001]. Consequently, the literature on success factors for information systems development has also typically adopted a shortterm perspective, which assumes that the success of projects can be judged once the software development project has been completed, which is normally shortly after implementation [Sauer et al, 2007]. In practice, however, the delivery of information systems on time, to specification and within budget, doesn't automatically equate to the delivery of real benefits to the host organisation, as there is increasing recognition that the impacts of IT are typically emergent, over the operational life of the system [Orlikowki, 1996;Lyytinen & Newman, 2008], and its benefits cannot therefore be readily or accurately planned in advance.…”

Section: Critique Of Literature and Research Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Factors Affecting the Successful Realisation of Benefits from Systems Development Projects: Findings from Three Case Studies

Doherty

Ashurst

Peppard

2012

Journal of Information Technology

116

119

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The return that organisations derive from investments in information systems and technology continues to disappoint. While there is a very significant body of literature on the factors that should facilitate a successful outcome from systems development, there is growing concern that these prescriptions are not having their desired effect. In this paper, we argue that the success of a systems development project should be measured in terms of its ability to deliver meaningful benefits, rather than the timely delivery of a technical artefact, and therefore organisations should adopt an explicit and proactive benefits realisation approach when investing in IT. Consequently, we sought to explore those actionable factors that might facilitate the effective realisation of benefits from systems development initiatives. Three organisations were identified that claimed to adopt a proactive approach to benefits realisation, and detailed studies of their systems development practices were conducted. Our analysis found that whilst one organisation had been successful in its adoption of a benefits realisation perspective, the other two had not, and this allowed us to identify those factors that helped to explain this difference in outcomes. In short, this paper makes an important contribution by identifying how a subset of traditional systems success factors might be enhanced, to give them a more explicit benefits realisation orientation. Moreover, it presents a coherent set of principles that can be used for deriving other factors and practices.

show abstract

Section: Discussion: From Systems Development To Benefits Deliverymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Critique Of Literature and Research Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Affecting the Successful Realisation of Benefits from Systems Development Projects: Findings from Three Case Studies

Doherty

Ashurst

Peppard

2012

Journal of Information Technology

116

119

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, due to the influence of other factors, we do not expect to be able to approach a perfect explanatory model. Factors such as project planning [11], individual factors [28] organizational influences [29] and technical factors (such as project size, complexity, and duration) [30] may predict performance as well. These other factors should be subject of follow-up studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards high performance software teamwork

Weimar

Nugroho

Visser³

et al. 2013

Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Context: Research indicates that software quality, to a large extent, depends on cooperation within software teams [1]. Since software development is a creative process that involves human interaction in the context of a team, it is important to understand the teamwork factors that influence performance.Objective: We present a study design in which we aim to examine the factors within software development teams that have significant influence on the performance of the team. We propose to consider factors such as communication, coordination of expertise, cohesion, trust, cooperation, and value diversity. The study investigates whether and to which extent these factors correlate with a performance of the team. In order to capture a variety of relevant teamwork factors, we created a new model extending the work of Hoegl and Gemuenden [2] and Liang et al. [3]. Method:The study is based on quantitative research by means of an online questionnaire. We invited more than 20 software development teams in the Netherlands to participate in our team performance assessment, evaluating the teamwork and performance of the team. Based on an average team size of five people, one would therefore expect at least 100 participants in total. Also, product stakeholders will be asked to give their independent assessments of the performance of the team.Expected result: By analyzing the correlation between teamwork factors and team performance, we expect to gain a deeper understanding of how teamwork factors influence team performance. We also expect to validate the implemented extensions of teamwork model with respect to earlier work.

show abstract

“…The proportion of aborted projects is reported to be 9% [1], 11% [2], and 11.5% [3]. If we include the projects completed with a very poor product or process quality in our definition of project failure, the failure rate further increases, e.g., to 26% as in [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Characteristics and Their Connection to Increased Risk of Software Project Failure

Jørgensen¹,

Yamashita²

2016

JSW

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Offshoring software projects have been documented to increase the risk of project failure. In particular, the cultural differences between software client and provider countries are believed to increase the risk of project failure. We analyze a large data set of small software projects with providers and clients from various countries. For each provider and client country, and each combination of provider and client country, we calculate the project failure rate. We use Hofstede's culture dimensions power distance, individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance together with Hall's communication style to measure cultural characteristics and differences. We found a statistically significant increase in failure rate with increased difference in the provider and client country's communication style, but no connection between cultural differences and project failure rate using Hofstede's cultural characteristics. Provider countries, and in particular, client countries with a low-context communication culture had lower proportions of project failures than countries with high-context cultures. A decrease in power distance and increase in individualism were both connected with a decrease in project failure rate. In total, the cultural differences between countries seem to matter less than cultural characteristics of the countries. In particular, some of the cultural characteristics of the client country were strongly connected with project failure rates. Software offshoring clients may benefit from an awareness of the importance of their role in avoiding project failures and consider adopting the cultural characteristics of the most successful client offshoring countries. They may also benefit from selecting software providers from low-context cultures.

show abstract

The impact of size and volatility on IT project performance

Abstract: Studying the factors influencing project risk.

Cited by 149 publications

References 5 publications

Factors Affecting the Successful Realisation of Benefits from Systems Development Projects: Findings from Three Case Studies

Factors Affecting the Successful Realisation of Benefits from Systems Development Projects: Findings from Three Case Studies

Towards high performance software teamwork

Cultural Characteristics and Their Connection to Increased Risk of Software Project Failure

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About