Essay On Project Failure

Reasons for ICT project failures

A number of studies have dealt with the concept of success/failure factors in ICT projects, and some different types of models have been established. A study by Al-Ahmad (2009) believes that any symptom of a project failure should belong to one of the 6 generic types of ICT project failure root causes: project management factors; top management factors; technology factors; organizational factors; complexity/size factors; and process factors as in figure 3 below;

Figure 3: ICT project failures root causes Source: Journal of Information Systems Research and Innovation

Project management factors

The following are key project management factors as highlighted below;

• Not assigning the right person to manage the

o Failed to solicit feedback from the team members or responsible officers to ascertain the progress made and how the project is faring. o Failed to tell how each person's contributions to the project would be evaluated. And/or o Failed to generate a sense of urgency about the project, leading the team to think business as usual will be fine and not clearly communicate the risks involved in the project.

Technological management factors

Murray (2008) provided the following attributing technological factors of ICT project failures, some of which are characteristics observed in complex ICT projects;

• Inappropriate management of scope creep which refers to the continuous expansion of the project scope during installation.

• Improbable project scope given the available funding resources and project development experience.

• Misalignment of new system design with obsolete technology in an organization as well as low or no compatibility of existing and new systems

• Inadequate required hardware to support and interact with the new system

Technical Determinants for successful Implementation of related ICT

These dimensions are:

• Information (factors related to quality and prerequisites of system inputs and outputs);

• Technology (factors such as the availability and compatibility of hardware and software);

• Processes (alignment and integration between the system and existing/new processes to achieve stated objectives);

• Objectives, Values, and Motivation (e.g. organization culture, guiding values);

• Staffing and Skills (factors such as the availability of skilled personnel and adequacy of training provided for using the system);

• Management Systems and Structures (factors such as managerial practice and flexibility of organizational structures); and

• Other Resources (money and time required).

In view of the scope of the research which is on public e-services project, the study will adopt the 6 generic types of IT project failure root causes postulated by Al-Ahmad (2009) since it presents universal types of root causes for major ICT projects which are also being experienced in