A comparison of frameworks that measure the success of information technology projects

Abstract

Project management is an enhanced way of managing people, materials and/or equipment that is used when pursuing projects in different organizations. As described, a project is a brief attempt to create an end result or a product/service. Information technology (IT) projects are in no way different from any project. They are also carried out with the hope of successful end results but unfortunately the literature review or previous studies have shown unsatisfactory results in some of IT projects. The number of failing IT projects has been increasing in the past few years, even now the percentage of these projects is still surprising IT project managers. According to the past sources these failures are caused by a number of factors including poor time management, poor cost estimations, not understanding the scope and the list can go on and on depending on the project type and organization pursuing it. In some books, the success of a project is measured using three points; was the project completed within time, was the project completed within budget and was the customer satisfied? All these factors are common in the project management frameworks (PRINCE2, SDLC, V2P, The square route, Iron triangle, etc.). These are key factors are assist the project managers to measure the success of individual projects using project management frameworks. According to some reports by some IT project managers, some of the frameworks have produced optimal success for other organizations although others still need to be enhanced to suit the nature of the projects and to reach the required level of performance expected by different organizations. The research has therefore been carried out to compare the existing project management frameworks in order to determine which frameworks can be used by IT project managers to yield the maximum success of IT projects. This research resulted in a majority of project managers discovering that PRINCE2 in its nature is more suitable for IT projects yet one project manager suggested that using SDLC is their best as they could somehow manipulate it to suit their business needs