IT projects – special features and success factors

Meaning of IT & IT projects

Information technology (IT) has become a success-relevant factor for many companies in today’s market environment. An efficient corporate organization is hardly conceivable without the use of modern information technology. IT plays a crucial role in maintaining and optimizing customer relationships, in designing efficient processes, in information acquisition, and in decision support. As the importance of IT for a company’s success continues to grow and the development of IT systems usually takes the form of projects, special attention must be paid to the success factors of IT projects.

Special features of IT projects

IT projects are defined by a high complexity and a high level of dynamism in the environment. The complexity of the project is reflected in the number and diversity of the subtasks involved, as well as in the interdependencies between the subtasks. High dynamics refers to the project objectives and requirements, which may change continuously during the project duration, have a direct impact on the budget, time, and resource requirements parameters, and therefore need to be adjusted continuously.

IT projects are driven by the interdisciplinary collaboration between different disciplines This is characteristic of projects that involve a high number of interfaces. In addition to the dependencies within the project itself, there are also dependencies on the other IT projects of a company. Identifying and taking into account these dependencies is crucial for successful implementation.

Many IT projects aim to develop new technologies and thereby create a high degree of innovation. In project execution, only to a limited extent can existing know-how and planning documents be used. This technology-oriented approach carries high risks, the probability of which must be minimized through precise planning, control, and intensive testing.

The Success IT projects are significantly influenced by Qualitative aspects Definitely. This is not sufficient to purely monetary evaluate the profitability of an IT project. Furthermore, IT projects have the characteristic that they are High initial investment is created, the Benefits but first it must be generated and profits made;, when the Project successful implemented It was.

The complex interplay of the business, technical, and human components in IT projects requires a Wide range of expertise, the Project management Expertise, Technical and IT knowledge included.

Reasons for the failure of IT projects

The success rate of IT projects is low, as the following facts show:

• about 25% of all IT projects are successful,
• about 50% of all IT projects are over budget and/or over time,
• About 25% of all software projects are abandoned.

The reasons for the failure are manifold. Unclear goals and different expectations They play a major role. In many companies, goals are set by management „top-down“ and without involving the specialist departments. This results in the project team working in different directions. The consequences are excessive budgets, delayed deadlines, and general dissatisfaction.

Constant Changes in requirements („moving targets“) are another risk driver. This is due, among other things, to the fact that Stakeholders not sufficient into the process integrated This hardly allows for the generation of cross-functional process knowledge. The result is exploding costs and time delays.

In IT projects, it is often new technologies developed. If these technologies are not yet sufficiently well thought out, the probability of Misconceptions. Very often the time, budget, and resource requirements are underestimated. As a result, additional costs are incurred.

The Complexity IT projects are often underestimated. With the number of project employees and stakeholders also increasing, so does the number of Interfaces exponentially. To this is added the Tension field between the Specialized areas and the ITDepartments that have different goals. Many large IT projects can Corporate policy, hindering the project's progress Components they occur when different stakeholders try to influence the ongoing project.

Often the Technical effort from IT projects underestimated and planned exclusively for the best-case scenarios. Problems that arise during the project can then lead to significant additional costs and delays.

Other crucial reasons for failure are a Inadequate planning, Control and monitoring of the project progress, Disregard from Project interdependencies as well as a missing alignment The Project objectives an the superior one Company strategy.

Importance of project management & methodology expertise in IT projects

The reasons for the failure of IT projects show that Project management one of the Key competences It is critical for the successful execution of IT projects that project management methods are used for planning, organization, and control. Additionally, however, Expertise from the different areas and IT knowledge required. These allow for addressing IT-specific requirements and constraints.

Image: © gmg9130 - Fotolia