A model of critical success factors for software projects

Abstract

PurposeExisting models of critical success factors of software projects have less concentration on communication, team, project management and product related factors. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model of critical success factors (CSFs) for software development projects, categorize the success factors, finding the factors in each category and highlighting the product, team, project management and communication factors as important categories of success factors for software projects.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual model and seven categories of success factors comprising a total of 80 success factors for software development projects were identified based on the thorough literature review. These 80 factors are collected based on their importance to software projects and their repeated occurrence in the literature related to CSFs. Based on the occurrence of the success factor in the literature, each category comprising top five success factors are identified as critical success factors for software projects. Based on these seven categories of success factors a conceptual model was developed.FindingsA total of 35 CSFs from seven CSF categories are identified from secondary research of the CSFs for software development projects. The identified CSFs include communication in project, top management support, clear project goal, reliability of output, project planning, teamwork, project team coordination, quality control, client acceptance, accuracy of output, reduce ambiguity, maximize stability, realistic expectations and user involvement. Project management, product, team and communication factors are identified as important categories of success factors for software projects.Research limitations/implicationsDifferent categories of critical success factors such as product, project management, team and communication, which were not highlighted or categorized earlier in the literature are discussed in this current work.Practical implicationsThis research is definitely useful for organizations working on software projects. The project managers working in the industry can benefit from the mentioned critical success factors and the categories of factors by concentration on them while planning and executing software projects.Originality/valueThe conceptual model, categorization of CSFs, identifying 35 CSFs for software projects and highlighting product, team and communication factors are major contributions of this research work.

Identifying the Critical Success Factors and Their Relevant Aspects for Renewable Energy Projects; An Empirical Perspective

“…All the items for CSFs (independent and mediating variables) constructs were identified by previous studies (Li 1997;Prabhakar 2008;Sudhakar 2012;Zhao et al 2010;Fang, Zeng 2007) whereas researchers gave them definitions according to the literature available. In the later phase, project success was measured through Muller and Turner (2010) definition of project success by utilizing the scale used by Maqbool et al (2017).…”

“…For team factors, seven dimensions include: 1) team capability/competence, 2) teamwork, 3) select right project team, 4) project team coordination, 5) task orientation, 6) team commitment, 7) team empowerment (Prabhakar 2008;Sudhakar 2012). These construct dimensions were measured through 8 items on five points Likert Scale.…”

“…For communication factors, the undertaken scales were from the studies of Li (1997), Prabhakar (2008) and Sudhakar (2012). Communication factors has seven dimensions, namely: 1) communication, 2) leadership, 3) relationship between client and project leadership, 4) reduce ambiguity, 5) maximize stability, 6) cooperation and 7) balance flexibility and rigidity.…”

“…Technical factors was measured using Prabhakar (2008) and Sudhakar (2012) scales that comprised of eight dimensions: 1) technical tasks, 2) troubleshooting, 3) technical uncertainty, 4) technical implementations problems, 5) integration of tasks, 6) technology support, 7) quality testing and 8) removing legacy systems. These were measured by 9 items on five points Likert Scale that ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree.…”

Effects of Risk Management Practices on IT Project Success

“…In 2003, reference [16] proposed the updated IS success model. The updated model consisted of six interrelated dimensions of IS success: information, system and service quality, (intention to) use, user satisfaction, and net benefits [16][17][18]. However, such studies did not touch upon whether and how the delivery project of the IT system had succeeded [19].…”