A qualitative re‐construction of project measurement criteria

Abstract

Purpose -Failure is encountered regularly within project-based industries and there has been research for decades into this phenomenon. Much of it has considered the failure of projects in terms of the classic project progress issues such as time, cost and quality. Using cases from two major industries the authors aim to develop a different understanding of project measurement criteria. This work is part of a larger completed investigation into information systems and information technology (IS/IT) project management models, developed for industry comparisons. Design/methodology/approach -During the study, the concept of project failure and success is investigated. The authors carry out a UK-based, grounded study of two project-based industries of differing maturity levels (construction and IS/IT) to investigate measures of project failure or success across the two industries. Findings -The paper presents a reassessment of project measurement criteria. This is based on the separation of measures for project performance and project progress. Research limitations/implications -The adopted strategy of naturalistic inquiry has always been susceptible to the criticism that it relies too much on subjective interpretation of data. In addition, no clear relationship was established between the factors discussed and the criteria for measuring project success. Originality/value -The paper discusses current differences in perception of what actually constitutes a failed or successful project. The paper highlights that often two different (but closely related) concepts, are being discussed by project stakeholders.

In the Eyes of the Media: Discourse of an ICT4D Project in a Developing Country

“…Furthermore, the voices of beneficiary stakeholders are silenced. An evaluation of the project outcome taking into account the voices of the learners, their parents and the educators would have provided a fairer analysis of the project outcome (Ojiako, et al, 2008;Freund and Drori, 2003).…”

“…on triple constraints. However, there is a growing recognition of the need to include various stakeholders' subjective evaluations in evaluating the project outcome (Ojiako et al, 2008;Wit, 1988). The project success should be more focused on assessing whether the project has produced outcomes which are desirable to the various stakeholders.…”

“…It is on this basis that the department encourages the adoption of ICTs in schools for both administrative and curriculum delivery purposes. The three well known school ICT projects are Gauteng Online (Gauteng Province), the Khanya Project (Western Cape Province) and Northern Cape's Connectivity (Northern Cape Province) (Prince, 2007;Isaacs, 2007). Anecdotal evidence shows that the Gauteng Online as well as the Northern Cape Connectivity Projects are struggling while the Khanya Project is often presented as the flagship of the ICT in schools' projects in the country.…”

The Presence of the Customer and the Supplier Perspectives in Studies on Software Development Project Success

“…However, we accepted only four articles because we had difficulties to interpret any type of definition for success/failure from most of the articles published in that journal. Articles that include the customer's perspective only [13], [32], [34], [36], [43], [44], [45], [46], [47], [48], [49], [50], [51], [52], [53], [54], [55], [56], [57], [58], [59], [60], [61], [62], [63], [64], [65], [66], [67], [68], [69], [70], [71], [72], [73], [74], [75], [76], [77], [78], [79], [80], [81], [82], [83], [84], [85], [86], [87], …”

Software Projects Success by Objectives

“…The importance of different measures is realized (Ika, 2009;Jonkers et al, 2015;Howsawi & Eager, 2014) and they also cause a great shift in literature to consider different criteria such as client satisfaction, strategic objective and business success. (Ika, 2009, Mcleod & Macdonell, 2012Ojiako et al, 2008;Erling, 2006) However, most of the authors agree upon considering project management process as one important dimension of the measure, but it isn't sufficient when it is handled alone. For example Baccarini (1999) defines project success in terms of two components; project management success, and product success, where he considers satisfaction of different stakeholder groups with regard to the project and its outcomes.…”