Celebrating IT Projects Success: A Multi-domain Analysis

TLDR: A reference framework for IT project success would support development of the discipline by providing a common language for communication and comparison as well as focusing on what stakeholders perceive as important.

Abstract: This paper proposes a multi-domain framework for defining information technology (IT) project success. There has been much discussion in the literature on the definition of project success but no consensus is emerging. A key problem is the multiplicity of expectations and perceptions of project performance. A reference framework for IT project success would support development of the discipline by providing a common language for communication and comparison as well as focusing on what stakeholders perceive as important. The framework builds on and extends criteria in the literature that relate to stakeholder interests. The framework contains five domains of success: process, project management, product, business and strategic. The domains are orthogonal and not for composing greater degrees of success. Assessing success in any one domain is independent of performance in other domains. Case examples illustrate application of the framework.