Involve users or fail: An IT project case study from east Africa

Procter, CT; Businge, M

Abstract

Repeated surveys, and most notably those by the Standish Group, suggest that a substantial proportion of Information Technology (IT) projects fail. The literature suggests that this is in part due to a lack of user involvement in the project. The authors’ research describes the case study of a major IT system implementation project in East Africa. The paper reports on the results of both an online questionnaire and interviews with key participants. The authors’ findings suggest that the subsequent failure of this project was in large part attributable to a lack of user involvement in the definition of requirements and implementation of the system. There did not appear to be an organisational culture that recognised the significance of such participation in the project. Although there are issues of definition raised, such as the definition of success and failure, this work supports previous findings that user involvement is a key factor in IT project success and failure

Citation

Procter, C., & Businge, M. (2013). Involve users or fail: An IT project case study from east Africa. International Journal of Information Technology Project Management, 4(4), 51-65. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijitpm.2013100103

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Apr 30, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 30, 2014
• Journal: International Journal of Information Technology Project Management (IJITPM)
• Print ISSN: 1938-0232
• Publisher: IGI Global
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 51-65
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4018/ijitpm.2013100103
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/ijitpm.2013100103
• Related Public URLs: http://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-information-technology-project/1103
• Additional Information: Projects : Non funded research