Influence of External Risk Factors on Project Success in Information Tecnology

Abstract

To reduce the high failure rate of IT projects, managers need better tools to assess and manage IT project risk. In order to create such tools, however, information systems researchers must first develop a better understanding of the dimensions of IT project risk. Progress in this area has been hindered by lack of validated list of external risk factors of IT projects (Wallace, Keil, & Rai, 2004a). The purpose of this study was to explain the relationship between external risk factors, government policies, market condition, end user, innovation measures, and project success. The proposed research strategy was to conduct a non-experimental, explanatory online survey designed to address five research questions and to test five hypotheses guided by sociotechnical systems theory. The web-based survey collected data from the target population of project managers, team leads, and team members working in IT industry of Islamabad. Methods of data analysis include descriptive statistics (frequency distribution, measures of central tendency, and variability), exploratory factor analysis, internal consistency reliability (coefficient alphas), Pearson’s r correlations, ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis using the stepwise (forward) method. In this study, external risk factors explained 67% of project success. The government policies, market conditions, end user, and innovation measurements are significant explanatory variables to project success. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.