AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR USER BASED IMPLEMENTATION PROJECTS IN MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Highly successful organizations involve clients as well as top management in implementing processes so that a system\u27s full potential can be achieved. MIS projects compete for limited organizational resources including top management support. Projects must meet minimum objectives to sustain the flow of resources. A project\u27s success depends upon identifying and giving preferential treatment to a limited number of critical factors. Satisfactory performance in these critical success factors (CSF) ensures survival. In the development stage, implementation team members must establish the project\u27s CSF. This study examines user involvement as a CSF for implementing management information systems projects. Implementing a large scale MIS project is a dynamic process of immense complexity that overwhelms factor studies on structural aspects of the situation. Key constraints on CSF are performance standards established by end users or clients. Clients/users are responsible for defining performance standards of products or services and then must produce a satisfactory service with the results. MIS personnel must accept responsibility for system integrity, as the client/user must accept responsibility for system application, to achieve organizational goals. Results of this study demonstrate the need to view quality of information from the client\u27s perspective and demonstrates whether to involve top management to a point where he/she feels a project\u27s success depends upon his/her involvement