Critical success factors for information technology (IT) projects in South Africa

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to identify critical success factors for IT projects in South Africa. Successful management of IT projects is a primary concern for organisations Research has shown that IT and its projects can yield huge return on investments. While organisations are increasingly investing in projects as a mean of boosting their investment, it is recognized that investing alone cannot guarantee productivity gains. Other project management aspects such as methodologies, tools, techniques and critical success factors also need to be considered for the successful implementation of IT projects. Literature emphasises that projects need to be managed within context. For each specific context, researchers have identified specific success factors to consider in order to achieve the project objective. Research have been done on critical success factors for different countries, different industries and different environments. It, however, remains unclear in the context of South Africa. The South African environment is unique and presents specific project management challenges that need investigation. A quantitative approach was used with survey design. These questionnaires were distributed electronically via email to individuals working on project of within the IT industry in South Africa. Participants were selected using probabilistic sampling strategy as the intention was to generalise the results to the entire context of IT projects in South Africa. This research has provided to the South African project management environment, critical success factors that one should adhere to, in order to achieve success. The critical success factors identified address the broader IT project management field, therefore might not fully solve the need of being specific to the context. Considering that IT projects can be of different types thus bringing different size and complexity, there is a need for a further research to develop critical success factor that applies to specific IT areas such as software development, so that factors that have a great impact on specific IT projects are uncovered in order to improve the broader IT industry in South Africa. It emerged that politics, legalities, the state of the economy and corruption are making the South African project environment different from other environments. Therefore being a project manager in the South African environment require more than mastering the project management body of knowledge. The above control environment characteristics as well as the critical success factors identified should be the driving force behind the project manager’s tool set that would determine his performance and the ultimate performance of projects..