The Success Of A Software Project

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

1. Abstract

While software has become a critical component in all facets of modern world, software development itself is not a perfect process. Success of software project can be defined as delivering on time, within budget, meeting quality requirement, with customer acceptance. Critical Success factors; classified as human related, process related and technology related; are key areas which are critical for the success in context of organization and project. Data collected from developers, testers, Team Leader, Project Manager or senior executives largely falling in the age group of 25 – 40 years working across various organizations. From the survey results that were obtained standard error and t value statistics were applied to understand the most significant factors. Except Regular communication between the client and team, Technical skills of the team and business operations the rest of the variables are significant. This paper will help Managers to plan better for critical factors to sail towards success.

Analysis of critical factors contributing to the success of a Software project.

While software has become a critical component in all facets of modern world, software development itself is not a perfect process. Driving a software project towards success is a challenging issue. Despite the fact that there have been several efforts to engineer software development methodologies, due to poor processes, project management and requirement analysis software projects result in delay, failures and rejection. Success of software project can be defined as delivering on time, within budget, meeting quality requirement, with customer acceptance. Critical Success factors are key areas which are critical for the success in context of organisation and project. These are the areas where things must go right for the project to be successful. For software project to be successful there are several factors which can be classified as human related, process related and technology related. But out of these factors few are most critical compared to others.

Different studies shows though there are many factors that affect success of the software project from the list of around 20 odd factors we have zeroed down to 9 factors which has maximum impact on software projects. The non-technical factors seemed to have major impact compared to technical ones. This paper discusses about factors namely, Clear and frozen requirements, Realistic estimation of the schedule, Realistic estimation of the budget, A competent project manager, Meeting Quality Requirements, Regular communication between project manager and client’ team, Technical skills of the team, Business operations and Facility provision and management. The major stakeholders of the project who drive the success directly namely developers, team leads and project managers can give the clear picture about how each of these factors influences the success and in what extent.

2. Literature Review

Organizations are in constant search to identify the factors that contribute largely to the success of a project. The idea is to increase the project success by adopting the recommendations that come out of studies dedicated to research on IT software project success.

According to Chaos report published by the Standish Group (2004), only 29% of the IT projects succeeded and 71% of the projects failed in meeting the measures of success (The Standish Group International, 2004). The study also says that the project completion rate has improved not because the management techniques have improved, but because companies have aligned towards smaller and more manageable projects.

According to Tom Field at least seven out of ten signs of Information Systems project failures are determined before a design is developed or a line of code is written (T.field,1997)

The success of software projects has been a widely discussed topic in industry publications and the subject of study by many research analysts over the past several years. The definition of ‘success’ in the context of software projects has been perceived differently by different people. The classic definition of project success was on time, within budget, and meeting quality requirements (Shenhar & Wideman, 2000; Whitten, 2000). The definition has been broadened to include customer acceptance as another dimension of successful projects (Kerzner, 2000; Shenhar & Wideman, 2000).

According to the ‘‘real’’ success factors on projects by Terry Cooke-Davies, the ‘‘people’’ side of project management the 12 ‘‘real’’ success factors for projects have all been derived from either ‘‘hard’’ data (F1–F8) or from ‘‘softer’’ evidence (F9–F12). They are all factors that have been implemented, or are being implemented, in large multi-national or national organizations.

It may appear curious that none of these 12 critical success factors is directly concerned with ‘‘human factors’’, although it is fast becoming accepted wisdom that it is people who deliver projects, not processes and systems. As [3] said in the title of his paper, ‘‘When it comes to project management, it’s the people that count.’’

As per the study conducted by Nasir and Sahibuddin (2011), the critical factors are different for different industries. So we cannot directly pick up critical success factors for software projects. A total of 26 factors were discovered out of which the top 5 factor’s contribution frequency was more than 50%. These factors can be divided into people, process and technology factors. Interestingly the study has shown that the non-technical factors; 23 out of 26 critical factors chosen; dominate over technical factors. Managers have a good opportunity to control five most critical factors of clear and frozen requirement, effective project management skills, methodology of project management, realistic estimation of schedule and budget for driving project towards success.

Critical Success Factors – A limited number of areas which are critical to overall success, either in the context of an organization or a project. These are "the few key areas where ‘things must go right' for the business to flourish and for the managers goal to be attained"(Bullen & Rockhart, 1981, p. 385).

IT project success - A finite piece of work that is finished within budget, on time, and meeting the stated specifications; is used by its intended constituents; and leads directly to the organization's improved efficiency or effectiveness (Karlsen et al., 2005; Nelson, 2006).

Kendrick (2009) in her paper acknowledged few of the non-traditional factors that contribute to the success of software project. The study shows that traditional success factors such as schedule, cost and technical relevance are not the only factors important. In addition to these traditional success measures, value addition and benefit of the implementation are also important factors, without which an implementation can be called as "failed successes" (Nelson, 2006, para. 3). Senior leaders perceived value and constant communication with the client before and during the project implementation also necessary for project success.

Although all these studies have been on the critical success factors of software projects, they all have been specific to a particular country .There has been no comprehensive study reporting on different project sizes in various domains and in multiple countries. This emphasises the need for identifying the factors critical for project success.

2.1 Methodology

Different studies have adopted different materials and methodologies to study the factors critical for the success of IT projects. In 1994, the Standish Group issued its Chaos Report (The Standish Group International, 1995). The Standish Group surveyed 365 IT executive managers from companies in different industries and of different sizes to derive a quantitative analysis of project resolution by type. They also conducted a qualitative study using four focus groups. The purpose of the study was to understand the magnitude of software development project failures, the primary factors causing software development failures, and what factors could increase the potential for project success (The Standish Group International, 1995).In another study, content analysis method was adopted . Content analysis is an approach to the quantification of qualitative data (Holsti, 1969).

Both quantitative and qualitative research approaches have been implemented by researchers (Esteves, 2004).According to Remus, Ulrich & Wiener, Martin(2010),some of the methods that have been adopted are case study research, action research, focus group interviewing literature reviews and structured interviewing. Each of these methods has its own strengths and weaknesses. In order to overcome the limitations of each method, and ‘as a pragmatic way of using the strengths of both approaches’, the mixed methodology has become more popular (Ulrich & Wiener, Martin, 2010). A survey of IS journals revealed that approximately 20% of the published papers in these journals have used a combination of methods (Mingers, 2003).The application of different methods for data collection provides a wider range of coverage, one that may result in a deeper understanding of the unit under study(Kaplan & Duchon, 1988).

2.2 Variable Identification

Most of the practitioners consider clear requirements and specifications; clear objectives and goals; and a realistic schedule to be the three most critical success factors that can contribute to project success.(Nasir and Sahibuddin,2011)

Source: (Gopal, Mukhopadhyaya & Krishnan,2002)

Success: The classic definition of project success was on time, within budget and meeting quality requirements(Shenhar & Wideman, 2000; Whitten, 2000).Over the years the definition has been broadened to include various other factors and dimensions. It has also been quoted that a successful project is one in which the ultimately the Customer is satisfied (Shenhar & Wideman, 2000; Whitten, 2000).

Estimation of effort cost and time: The ability of the client to pay and the maximum time period that a project should be completed in are the basic needs for any successful project. The estimation for the above three things are to be perfect and precise (Mathrani, Viehland & Parsons, 2005).Proper estimation will also solve the unrealistic expectation from the client side (C.Ranganathan & S.Balaji, 2007).

Clear and frozen requirements: Requirements needed for proceeding with the project are an integral part of the project and the requirements should be lucid and complete. Incomplete and ever changing requirements can cause serious damage to the final result. (Urquhart, C. 1999)

A competent project manager: According to Kathleen O.Simmons & Raghu Korrapati, Project Management was once referred to as an accidental profession (Kathleen O.Simmons & Raghu Korrapati,2004). Project managers were chosen from the technical and/or functional ranks (Kerzner, 2000). Today, project management is a recognized profession that is supported by a robust body of knowledge, several professional organizations, and opportunities for advanced study.

Quality Requirements: The need for software to be error-free remained a challenge to the IT industry. Dey, Kinch, and Ogunlana(2007) stressed the importance of success of software development, which depended on functionality, quality, and timeliness.() Quality assurance was described as a function with responsibility to ensure that software meets its intended requirements—functional, date, staff, budget, etc.( Dr.Rao Nemani et al,2011).

Effective communication: The critical success factor ‘effective communication and feedback’(between stakeholders) was cited in 46.6% of the literature, and was ranked at seventh place.( Nasir and Sahibuddin,2011).In one study, the team members identified the importance of an effective and efficient communication mechanism as one of the important success factors for a project.

In our study we have considered the following factors as most critical for the success of an IT project:

Clear and frozen requirements

Realistic estimation of the schedule

Realistic estimation of the budget

A competent project manager

Meeting Quality Requirements

Regular communication between project manager and client’ team

Technical skills of the team

Business operations

Facility provision and management

3. Hypothesis Formulation

Based on the variables identified above, we have formulated the following hypothesis.

H1: Clear and frozen requirements has no impact on the success of an IT project.

H2: Realistic estimation of the schedule has no impact on the success of an IT project.

H3: Realistic estimation of the budget has no impact on the success of an IT project.

H4: A competent project manager has no impact on the success of an IT project.

H5: Meeting Quality Requirements has no impact on the success of an IT project.

H6: Regular communication between project manager and client’ team has no impact on the success of an IT project.

H7: Technical skills of the team have no impact on the success of an IT project.

H8: Business operations have no impact on the success of an IT project.

H9: Facility provision and management has no impact on the success of an IT project.

4. Proposed Method

In this study, we were required to collect data from IT professionals working across various organizations. We had planned to conduct an online survey to collect this data. We surveyed a total of 120 respondents across all organizations.

Majorly, we have collected data from employees across various IT giants such as Infosys, TCS, Tech-Mahindra, eGain communications, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and others.

We have collected data from respondents belonging to one of these categories – developer, testers, Team Leader, Project Manager or senior executives. Since these people (except senior executives) are directly involved in a software development project, so their opinion was very important in understanding the critical factors in a software development project. The opinion of senior executive also mattered as they provided a holistic view of the factors which a person directly involved in a project might not have been able to provide.

The tool which we used for our data collection was – ‘Questionnaire’. We have used questionnaire to conduct a survey, which has helped us generalize the result of the sample to the population. We have used 5 point Likert scale for our questionnaire and it was quite helpful in data analysis and was quite convenient for respondents as well.

The people working as developer, testers, Team Leader, Project Manager are largely falling in the age group of 25 – 40 years. Some senior executives are in an age bracket of 35 – 50 years. The most common work experience of the respondents is in a range of 2 years to 30 years.

According to Jenkins (1995) model, research study is generalized into 8 steps which we have tailored according to our research requirement. After finalization of variables and hypothesis, we followed methodically the following steps-

Questionnaire Design

Identify Respondents

Data Capture

Data Analysis

Conclusions

Publish Results

The demographic data which we will be including in our questionnaire is as mentioned below –

Respondent category

Developer

Team Leader

PM

Years of Experience

2 – 5

5 – 10

10 – 15

15- 20

20-25

25 and above

After the data collection, we will be analysing the data using different tools.

Demographic profile of respondents

We have taken responses from developers, team leads and project managers working on different software project across various organisations. The number of respondents between 2 to 5 years of experience are 88 and 41 respondents belong to 5 to 10 years of work-ex. The companies to which respondents belong to are Infosys, Tech Mahindra, TCS, eGain communications and Cognizant Technology solutions.

Below is the graphical representation of demography of respondents.

Developer

Team Leads

Project Managers

Brief overview of organisations where respondents belong

Infosys

Infosys was founded in 1981 by seven people with US$ 250. Today it is global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing with revenues of US$ 7.126 billion (LTM Q2 FY13). Many of the world’s leader organisations rely on Infosys for their IT related needs. Infosys provides business consulting, technology, engineering and outsourcing services to clients from more than 30 countries. With 66 offices and 69 development centres in US, India, China, Australia, Japan, Middle East, UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Poland, Canada and many other countries Infosys has global footprint. Infosys and its subsidiaries have 153,761 employees as on Sep 30, 2012.

Tech-Mahindra

Tech Mahindra is leading system integrator, business transformation and consulting firm mainly focused on communications industry. Started as Mahindra British Telecom in 1986, it has now global presence in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America. With 35000 thousand employees it has operations in 25 countries with 16 regional offices worldwide. With its acquisition of Satyam it strives to be one of the major global IT players.

TCS

TCS is IT services, consulting and business solutions provider. It is leader in the global market and is one of the top 10 technology firms. With 58 subsidiaries it has more than 254,000 employees in over 45 countries. It has benchmarked quality standard and heavily invested in software engineering practices and intellectual property in terms of patents, codes and products.

Cognizant

Cognizant Technology Solutions is American multinational company providing information technology, consulting and BPO services. It is the third most admired company according to Fortune magazine. With more than 140,000 employees it has presence globally in countries like UK, Europe, China, India, The Philippines, Canada, Argentina, and Mexico. It is currently one of the most rapidly growing IT Company.

eGain communications

eGain Communications Corporation engages in the development, licensing, implementation, and support of customer service infrastructure software solutions worldwide. It primarily offers cloud or hosting, and on-site customer interaction software for sales and service.

5. Results

This section describes the results of the study based on the evaluation methodology. From the survey results that were obtained, we have applied descriptive statistics to find the mean, standard error and t value to understand the factors which are most significant i.e. the most important factors which are important for the success of a software project according to the surveyed sample.

The mean, standard error and t value obtained are as below:

Q5_1

Q5_2

Q5_3

Q5_4

Q5_5

Q5_6

Q5_7

Q5_8

Q5_9

Mean

4.60

4.64

4.15

4.39

4.05

4.43

4.17

3.81

3.37

Standard Error

0.04

0.04

0.06

0.06

0.06

0.04

0.06

0.05

0.05

t-value

24.77

25.85

10.07

14.41

8.86

21.19

10.75

6.11

-2.42

The t-value has been obtained by the formula (Mean-3.5)/Standard Error where 3.5 has been taken as any value above it will mean that the factor is significant.

For all t- values above 1.65 the variable is considered to be significant.

As indicated by the t-values of the above variables, except Q5_9 which corresponds to facility provision and management, all the rest of the variables are considered important for the success of a software project.

According to the table above, Q5_2, Q5_1 and Q5_6 which correspond to Realistic estimation of schedule, clear and frozen requirements and regular communication between project manager and the client’s team are the three most important factors considered for the success of the project.

Step 1

The other part of the survey tried to measure the variables in the most recent project the respondent had worked on. It is important to know which independent variable has been significant in the success of the most recent project of the respondent.

First, the cronbach alpha of all the seven independent variables out of nine which have more than one Question in the survey questionnaire has been calculated to measure the reliability of the questions.

In this the responses of Q4, Q6, Q14 and Q15 have been reverse coded as the questions have been designed in a reverse way.

1) Clear and frozen requirements (Q2 and Q6)

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

.592

2) Realistic estimation of schedule (Q3 and Q4)

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

.824

3) Realistic estimation of budget (Q5 and Q11)

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

.526

4) A competent project manager (Q8 and Q16)

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

.806

5) Technical skills of the team (Q12, Q13 and Q14)

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

.793

6) Business operations (Q15 and Q17)

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

.565

7) Facility provision and management (Q7, Q18, Q19)

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

.537

Step 2

Since there are 2 or 3 questions for one variable, in order to analyse the data we have taken the mean of the responses of the 2 or 3 questions for each variable. Refer to ‘Mean Data’ sheet in the excel sheet.

Step 3

We have tried to apply factor analysis on the data to check if the nine independent variables are correlated in any way and can be reduced to fewer factors. The factor analysis reduces the nine variables to two factors but the variables cannot be related to any one factor. So we have proceeded with regression of the variables.

Step 4

Multiple regression has been applied to the independent variables and the dependent variable(Q20).Following is the result obtained.

Coefficientsa

Model

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized Coefficients

t

B

Std. Error

Beta

1

(Constant)

2.010

.293

6.869

2 and 6

-.144

.056

-.061

-2.578

3 and 4

-.125

.022

-.197

-5.553

5 and 11

-.364

.031

-.366

-11.928

8 and 16

.386

.048

.577

8.051

Q9

.442

.058

.472

7.623

Q10

-.037

.030

-.050

-1.218

12,13 and 14

.065

.042

.067

1.575

15 and 17

.055

.036

.069

1.554

7,18 and 19

.171

.046

.146

3.750

a. Dependent Variable: Q20

According to the above table, except Regular communication between the client and team, Technical skills of the team and business operations the rest of the variables are significant.

6. Discussion

Our original hypothesis were

H1: Clear and frozen requirements has no impact on the success of an IT project.

H2: Realistic estimation of the schedule has no impact on the success of an IT project.

H3: Realistic estimation of the budget has no impact on the success of an IT project.

H4: A competent project manager has no impact on the success of an IT project.

H5: Meeting Quality Requirements has no impact on the success of an IT project.

H6: Regular communication between project manager and client’ team has no impact on the success of an IT project.

H7: Technical skills of the team have no impact on the success of an IT project.

H8: Business operations have no impact on the success of an IT project.

H9: Facility provision and management has no impact on the success of an IT project.

After analysing the survey responses, the following are the observations:

1) Hypothesis H1 is rejected

2) Hypothesis H2 is rejected

3) Hypothesis H3 is rejected

4) Hypothesis H4 is rejected

5) Hypothesis H5 is rejected

6) Hypothesis H6 cannot be rejected

7) Hypothesis H7 cannot be rejected

8) Hypothesis H8 cannot be rejected

9) Hypothesis H9 is rejected

Our findings are consistent with the works of other people which states that the success of a software development project largely depends on factors like clear and frozen requirements, realistic estimation of budget and schedule, competent project manager, meeting quality requirements and facility provision proving to be significant factors in the success of a project in software industry. But there are a few factors like technical skills of the team, regular communication between the client and team and business operations which are observed to be not playing a very major role in the success of a project.

Realistic estimation of schedule, clear and frozen requirements and regular communication between project manager and the client’s team are the three most significant ones among the significant factors.

These findings prove that the success of software projects is more dependent on ‘soft factors’ like the above significant factors and not so much on the technical factors. Software projects nowadays are all about ensuring that these factors are set properly and the work starts much before the actual coding in a project starts. So, we can actually conclude that gone are the days when the software project depended heavily on the technical skills of the developers. In past, there was not much of a perceived contribution of the soft skills such as clarity of requirement, or clear communication within and between the teams. But based on our research, we can statically prove that these factors should be focused on more than anything else.

Some of our recommendations –

The firms which are largely focused on the IT development should do the following –

Make sure that the IT team has a very clear a frozen requirement right at the start of the project. Maybe following a process like scrum can help wherein a sprint for a time is frozen and cannot be edited until the sprint is completed.

Strict adherence to quality standards.

Budget and schedule estimation should be done by work breakdown method wherein every project should be broken into further and further tasks and then assigned budget and schedule for each.

The project manager should be selected only after thorough estimation of his current and potential abilities.

Some of the limitations of our study are

1) The study has been limited to 129 responses and cannot be said to reflect the entire firm.

2) It is possible that there are only maintenance and support projects which need not have any coding and hence do not require much technical support. In such a scenario the result for hypothesis 7 is questionable as the survey responses might contain more of such respondents who have worked in such type of projects.

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