Success of information systems implementations in Sri Lankan business organizations

Abstract

Success of information systems project implementation is an important goal for many organizations. The enormous dependence on information systems had engendered proper management of IT projects a critical requirement of organizational success. But shortfalls occur far more often than they should have occurred. Further the failures happen in every country; to large companies and small; in commercial, nonprofit, and governmental organizations; and without regard to status or reputation. Several commonly identified reasons have paved way to the information systems project successes/failures. Studies which carried out in this area have not covered software projects in Sri Lanka except one which mainly focused on business process re-engineering in ERP implementations. The main goal of this research is to ascertain the overall success and effectiveness of software implementation projects in Sri Lanka and to identify factors that contribute it with the help of evidence elicited from case studies. The sample of this research was formed with IT project managers and the IT teams (Software engineers, architects etc.) , system end users and customers. Three government and private organizations were selected to collect data using interviews. Questionnaires were used as a secondary source of data gathering to confirm whatever the data gathered using interviews. Questionnaires were administered among a sample of people respondents via web as well as hard copies were distributed. It was found that all three projects were considered successful by the users irrespective of time, cost and the scope. There were many factors that contributed to project success while many other factors contributed to their failure. Amongst them, user involvement and executive support played key roles in project successes. There were cases of user resistance in all the businesses that the new systems were installed. One of the most common challenges faced by all three projects was requirement gathering.