Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Abstract

Nowadays    using    Information   Technology    to    overcome   rapid environmental   changes   and   adopting   flexibility   is   necessary   and inevitable. Yet, implementation ofIT  projects in many cases is subject to failure. This research seeks to identify vital elements/factors of success and failure of IT projects in Iran and defining techniques to decrease the rate  of  failure.  These  elements/factors have  been  assessed under  two general classifications: infrastructural including technical, human, economic, cultural, and management! administrative factors, and superficial, including size of the organization and the project, To identifying infrastructural factors, expert survey questionnaires has been applied. Results show that  administrative/ management-strategic factors, and cultural -  social are more important than financial - economic and technological -  human factors. And most important of   all is the absence of sufficient commitment on the side of senior managers of the organizations   and  unfamiliarity  of  people  and  authorities  with  the structure and performance 0 f IT. Superficial factors have been analyzed dynamically in two dimensions: size of the organization and the project. The   results   of   the   descriptive  analysis  shows   that  the   larger  the organization and the project, the higher the risk of failure.By the end, the conceptual   model  of  the  vital  elements  of  success  and  failure of  IT projects  has  been  presented  as  well  as suggestions  for  successful execution of such projects and future research in this field.

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