Successful IT project delivery in a multinational organisation

Abstract

Projects are one common way of driving organisational change. It is therefore important to drive the right projects and that they are successful, delivered on time, cost and with the right quality. The trend is that projects are failing even though a lot has been done to increase the success rate, many projects are failing. The main purpose of the thesis was to understand how to achieve IT project success in a large multinational organization and give an idea of what can make the difference between success and failure. The result of the thesis is a guide on aspects to include to increase IT project success.The scientific approach was hermeneutic and the research method was both quantitative and qualitative. The thesis reviewed project performance based on literature and compared it with IT project results in a large multinational case company during one year. The conclusion was that, distance to the head quarter can be a challenge but treated in the right way it will be an advantage tying the local unit and the head quarter together. There was a difference in the project performance depending on gender so the aspect of “leading gender” should be taken in to consideration. It is important to focus on the right aspects when it comes to time, cost and scope. Too much focus on one factor will affect the others and it may not always be the right factor. Skilled project managers and sponsors make a difference to secure project delivery. Depending on the project different methodologies could be used such as waterfall or Agile but it is important that the corporate model is known, used and accepted by the organisation. Projects are only one part of the organisational ecosystem and it is important that the project(s) and the rest of the organisation are in balance.