IT Project Management: Factors for Success and Failure

This report analyzes the factors that contribute to the success or failure of an IT project and proposes the adoption of the scrum framework to address them. It focuses on the implementation of a VR app in the tourism industry and the importance of knowledge management.

Running Head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT 1
IT Project management
University
Name
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Abstract
The main purpose of this report is to analyze IT project management as well as the factors that
are likely to cause the success or failure of an IT project. Due to the increasing competition
among the tourist industries, there is a need to adopt technology as one of the competition tools
to aid in knowledge management. Knowledge management is known to be the main cause of
success/failure of any organizational project and therefore, this report aims at processing
knowledge management-system for Deltax tourism organization. This is achieved through the
implementation of the VR application. I have chosen the scrum framework to address the
identified causes of success/failures.
Keywords: - KM (Knowledge Management Process), VR (Virtual Reality), tourism

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Introduction
Management is a common task in each and every organization. It is a process which
encompasses the setting of the organizational plans, staffing which deals with the welfare of the
personnel, setting organizational standards through monitoring and reviews (Kerzner & Kerzner,
2017). For the purpose of remaining competitive and relevant in the market, travel industry has
to look for new and inventive ways of managing its customer experience. In order to implement
any project, a cycle is applied by the project manager to achieve the planned output (Bucero &
Englund, 2015). The figure below shows this concept.
This is a project which is concerned with developing a software program to be used in facial
recognition of the staffs. It is my role, as the IT manager of the Deltax Company, to be very
much focused in identifying the factors that are likely to contribute either to the victory or the
fiasco of the project.

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This project embraces the 5th computer-generation by deeply studying a picture so that it can
draw conclusions. It uses the image to provide the organization with the specifications of each
staff and his or her related information.
Despite my efforts as the project-manager to produce the desired output which meets the
expectations of the various stakeholders, there are other factors which pull down the success of
the entire process. These factors can either be found within our organization, Deltax Company or
from the outside part (Costantino, Di Gravio & Nonino, 2015).
Scenario
Tourism industry has been growing over the recent past and this has therefore convinced
me to develop a face-recognition app as my scenario. This has been stimulated by the rising
virtual reality in this sector because of its great attraction of customers globally. It is my role
therefore, to take lead in managing the entire process of this project implementation in Deltax
Touring Company.
Project scope
The key scope concerning this project is towards implementation of a VR app to be used
in Deltax Touring Industry to help in providing its customers/staffs with a better experience.
Problem statement
The main challenge facing Deltax Touring industry is the ineffective ways of
differentiating its staffs from the tourists and terrorists. Implementing the VR-app will aid in
automatic identification and improving the customer experience.

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Management process
From the above diagram, phases of project management are shown.
Process of project management entails 5 phases. These phases include:
1) Initiation phase:-This marks the beginning of an IT project and is important because it
determines the value of the project in addition to feasibility. It is at this phase that a business case as
well as feasibility study are created.
2) Planning phase. This phase comes immediately after approval of the project. It involves
planning how the project will be managed to ensure that its goals are met. Also, it entails stating the
required resources. It provides the IT team with the cost, schedule, organization, risks as well as
outlining the procurement.
3) Execution phase. After the planning phase has been successfully done, the project is now
ready to be started. It is a phase that is composed of detailed processes, plan execution as well
administrative execution which involves managing the contracts.

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4) Monitoring and controlling phase. For a project plan to face its actualization, it is a must to
monitor and adjust all the aspects. In order to ensure effectiveness of this, the following processes are
to be considered; the scope should be monitored as well as controlling the changes, measuring the
deliverables' quality, it is essential to track delays, monitoring the various expenses as well as identifying
various risks as far as the entire project is concerned.
5) Close. Upon completion of the goals of project and meeting the objectives, the project is not
completed until the closure phase is met. This phase involves ensuring that the deliverables of the
project have been achieved as well as closing all the matters related with administration
1. Potential causes of success
Being an IT project- manager, it is within my control to carry out the identification as well as
the analysis of the various potential causes of triumph of the project. An IT project is considered
to be successful if its time of completion is within the standards, the budget as well as other
constraints. I have been basing my emphasis on a proper planning to be the most crucial tool of
achieving success.
I have therefore identified the factors below to be among the several of the success causative
agents;
a) Adopting the modern tools for managing the project
These tools are of much use to me as the project-manager because they make me to be well
organized and use a methodology while managing this project. These project tools can be
applications which operated by mobiles, web-based or products which are hosted by cloud-
service. With this software being customized, our company is likely to have resources which are
efficient for the project, better allocation of tasks, documentation of the various phases of the

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project implementation, risk management as well as an appropriate progress-tracking of the
project (Aranyossy & Blaskovics, 2016)
b) Advancing a deeper indulgent of the project at hand
Possessing the ability and capability to clearly figure out how the output of my project is in
line with the tactical, strategic as well as the operational objectives and goals of the Deltax
company is an attempt to achieving success of the proposed and current project. It is a
requirement for an effective management for the Deltax Company to consider those projects that
are likely to have impacts on its long-term triumph. Therefore, it is my duty at this point to
create an alignment of the goals of this project as well as the core values (mission and mission)
of the organization. I will fix the project to positively and strategically improve the dedication of
the employees as well as their morale (Costantino, Di Gravio & Nonino, 2015). This will ensure
that the resources of the organization are efficiently used towards implementing the VR-app.
When I convince the executive to support the project, it will ensure that there is sufficient
allocation of resources as well as ensuring a project is completed on time.
c) Applying a Risk Management tool
Forecasting and managing risks are what define a worth project manager. It is my role
therefore, to use the existing plans to solve issues and apply a good risk –management technique
which help in boosting confidence of the team while managing risks as well as the confidence of
the clients during the progress of the project.
2. Potential causes of failure of an IT project
Despite the datum that many aspects contribute to the success of our project, I have carried
out an analysis and identified that the VR app project is likely to miscarry before it is completed

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or after its completion due to various factors. If the project has not met its timely completion or
has not met the organizational goals, is it said to have failed (Hussain, Mkpojiogu & Kamal,
2016). Some of these factors are:
a. Uninvolved sponsors
This factor occurs when the project is carried out in a vacuum. This means the sponsors have
been involved in the process by providing the required resources only and leaving the team to
produce the desired VR app. The project implementers are left without any figurehead to refer to
incase there is a need that has arisen (Montequin, Cousillas, Alvarez & Villanueva, 2016).
The team has got no other alternative other than to make its guess and sometimes the guesses
go the wrong direction. If this occurs, it means the project will be undertaken along the wrong
path until its conclusion and the sponsors will be unhappy.
b. Shifting the objectives
Cost, scope in addition to time are the constraints under which our project works. I saw that
changing the objectives contributes to 30% project failure.
Although it might not be possible to have 100% control over the changing project’s
objectives, minimizing its impacts can be done by adopting a model that caters for any change
(Montequin, Cousillas, Alvarez, & Villanueva, 2016).
c. Inaccurate estimates
Because the project –sponsors demand some estimates before the actual project
commences, Deltax touring industry is forced to provide so. This comes in two ways: 1) poor
practices which are a result of provision of estimates which conclude that they will be smooth,

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2) upfront planning which is a resultant feature of the manager’s request to have a premature
estimate of the VR app too early (Lei, Ganjeizadeh, Jayachandran, & Ozcan,2017).
3. Scrum Framework
In order to handle the above foundations of success/failure of the VR app project, I choose
and justify the adoption of scrum methodology. This is because it promotes collaboration
between and among the project’s teams and also due to its simplicity (Aranyossy & Blaskovics,
2016). This framework emphasizes on team work during the implementation of the VR app in
Deltax Touring Company.
4. How scrum methodology addresses the identified causes
It is a software development -framework which gives an emphasis to teamwork in the event of
managing the VR app by stressing on accountability in achieving the desired goal. It is seen to be
a framework whose usage lies on implementing the agile development (Acosta, Espinosa &
Espinosa, 2019).
It has 3 roles which include:
i. Owner of the project
ii. Team and
iii. Scrum-master
The entire process involves the project-owner who is tasked with compiling a backlog which
includes listing the requirements of the project by priority. These requirements include the
various software. The team is tasked with working on the prioritized parts of the VR app within a
strict time constraint.

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Reviewing the completed sprint comes before the next sprint of prioritized item list.
Therefore, I find this methodological framework to be relevant in addressing the above stated
success/failure causative agents through the following points;
i) It shortens time to develop the VR app. This is because it encourages teamwork
so as to ensure timely production of the output.
ii) Assigns priority. The team is tasked to work first on items with high priority as far
as tourism is concerned. This contributes to a better understanding of the VR-app project
hence reducing the chances of failure through inaccurate estimates.
iii) Testing. Through conducting reviews of the VR-app, scrum methodology helps in
identifying and managing risks to ensure the production of the desired product. This also
helps to address shifting of the objectives as an indicator of failure (Alexandros, Sakas,
Vlachos & Dimitrios, 2017).
Conclusion
Project management should be done with an aim of reducing the causes of failures and keeping a
focus on those that yield success of a project. This will ensure that we produce a desired product
which meets the desires of our stakeholders.
Even though we face alot of challenges while implementing our project, analysing such factors
will enable us to reduce them. Therefore, applying the scrum methodology has enabled us to
work as a team hence reducing the level of failures so as to maximize on our efforts of success.

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References
Acosta, A. F., Espinosa, J. E., & Espinosa, J. (2019). Application of the SCRUM Software
Methodology for Extending Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) Tools. In Simulating
Urban Traffic Scenarios (pp. 3-15). Springer, Cham.
Alexandros, N. K., Sakas, D. P., Vlachos, D. S., & Dimitrios, N. K. (2017). Comparing scrum
and xp agile methodologies using dynamic simulation modeling. In Strategic Innovative
Marketing (pp. 391-397). Springer, Cham.
Aranyossy, M., & Blaskovics, B. (2016, November). Factors of ITS Project Success and
Failure in Hungary. In PMUni 2016 Workshop (p. 15).
Bucero, A., & Englund, R. L. (2015, October). Project sponsorship: Achieving management
commitment for project success. Project Management Institute.
Costantino, F., Di Gravio, G., & Nonino, F. (2015). Project selection in project portfolio
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International Journal of Project Management, 33(8), 1744-1754
Hussain, A., Mkpojiogu, E. O., & Kamal, F. M. (2016). The role of requirements in the
success or failure of software projects. International Review of Management and
Marketing, 6(7S), 306-311.

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