Beyond Chaos: Examining IT Project Performance

Management information systems researchers have not yet developed a generally accepted method to measure project performance. The performance measures developed by a consulting firm, the Standish Group, remain the most frequently cited indicators of IT project performance. This paper examine three classes of reason for observed differences in IT project performance including: the subjects and projects in the sample, the data collection method and the analysis method used. Summaries for differences across published methods are provided along with discussion of the pros and cons related to each measurement method. Our comparison suggests that both fast and simple methods and more rigorous methods can provide value. However, to achieve the ability to compare across studies, we should be clear as to which methods are used for a given research study.