Journal of Enterprise Information Management

A model of critical success factors for software projects

Goparaju Purna Sudhakar,
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A model of CSFs
A model of critical success factors for software
for software projects projects
Goparaju Purna Sudhakar
Auroras Scientific, Technological and Research Academy, Hyderabad, India
537
Abstract Received 25 November 2011
Purpose Existing models of critical success factors of software projects have less concentration on Revised 1 May 2012
communication, team, project management and product related factors. Hence, the purpose of this 14 May 2012
paper is to develop a conceptual model of critical success factors (CSFs) for software development Accepted 16 May 2012
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projects, categorize the success factors, finding the factors in each category and highlighting the
product, team, project management and communication factors as important categories of success
factors for software projects.
Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model and seven categories of success factors
comprising a total of 80 success factors for software development projects were identified based on the
thorough literature review. These 80 factors are collected based on their importance to software
projects and their repeated occurrence in the literature related to CSFs. Based on the occurrence of the
success factor in the literature, each category comprising top five success factors are identified as
critical success factors for software projects. Based on these seven categories of success factors a
conceptual model was developed.
Findings A total of 35 CSFs from seven CSF categories are identified from secondary research of the
CSFs for software development projects. The identified CSFs include communication in project, top
management support, clear project goal, reliability of output, project planning, teamwork, project team
coordination, quality control, client acceptance, accuracy of output, reduce ambiguity, maximize
stability, realistic expectations and user involvement. Project management, product, team and
communication factors are identified as important categories of success factors for software projects.
Research limitations/implications Different categories of critical success factors such as
product, project management, team and communication, which were not highlighted or categorized
earlier in the literature are discussed in this current work.
Practical implications This research is definitely useful for organizations working on software
projects. The project managers working in the industry can benefit from the mentioned critical success
factors and the categories of factors by concentration on them while planning and executing software
projects.
Originality/value The conceptual model, categorization of CSFs, identifying 35 CSFs for software
projects and highlighting product, team and communication factors are major contributions of this
research work.
Keywords Critical success factors, Project success, Information systems,
Managing software projects, Product factors, Team factors
Paper type Conceptual paper

1. Introduction
The purpose of Modern Project Management is to conduct a successful project (Shenhar et al.,
1996).
John S. Reel (1999) expressed that the software development is complex and software
developers are intelligent and deal daily with complex problems which in turn makes
the management formula in the organization complex. The project management has Journal of Enterprise Information
been used widely in 1950s by US Navy in executing complex projects and NASA in Management
Vol. 25 No. 6, 2012
space projects (Shenhar et al., 1996). Current days project management research pp. 537-558
r Emerald Group Publishing Limited
involves human, organizational, behavioral, environmental, cultural, contractual, legal, 1741-0398
stakeholder, personality based, communication and team-based factors and their effect DOI 10.1108/17410391211272829
 JEIM on project success. Project Success key words search results into 3,030,000 links in
25,6 Google Scholar (as on April 26, 2011). Critical success factors for projects key words
search in Google Scholar resulted into 1,140,000 links (as on April 26, 2011). This
indicates the level of research and importance for the niche areas in project
management such as project success and critical success factors for projects.
A project has got special characteristics such as having a specific begin date and
538 end date, specific goals, a set of complex inter-related tasks or activities and a limited
budget (Pinto and Slevin, 1988). Organizations are transforming corporate strategy
into actions using projects and project implementation (Baccarini and Collins, 2003).
Software product development is becoming global in nature because of shortage of
skilled workers in a specific country and the pressure of time to market (Sangwan et al.,
2006). When organizations go for global software development, they usually
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underestimate the impact of globally distributed software development teams and they
need cooperation of culturally diversified teams (Freedman and Katz, 2007). According
to Freedman and Katz (2007), executing international projects with different political,
legal, social, cultural and infrastructural environments are more complex than
executing projects in the domestic setup.
Usually critical success factors can be used for project governance and communication
in the project. These are the factors based on which project success is judged.
The literature review for this research work involves collecting articles from
journals such as International Journal of Project Management, Business Process
Management Journal, MIS Quarterly, Harvard Business Review, Global Information
Technology Management, IEEE Software, Management Science, International Journal
of Business and Management, Decision Support Systems, Journal of Computer
Information Systems, Hewlett-Packard Journal, Journal of Contract Management,
Information & Management, PM World Today, Issues in Information Systems,
Research Policy and Project Management Journal. Google Web, Google Scholar, DOAJ
and openj-gate are used for searching the articles on the internet. The key words used
for searching the articles are success factors, critical success factors, software
projects and critical success factors for information systems projects, etc. The
literature review was done during January 2011 till April 2011. The research analysis
was conducted during May 2011 till August 2011. Writing the paper was done in
September and October 2011. Hence, this particular secondary research work was done
in India from January 2011 till October 2011 by the researcher.
The success of software development project is an area of concern for many
organizations in the world. The research problem is finding the critical success factors
of software projects in current days. The objectives of this secondary research is to find
the meaning of project success, find the success factors for software projects,
categorize the success factors and also to find the critical success factors based on
their frequency of occurrence in literature. Hence, there is need for study of CSFs for
software projects.
This kind of research is very much required in the current days because more than
50 percent of the software projects are either failed or challenged with schedule
overruns, cost overruns and with poor quality (Standish Group, 1994). Lot of resources
such as money, time, hardware, software, human resources can be saved by increasing
the success rate of the software projects. Thus if a project manager knows the critical
success factors of his or her project, he can increase the success rate of his or her
project. Thus there is need and importance for the study of critical success factors of
software projects.
 Following sections consists of theory building which discusses the meaning of A model of CSFs
project success, how software projects are different, success factors for software for software
projects and CSFs for software projects, a developed conceptual model, categorization
of CSFs, CSFs identified and important categories of factors, analysis and scope for projects
further research. Next section provides different perspectives on meaning of project
success.
539
2. The meaning of project success
Different researchers have given different meanings to project success. Many
researchers (De Wit, 1988) have distinguished between project success and project
management success. There is also distinction between project success criteria which
is measured in accordance with meeting project objective and the project success
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factors which are input to the project management system that lead directly or
indirectly the project success (Cooke-Davies, 2002; Prabhakar, 2008). One should
also distinguish between project success which can be measured only after project
completion and also the project performance which can be measured at any stage of the
project (Cooke-Davies, 2002).
Prabhakar (2008) expressed that different stakeholders such as customers,
employees and managers assess the project success in any organization. He also
expressed that project manager is an important factor in making a project success.
According to Baccarini (1999), project success involves two components such as
project management success and product success.

Project success Project management success

Product success

Project success can be pictorially expressed as in Figure 1.

DeLone and McLean have studied the ways to measure the information systems
project success and dimensioned them as system quality, user satisfaction, information
quality, information use, organizational impact and individual impact (Li, 1997). The
widely used instrument in the industry to measure the information system success is
the 39 item instrument developed by Bailey and Pearson (Li, 1997). In a study done by
Pearson, the most five important factors for information system success are identified

Project success

Project management Project product

success success

Figure 1.
The meaning of
project success
Source: Author
 JEIM as accuracy of output, reliability of output, timeliness of output, realization of
25,6 requirements and user confidence in systems (Li, 1997).
Li (1997) have surveyed 608 members of national information systems professional
association in USA and identified the prioritized critical success factors for information
systems projects. They are top management involvement, accuracy of output,
timeliness of output, reliability of output, realization of user requirements, users
540 confidence in the system, relationship between users and IS staff, and documentation
of systems and procedures.
Kaufman et al. (2003) have identified the critical success factors for strategic
planning and thinking; they are move out of your comfort zone, differentiate between
means and ends, use three levels of planning such as mega, macro, and micro, prepare
vision, mission and objectives, and use an ideal vision.
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Pinto and Slevin (1988) defined project success as meeting project schedules,
budget, achieving predefined project goals and meeting customer satisfaction criteria.
Sofian (2003) has defined project success as meeting the target cost, schedule,
functionality and customer satisfaction. Project success also means executing the
project efficiently and effectively (Sofian, 2003). According to Pinto and Slevin (1988),
project success deals not only with the issues of project but also with the issues of
customer.
Based on the Marshalls (2007) research, project success constitutes meeting
schedule and budget goals, benefit to customer, commercial success and preparing for
future. Shenhar et al. (1996) expressed that project success is not just meeting budget
and schedules targets but it is about gaining advantage, accomplishment, victory,
superiority, achievement and added value.
Shenhar et al. (1996) have done a study of 127 projects to find out the dimensions of
project success. They concluded that 13 dimensions of project success include meeting
technical specifications, meeting budget, meeting schedules, meeting functional
performance, customer satisfaction, creating a new product line, creating a new
market, fulfilling customer needs, solving customer problems, creating a large market
share, developing new technology and the extent to which customer is using the
product and the commercial success of the product.
White and Fortune (2002) have surveyed 995 project managers working in 620
public and private sector organizations in UK using a questionnaire. In this research
respondents judged the project success as completing the project on time, on budget
and to specifications. The respondents have 41 percent project success rate. A total of
60 percent of the surveyed projects are information technology projects. They have
also identified another criterion for project success such as fit between project and
organization and project performance on organizational business success.
Project success measures for information systems projects used by Poon and
Wagner (2001) include access, use, positive impact, satisfaction and diffusion. Dvir
et al. (1998) have considered three aspects for measuring project success. They are
implementation process, customer satisfaction and perceived value of the project.
Dvir et al. (1998) have studied 110 defense projects completed between 1981 and
1990 in Israel and considered meeting design goals and benefits to the customer as the
success dimensions and measures for defense projects.
Pinto and Mantel have given three aspects of project success such as project
implementation process (including criteria such as schedules and budget), the
perceived value of the project and the customer satisfaction (Thite, 1999). Next section
explains how software projects are different.
 3. Software projects are different A model of CSFs
According to Royal Academy of Engineering (2004), complex IT projects are integral for software
part of our society. Lack of constraints, invisibility, complexity and flexibility are some
of the characteristics of complex IT projects. The level of professionalism observed in projects
software engineering is lower than that of other branches of engineering with some
exceptions (Royal Academy of Engineering, 2004). Hence with these complexities,
executing software development projects and management of software projects 541
are different from other engineering projects. Unlike other engineering disciplines,
the same technical objective can be achieved in multiple ways in case of software
engineering. The key players in software development include senior management,
project manager, team members, system architects, users, vendors, suppliers and
customers.
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Usage of computers and software has increased at unprecedented rate. Computers

are used at point-of-sale counters, ATM machines, electronic funds transfer,
e-commerce, online purchases, online ticketing, online trading, financial accounting,
automatic invoice processing and order processing. The volume of data, speed of
response and accuracy of expected results made the software projects more critical and
complex. Accuracy, reliability, flexibility, accountability, reportability and
completeness are some of the features of software systems. Once software system is
developed, it can be used any number of times. That is the reason software projects are
different from traditional projects.
Software development is highly complicated work and it involves many
stakeholders (Madanayake et al., 2009). The success rate of software projects is not
encouraging. Software development is done as projects and it involves knowledge from
both software development and project management areas (Madanayake et al., 2009).
Software projects prone to have high risk because of changing requirements, different
technical platforms, huge money investments and different business domains.
Software projects have multiple stakeholders. Each stakeholder has his or her own
priorities and interests. Hence, software project success is an interesting area involving
many facets. Next section discusses the success factors for software development
projects.

4. Success factors for software development projects

Belassi and Tukel have categorized the factors affecting the project performance as
factors related to project, organization, project managers, team members and
external environment (Prabhakar, 2008). Pinto and Slevin have done a survey of
418 PMI members in finding the critical success factors in project implementation
(Prabhakar, 2008).
Based on the extensive literature review of 17 research papers, Wong and Tein
(2004) have identified 23 critical success factors for Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) implementation projects. Pinto and Slevin (1988) have suggested to project
managers that they should concentrate on multi factor model for critical
project success factors and they should also identify the relative importance among
the factors.
Sofian (2003) has done a survey of 142 respondents, in which 14 percent are of
information systems and software professionals, to study the relationship between
organizational structure, organizational roles, capabilities, project managers skills and
competencies and project success. In this study, 37.6 percent of the respondents said
that projectized organization structure is most conducive to project success.
 JEIM Wixom (2001) claims that the user participation and team skills are the factors
25,6 which determine project success or failure. Amberg and Wiener (2006) stated that
cooperation, coordination and integration are success factors for projects involving
multiple buyers and suppliers. Thite (1999) has identified factors such as clarity of
project mission, top management support and availability of technical resources results
into high project success rate. The research methodology and synthesis are explained
542 in the next sections.

5. Research methodology
The research process followed is as shown in the Figure 2.
The current research is carried out in the following four stages.
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Stage 1 literature review

In this stage of research a through literature review of secondary resources such as
journals, books and conference proceedings (as mentioned in Section 1) was carried out
during January 2011 till April 2011. The critical success factors of software
development projects available from scholarly articles are collected and based on the
nature of the factor all the success factors are categorized into seven categories such as
communication factors, technical factors, organizational factors, environmental
factors, product factors, team factors and project management factors.

Stage 2 research model design

Based on the categories of the success factors a structural/conceptual model has been
drawn (Figures 2 and 3). The semantics of the flow, dependencies between the factors and
dependencies among the categories of factors can be identified from the drawn model.
The relationship of each category of factors and its relationship to product factors, project
management factors and project success are shown in the research model. At the end of
this stage, we have 80 success factors coming under seven categories of factors.

Stage 3 analysis of identified factors

The identified success factors in each category are arranged in the decreasing order of
number of occurrences of that specific factor in the literature. At the end of the exercise
we have the frequently occurring success factors in each category. After this exercise,
top five factors in each category are identified as critical success factors of software
projects in that specific category and are tabulated in Table VIII. This analysis of
success factors and research model design is done during May 2011 till August 2011.
At the end of this stage we have 35 critical success factors for software projects.

Stage 4 report writing

Finally documenting the findings of the research, report writing and finding opportunities
for further empirical research was carried out during September 2011-October 2011.
The next section explains the critical success factors for software projects.

Identify the
Analysis of
success Categorize Draw the
Literature identified Report
factors of the conceptual
Figure 2. review factors writing
software factors model
(prioritize)
Research process projects
 Team A model of CSFs
factors
for software
Product factors
projects
Technical
factors
Communication
factors

Project
543
Organizational
management
factors
factors

Environmental
factors
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Figure 3.
Conceptual model
Notes: The arrows expressed in the model (Figure 3) may not be regression of critical success
factors for software
relationships. In some cases, it may be an information flow as well development projects
Source: Author

6. Critical success factors for software projects

This section consists of the empirical studies done previously on critical success
factors area which support the current research theoretically to derive the success
factors for the software projects. The empirical studies on critical success factors such
as Pinto and Slevin (1988), The Standish Groups (1994), Jiang et al. (1996), White and
Fortune (2002), Baccarini and Collins (2003), Frese and Sauter (2003) and Benjamin
(2006) are considered.
Pinto and Slevin (1988) expressed that the technical, human and budgetary factors
affect the project implementation. Pinto and Slevin (1988) have developed a model of
ten critical success factors for project implementation and have empirically proved
them from a database of 400 projects. The ten critical success factors identified by
Pinto and Slevin (1988) include top management support, project mission, customer
involvement, project plan, personnel recruitment, technical tasks, client acceptance,
communication, monitoring and feedback and troubleshooting. Top management
support, project mission and project schedules or plans are categorized as strategic
critical success factors of project implementation by Pinto and Slevin (1988). The rest
of the seven factors are categorized as tactical critical success factors of project
implementation by them.
The Standish Groups (1994) CHAOS report indicates that the top five success
factors for projects are user involvement, top management support, clear requirements,
proper planning and realistic expectations.
Jiang et al. (1996) have surveyed the users and information systems professionals
from 50 organizations to identify the success factors for information systems project
success. They found that the top five success factors for information systems projects
are clearly defined project goal, skilled project manager, top management support,
competent team members and availability of needed resources.
White and Fortune (2002) have identified clear goals or objectives, support from
senior management and adequate resources/funds as top three most critical
success factors for projects based on a survey of 995 project managers in UK.
A total of 60 percent of the projects surveyed are IT projects.
 JEIM Baccarini and Collins (2003) have done an empirical study based on a survey of 150
25,6 Australian Project Management Institute members working in different industries
such as construction, information technology, telecommunications, etc. A total of
15 percent of the respondents in this survey are from information technology industry
and they have identified 15 critical success factors for project success. Among them
project understanding and competent project team are identified as predominant
544 factors for project success. One important thing noticed in this study is no significant
variations are observed in the responses received from different industries.
Benjamin (2006) identified project management methodology as critical success
factor for software projects based on an empirical study. However, the responses
received in his empirical study are very less (only eight responses). Frese and Sauter
(2003) found that good planning, clear responsibilities and accountability and schedule
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control have greatest impact on project success.

The success factors identified in different studies from the literature are compiled
and considered as the factors for this current research study are discussed in the
following paragraphs.
This section categorizes the success factors and identifies the success factors in
each category for the software development projects. Sofian (2003) has identified
project managers authority and responsibility, top management support, project
management procedures and process in place are important organizational roles and
capabilities for project success in her study.
Bairi and Manohar (2011) have done a case study analysis of three oil and gas
organizations to find out the critical success factors to obtain user customer
satisfaction in outsourced IT services. Based on their study they found that keep and
win customers, avoid damaging customer relationships, improve service management
skills and improve domain skills are the critical success factors for obtaining user
customer satisfaction in IT outsourced projects.
Based on secondary research, Kamal (2006) has categorized the critical success
factors for IT innovation adoption in government sector into five categories such as
perceived technology factors, organizational factors, collaboration factors, external
factors and support factors. Overall he has identified 42 critical success factors for IT
innovation adoption in government sector. These factors include top management
support, customer support, user participation, financial, decision making,
organizational politics, organizational culture and size.
Marshall (2007) has done a cross-sectional survey of 145 earned value practitioners
and found that stronger implementation of principles of earned value management
(EVM) on contracted efforts is positively related to project success. He also found that
EVM mechanisms are positively related to contract administration and development and
are not dependent on contract type. EVM is very useful in different phases of project
management such as planning, executing, monitoring and controlling. Marshalls (2007)
research indicates that EVM principles contribute to project planning and control.
In Shenhar et al. (1996) study they found that organizational effectiveness is
strongly linked to project success. They found high level of correlation between
customer satisfaction and project success. They also found that there is a relationship
between project type such as established technology or advanced technology and
project success.
There are different dimensions of classifications of CSFs for software projects in the
literature. They are strategic vs tactical, organizational vs technical, internal vs
external, static vs dynamic factors (Amberg and Wiener, 2006). Other classification of
 CSFs is given by Rajkumar and Mani with four categories of factors such as A model of CSFs
management, project, client and personal factors (Remus and Wiener, 2009). for software
There is another categorization of critical success factors for projects. Dvir et al.
(1998) have categorized the success factors for defense projects into four categories projects
based on their study of 110 defense projects in Israel. They are project initiation and
pre-contract activities, project preparations and design policy, technological
infrastructure and design methods, planning and control processes, organizational 545
and managerial environment.
Based on the exhaustive literature review of success factors for software projects
the following categories of success factors are identified:
(1) communication factors;
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(2) technical factors;

(3) organizational factors;
(4) environmental factors;
(5) product factors;
(6) team factors; and
(7) project management factors.
These categories of success factors are also prioritized with respect to the success of
software development projects in analysis and discussion section of this paper. The
following sections explain each success factors category and its constituent success
factors for projects and their respective references in the literature. Finally the top five
frequently referred factors in each category based on the number of references are
consider for representative success factors for each category. Also the success factors
in each category are arranged in the decreasing number of references in the literature in
the following tables.
6.1 CSFs Category 1: communication factors
Based on a through literature review Nah et al. (2001) have identified 11 critical success
factors for ERP projects such as teamwork and composition, change management, top
management support, business plan and vision, business process reengineering,
project management, project champion, testing and troubleshooting, monitoring
project performance, effective communication, software development, appropriate
business and IT legacy systems. The leadership or management of stakeholders
results into the project success or failure (Table I).
For a successful project, the project manager should have qualities such as willingness
to take risk, communication skills, ability to handle politics, ability to manage people
well, ability to handle stress, commit time for project, problem solving, sense of humor,
stamina, right emotional balance, flexibility and sound business judgment (Thite, 1999).

6.2 CSFs Category 2: technical factors

Organizational, managerial and cultural factors impact the project success more than
the technical factors (Thite, 1999) (Table II).

6.3 CSFs Category 3: organizational factors

According to Rockart (1979), the critical success factors for an organization include
market success, image in financial markets, company morale, technological success
 JEIM Sl. no. Critical success factor Reference/researchers
25,6
1. Communication Lock (1984), Cleland and King (1983), Pinto and Slevin (1988,
1989), Verma (1995), Jiang et al. (1996), Baccarini and Collins
(2003), Sofian (2003), Dong et al. (2004), Wong and Tein (2004),
Carroll (undated)
2. Leadership Verma (1995), Sofian (2003), Turner and Muller (2004, 2005),
546 Freedman and Katz (2007)
3. Relationship between Bailey and Pearson (1983), Li (1997)
users and IS staff
4. Reduce ambiguity Sangwan et al. (2006)
5. Maximize stability Sangwan et al. (2006)
6. Balance flexibility and Sangwan et al. (2006)
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rigidity
7. Cooperation Wong and Tein (2004)
Table I.
Communication factors Sources: Li (1997), Prabhakar (2008) and author compiled

Sl. no. Critical success factor Reference/researchers

1. Technical tasks Pinto and Slevin (1988, 1989), Jiang et al. (1996), Wong and Tein
(2004), Royal Academy of Engineering (2004)
2. Trouble shooting Pinto and Slevin (1988, 1989), Jiang et al. (1996), Wong and Tein
(2004)
3. Technical uncertainty Morris and Hough (1987)
4. Technical Morris and Hough (1987)
implementation
problems
5. Integration of the Wong and Tein (2004)
system
6. Technology support Dong et al. (2004)
7. System testing Wong and Tein (2004)
8. Removing legacy Niksilver (2010)
systems
Table II.
Technical factors Sources: Prabhakar (2008) and author compiled

with customers, risk recognition, profit margin on jobs and performance to budget on
major jobs. Mathrani and Viehland (2010) have done research on critical success
factors for transformation process of ERP implementations. They have also identified
factors such as top management support, clearly defined communication, project
champion, efficient process engineering, training and technology as critical for success
of transformation of ERP implementations (Table III).
Poon and Wagner (2001) have studied six organizations in Hong Kong over a period
of 18 months and found that championship, availability of resources and link to
organizational objectives are the meta-success factors for information systems
success that support senior executives. Madanayake et al. (2009) identified top
management support as critical success factor for software development project. They
have identified strategy, facilitate and lead as top three top management roles leading
to software project success from project managers perspective.
 Critical success
A model of CSFs
Sl. no. factor Reference/researchers for software
1. Top management Martin (1976), Cleland and King (1983), Bailey and Pearson (1983),
projects
support Pinto and Slevin (1988,, 1989), Standish Group (1994), Jiang et al.
(1996), Li (1997), Murray (2001), Baccarini and Collins (2003), Sofian
(2003), Dong et al. (2004), Wong and Tein (2004), Kamal (2006),
Hirshfield and Lee (undated), Carroll (undated)
547
2. Realistic Standish Group (1994), Reel (1999), Wong and Tein (2004),
expectations Hirshfield and Lee (undated)
3. Organizational Morris and Hough (1987), Pinto and Slevin (1989), Kamal (2006)
politics
4. Financial support Cleland and King (1983), Kamal (2006)
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5. Power Pinto and Slevin (1989)

6. Market intelligence Cleland and King (1983)
7. Personnel Pinto and Slevin (1988)
recruitment
8. Business process Wong and Tein (2004)
reengineering
9. Reducing a cost base Niksilver (2010)
10. Increasing efficiency Niksilver (2010) Table III.
11. Attrition Reel (1999) Organizational factors

6.4 CSFs Category 4: environmental factors (Table IV)

6.5 CSFs Category 5: product factors (Table V)

6.6 CSFs Category 6: team factors

Thite (1999) has done a research study on 36 Australian organizations and found that
the critical success factors for IT/IS projects from senior management perspective are
clarity of requirements, team cohesiveness, management support, client support and
leadership effectiveness of the project manager (Table VI).
Bavani (2009) based on own experience of product development, best practices,
lessons learned given a list of critical success factors for Agile software development
and testing in distributed teams. They are set up the base camp, ensure explicit
delegation and validate assumptions, cut communication loops, facilitate tool driven
query resolution, assess internal quality, manage effort variance, take stock of user
stories for status checks and complement people to improve processes.

6.7 CSFs Category 7: project management factors

Based on the HP experience, May and Zimmer (1996) have identified clear vision,
project planning, select and manage users, manage the developers, fill key
organizational roles, manage builds, shift management focus and focus on key
objectives as critical success factors for evolutionary software development (Table VII).
Amberg and Wiener (2006) have identified clearly defined goals, top management
support, competent project manager, adequate communication channels, competent
team members, sufficient resource allocation, control mechanisms, responsiveness to
client and feedback mechanisms as critical success factors for software development
projects in Sweden. They have studied a largest IT project with 1,800,000 lines of code
of Swedish social insurance administration.
 JEIM Sl.
25,6 no. Critical success factor Reference/researchers

1. User involvement Standish Group (1994), Wixom (2001), Baccarini and Collins (2003),
Dong et al. (2004), Wong and Tein (2004), Kamal (2006), Hirshfield and
Lee (undated), Carroll (undated)
2. Customer Pinto and Slevin (1988, 1989), Jiang et al. (1996), Baccarini and Collins
548 involvement (2003), Kamal (2006)
3. Vendor partnership Baccarini and Collins (2003), Royal Academy of Engineering (2004),
Wong and Tein (2004), Kamal (2006), Freedman and Katz (2007)
4. External Pinto and Slevin (1989), Baccarini and Collins (2003)
environment events
5. Client acceptance Pinto and Slevin (1988), Jiang et al. (1996)
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6. Users confidence in Bailey and Pearson (1983), Li (1997)

the system
7. Community Morris and Hough (1987)
involvement
8. Legal problems Morris and Hough (1987)
9. User training and Wong and Tein (2004)
education
10. Opening up a new Niksilver (2010)
market
Table IV.
Environmental factors Sources: Li (1997), Prabhakar (2008) and author compiled

Sl. no. Critical success factor Reference/researchers

1. Accuracy of output Bailey and Pearson (1983), Li (1997)

2. Reliability of output Bailey and Pearson (1983), Li (1997)
3. Timeliness of output Bailey and Pearson (1983), Li (1997)
4. Quality control Reel (1999), Carroll (undated)
5. Documentation of systems and procedures Bailey and Pearson (1983), Li (1997)
6. Realization of user requirements Bailey and Pearson (1983), Li (1997)
7. Product management Reel (1999)
Table V.
Product factors Sources: Li (1997) and author compiled

Holland and Light (1999) from Manchester Business School have studied eight case
studies and given the categorization of critical success factors as strategic and tactical.
This categorization is similar to the categorization given by Pinto and Slevin. Holland
and Lights (1999) work is basically an extension of Pinto and Slevins and they have
concentrated on ERP implementations. Holland and Light (1999) have added legacy
systems and ERP strategy to the Pinto and Slevins strategic factors. The identified
tactical factors by Holland and Light (1999) include client consultation, personnel,
client acceptance, communication, monitoring and feedback of Pinto and Slevins work
and BPC and software configuration added by them.
Somers and Nelson (2001) have studied 86 organizations that are implemented or in
the process of implementing ERP systems in their organizations. The top ten critical
success factors out of 22 CSFs identified by them include top management support,
 Sl. no. Critical success factor Reference/researchers
A model of CSFs
for software
1. Team capability/
competence
Baker et al. (1983), Jiang et al. (1996), Baccarini and Collins (2003),
Dong et al. (2004)
projects
2. Teamwork Verma (1995), Reel (1999), Wixom (2001), Baccarini and Collins
(2003)
3. Select right project Martin (1976), Reel (1999), Wong and Tein (2004), Carroll
team (undated)
549
4. Project team Sangwan et al. (2006)
coordination
5. Task orientation Baker et al. (1983)
6. Team commitment Baker et al. (1983)
7. Team empowerment Carroll (undated)
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Table VI.
Sources: Prabhakar (2008) and author compiled Team factors

Sl. no. Critical success factor Reference/researchers

1. Project planning Martin (1976), Baker et al. (1983), Pinto and Slevin (1988),
Standish Group (1994), Murray (2001), Baccarini and Collins
(2003), Frese and Sauter (2003), Dong et al. (2004), Carroll
(undated)
2. Project control Sayles and Chandler (1971), Baker et al. (1983), Lock (1984),
mechanisms Jiang et al. (1996), Baccarini and Collins (2003), Sofian (2003),
Frese and Sauter (2003), Dong et al. (2004), Carroll (undated)
3. Project schedule Sayles and Chandler (1971), Cleland and King (1983),
Morris and Hough (1987), Murray (2001), Baccarini and Collins
(2003), Sofian (2003), Hirshfield and Lee (undated), Carroll
(undated)
4. Project managers Sayles and Chandler (1971), Lock (1984), Pinto and Slevin
competence (1989), Jiang et al. (1996), Sofian (2003), Dong et al. (2004),
Turner and Muller (2004, 2005)
5. Clear project goal Martin (1976), Baker et al. (1983), Morris and Hough (1987),
Pinto and Slevin (1988), Jiang et al. (1996), White and Fortune
(2002), Dong et al. (2004), Wong and Tein (2004)
6. Availability of resources Martin (1976), Jiang et al. (1996), Murray (2001), Baccarini and
Collins (2003), Carroll (undated)
7. Project monitoring Sayles and Chandler (1971), Pinto and Slevin (1988,, 1989),
Wong and Tein (2004), Carroll (undated)
8. Project organization Martin (1976), Cleland and King (1983), Sofian (2003), Wong
and Tein (2004)
9. Progress meetings Lock (1984), Reel (1999), Murray (2001), Royal Academy of
Engineering (2004)
10. Project review and Martin (1976), Cleland and King (1983), Jiang et al. (1996),
feedback Wong and Tein (2004)
11. Well-defined project Standish Group (1994), Murray (2001), Royal Academy of
requirements Engineering (2004)
12. Risk management Murray (2001), Baccarini and Collins (2003), Royal Academy of
Engineering (2004) Table VII.
Project management
(continued) factors
 JEIM Sl. no. Critical success factor Reference/researchers
25,6
13. Project managers Lock (1984), Baccarini and Collins (2003), Sofian (2003)
authority
14. Cost estimates Baker et al. (1983), Baccarini and Collins (2003), Sofian (2003)
15. Decision making Reel (1999), Sofian (2003), Kamal (2006)
550 16. Organize and delegate Martin (1976), Sofian (2003)
authority
17. Understand project Baccarini and Collins (2003), Sangwan et al. (2006)
dependencies
18. Change management Wong and Tein (2004), Royal Academy of Engineering (2004)
19. Project closure and post- Reel (1999), Carroll (undated)
mortem
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20. Project management Benjamin (2006)

methodology
21. Problem solving Baccarini and Collins (2003)
22. Principles of earned Marshall (2007)
value management
23. Clear responsibilities Frese and Sauter (2003)
and accountability
24. Preliminary project Carroll (undated)
scope statement
25. Issue management Carroll (undated)
26. Level of experience of Carroll (undated)
project manager
27. Project selection Freedman and Katz (2007)
28. Contractual Royal Academy of Engineering (2004)
arrangements
29. Vendor package Wong and Tein (2004)
selection
30. Evolutionary project Royal Academy of Engineering (2004)
management

Table VII. Sources: Prabhakar (2008) and author compiled

project team competence, interdepartmental cooperation, clear goals and objectives,

project management, interdepartmental communications, management of
expectations, project champion, vendor support and careful package selection.
Plant and Willcocks (2007) extended the work of Somers and Nelson (2001)
and they have identified the relative importance of 22 CSFs given by Somers and
Nelson (2001) at different stages of ERP implementation. They have followed a case-
based approach and it is from project managers perspective. They have identified top
management support, clear goals and objectives and strong inter-departmental
communication as top three critical success factors during the early stage of the project
life cycle.
Elder and Garman (2008) have done a research on public sector organizations such
as USAF software organizations and found that both private sector and public sector
organizations share the most of the critical success factors for software projects. The
top five critical success factors they identified for public sector software projects are
adequate funds/resources, clear goals and objectives, realistic schedules, end user
commitment and clear communication channels.
 Remus and Wiener (2009) have studied critical success factors for offshore software A model of CSFs
development projects in Germany and found clear project goals, continuous controlling for software
of project results, good communication flow, high quality of offshore employees and the
good language skills as top five critical success factors for offshore German projects projects
from several perspectives. Next section gives the conceptual model.

7. The conceptual model 551

The information systems success model given by DeLone and McLean (1992) has the
dimensions such as user satisfaction, use, system quality, information quality,
individual impact and organizational impact. This model did not discuss factors
related to communication and project management factors. The information systems
success model given by Bailey and Pearson (1983) has the dimensions such as system
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quality, information quality, information use, user satisfaction, individual impact,

service quality and conflict resolution. Bailey and Pearson (1983) have tried to shed
some light on communication factors and product-related factors, however, they did
not show sufficient concentration on team-related and project-management-related
factors. The critical success factors model given by Bullen and Rockart (1981) has
sources of factors such as industry, strategy, environmental, temporal and position-
related factors. It did not discuss factors related to communication, product, team and
project management.
The project success model given by Ochini et al. (2009) has the dimensions such as
strategy, facilitate and lead. It has factors related to environmental, project and
organizational factors. However, there is less concentration on factors related to
communication, team and product in this specific model. They have also defined the
project success in terms of project process success and project product success.
The critical success factors model for managing software projects given by Remus
and Wiener (2009) has dimensions such as internal suitability factors, internal
management factors, external suitability factors and external management factors.
This model did not discuss about product- and quality-related factors. However, they
discussed about culture-related factors. The model of critical success factors given by
Holland and Light (1999) has less concentration on user-, product- and environment-
related dimensions. It has much concentration of communication- and project-
management-related factors. Hence, there is a need for the development of a new
critical success factors model for software projects with concentration on dimensions
such as communication, product, project management, team, environmental,
organizational and technical.
Figures 3 and 4 are the conceptual models of critical success factors for software
projects and its relationship to project success. The arrows indicated are either
regression relationships or just the information flow.

8. Analysis of identified success factors

This section explains how five factors from each CSF category are identified as
important CSFs for software development projects. The success factors are arranged in
the order of maximum occurrences in the literature in each category of success factors
(Table VIII).
Total success factors for software projects identified in the literature review
are 80. The top five factors in each category of factors have been identified based
on the number of references made on that specific factor in the literature as shown in
Table VIII.
 JEIM Team
25,6 factors
Product
factors
Technical
factors Project
Communication
factors success
552
Project
Organizational
management
factors
factors
Figure 4.
The models relationship
Environmental
with project success
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factors

The Table IX having 35 factors constitutes the final critical success factors important
in each critical success factor category.
These factors with their categorization can be used for any empirical analysis of
CSFs for software development teams.
The CSFs such as communication in the project and top management support have
more than ten occurrences each in the considered literature. The identified critical
success factors clear project goal is in line with the research done by Pinto and Slevin
(1988), Jiang et al. (1996), Thite (1999), White and Fortune (2002), Amberg and Wiener
(2006), Plant and Willcocks (2007), Remus and Wiener (2009) and Mathrani and
Viehland (2010). Nah et al. (2001) have also identified teamwork and effective
communication as critical success factors for software projects, which are also
identified in this current research. The common CSFs identified in Pinto and Slevin
(1988) and Amberg and Wiener (2006) studies with this current study are clear project
goals and effective communication in the project. Reliability of output and accuracy of
output are common CSFs identified in this current study and also in the studies of
Pearson (1977) and Li (1997).
The common critical success factors for software projects found in this current
study and the study done by Elder and Garman (2008) are clear goals/objectives,
project planning, effective teamwork, communication in project and user involvement/
commitment. Based on the research work of Elder and Garman (2008), the CSFs are
mostly common for software projects of both public and private sector organizations.

9. Conclusion
Categorizing critical success factors for software development projects and finding
their factors in each category is the major contribution of this work. Literature review
indicates that, till now the researchers have concentrated on technical, communication
and project management factors in finding the software project success. Identifying 35
critical success factors based on the past empirical and theoretical studies is major
contribution of this research work. The conceptual model of CSFs for software
development projects given is another unique contribution of this work. Categorization
of the success factors for software projects discussed in this paper also adds to the
project management literature.
Top management support, communication in the project, clear project goal, user
involvement, team work, reliability of output and project planning are also identified as
critical success factors for software development projects based on this secondary
 Number of occurrences
A model of CSFs
CSF category Success factor identified (in the considered literature) for software
projects
Communication factors Communication in project 11
Leadership 5
Relationship between users and IS staff 2
Reduce ambiguity 1 553
Maximize stability 1
Technical factors Technical tasks 5
Trouble shooting 4
Technical uncertainty 1
Technical implementation Problems 1
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Integration of the system 1

Organizational factors Top management support 16
Realistic expectations 4
Organizational politics 3
Financial support 2
Power 1
Environmental factors User involvement 8
Customer involvement 5
Vendor partnership 5
External environment events 2
Client acceptance 2
Product factors Accuracy of output 2
Reliability of output 2
Timeliness of output 2
Quality control 2
Documentation of systems and procedures 2
Team factors Team capability/competence 4
Teamwork 4
Select right project team 4
Project team coordination 1
Task orientation 1
Project management factors Project planning 9
Project control mechanisms 9 Table VIII.
Project schedule 8 Success factor identified
Project managers competence 8 and its number
Clear project goal 8 of occurrences

research. The importance of project plan, teamwork and team coordination in project
teams is evident from the list of critical success factors. Communication in the
project team is also important critical success factor for any software project.
The project success rate can be improved by the organizations working on software
projects if they concentrate and keep working on the identified critical success factors
for software projects. This current research has got implications to literature and
practice. It adds the conceptual model of CSFs and some of the CSFs for software
projects from different dimensions such as product, team, project management,
environment and communication to the body of literature. The practicing project
managers can benefit from the identified critical success factors and categories of
factors. With this we can work toward the ultimate goal of project management,
making the project success. Further an empirical study based on current conceptual
model can further reduce the number of CSFs for software projects.
 JEIM Sl. no. CSF category Success factor identified
25,6
1. Communication factors Communication in project
2. Leadership
3. Relationship between users and IS staff
4. Reduce ambiguity
554 5. Maximize stability
6. Technical factors Technical tasks
7. Trouble shooting
8. Technical uncertainty
9. Technical implementation problems
10. Integration of the system
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11. Organizational factors Top management support

12. Realistic expectations
13. Organizational politics
14. Financial support
15. Power
16. Environmental factors User involvement
17. Customer involvement
18. Vendor partnership
19. External environment events
20. Client acceptance
21. Product factors Accuracy of output
22. Reliability of output
23. Timeliness of output
24. Quality control
25. Documentation of systems and procedures
26. Team factors Team capability/competence
27. Teamwork
28. Select right project team
29. Project team coordination
30. Task orientation
31. Project management factors Project planning
32. Project control mechanisms
33. Project schedule
Table IX.
34. Project managers competence
Critical success
35. Clear project goal
factors of software
development projects Source: Author

10. Scope for further research

Further an empirical research can be conducted based on the critical success factors
identified for software projects so that top most CSFs can be identified. Similar
approach and success factors can be found for projects in different industries such as
construction, bio-technology, engineering, research and pharmaceutical industries.
Finding out the critical success factors for different projects in different industries will
increase the project success rate globally. This research can be customized to different
industries in different countries. Also the research can be extended to the projects in
which multiple countries, multiple industries and multiple organizations are involved.
That is finding the critical success factors for globally and geographically distributed
software projects with onsite-offshore, global delivery and outsourcing models. Further
research can be done in finding the software projects critical success factors specific to
the delivery model the organizations are following such as onsite-offshore, global
 delivery model, outsourcing and sub-contracting models. As stated in Dvir et al. (1998) A model of CSFs
project success factors are not universal for all projects. Hence, there is a need for doing for software
this kind of research in different industries and in different countries.
The empirical research done on matured industries and on well-established projects
organizations and industries in finding out the critical success factors will definitely
help the new entrants and start up organizations in that specific industry or country.
If the finding of the critical success factors research in different industries and in 555
different countries can be well received, considered and implemented the objective of
global project success can be achieved by saving lot of valuable resources in this world.

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About the author

Goparaju Purna Sudhakar, PMP, has over a decade of experience in the IT industry and is
currently working as Associate Professor at Auroras Scientific Technological and Research
Academy, Hyderabad, India. Previously he worked as Sr. Faculty and Head (in-charge), IT
Division at Engineering Staff College of India, Hyderabad and Consulting Editor at ICFAI
Research Center, The ICFAI University, Hyderabad, India. He has worked in USA, UK, Ireland,
Finland and India as a Software Professional. He has a BSc, MCA, MTech and Executive MBA.
He is Project Management Professional (PMPs) certified from Project Management Institute
(PMI), USA. He has submitted his PhD thesis in Business Administration to Aligarh Muslim
University, India and is a member of the All India Management Association (AIMA). He has
worked as an employee or consultant to companies such as IBM, Siemens, Interwoven, Wipro
Technologies, Citicorp, Nokia, Salomon Smith Barney, SIAC, DSET Corporation, IONA
Technologies, Birla-Horizons International, and PCL Mindware. He has held both managerial
and technical roles in the IT industry. He worked as Project Manager at Citicorp Overseas
Software Ltd (COSL), Hyderabad during 2001-2003. He worked as Systems Manager at Wipro
Technologies during 1999-2001. The reuse domain software product he managed, Scorpus, was
identified as one of the top 100 IT innovations by NASSCOM (2007). He worked in banking,
financial services and insurance (BFSI), telecom, e-commerce, enterprise content management,
enterprise software asset management (ESAM), health care and HR domains. He has extensive
experience in project management, program management, general management, quality
management, business process re-engineering, HRM, and human aspects of project management.
He has wide experience in management consulting. Goparaju Purna Sudhakar can be contacted
at: Purna24@hotmail.com

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