Information Technology Project Failure Caused by Inadequate Project Scoping: An Exploratory Qualitative Inquiry on Inadequate Project Scopes

Abstract

The problem of failed IT projects is one that impacts companies across the world, costs millions in lost revenue, wastes resources, and prevents companies from reaching their business objectives. IT project failures affect many more industries than the IT industry alone because so many businesses in myriad industries rely on an IT infrastructure. The failure rate if IT projects is higher than almost any other industry. The most significant contributor to IT project failure has been linked to problems with IT project scopes. However, there exists a gap in the knowledge base regarding the root problems that lead to IT project scope inadequacy. This study was a qualitative inquiry into the specifics of IT project failure as related to inadequate IT project scopes. This study sought to answer two questions: What are the most common reasons that project scopes fail to adequately cover IT projects? What are some common practices, procedures, or workarounds that can mitigate the negative impact on project scopes? This study used semi-structured interviews of 20 IT project management professionals. The IT professionals all reside and work for companies within the United States. Participants were required to have had no less than two years of experience in managing IT projects. The average experience of participants was 12 years. The number of participants allowed the data collection to reach saturation. The data from the interviews were analyzed to identify emergent themes using Denzin's five levels of data analysis. The analysis was an iterative process that identified the following themes: inadequate requirements definition, poor communication, lack of technical knowledge, and stakeholder involvement as the most common causes that lead to IT project scope inadequacy. Two outliers were also emergent: lack of appropriate meeting regularity and not learning from mistakes. The RoCKS-ML model was created from the emergent themes and the prevailing methods of avoiding or mitigating the negative impacts of those themes. IT project management professionals can utilize the RoCKS-ML model to identify, prevent, and work around the most common reasons IT project scopes are inadequate.