The attribution of success and failure in IT projects
Purpose - The purpose of this research is to determine how project managers attribute information technology (IT) project success and failure. Design/methodology/approach - IT personnel from large Australian organisations completed an adapted version of the Attributional Styles questionnaire, which asked them to attribute causes along a number of attribution dimensions, for IT projects which have either succeeded or failed. Findings - The results indicate that IT support workers attribute failure to external factors, whilst attributing success to themselves. On the other hand, executive management took a more balanced perspective which attribute success to external factors and only partially to themselves, whereas they attribute significant personal responsibility for failure. Practical implications - More junior professionals and operational IT employees can learn from their senior professionals in attributing success and failure. Post-implementation reviews and debriefings conducted by senior IT professionals are ways of passing on their experience in relation to project and self-evaluations. Originality/value - This paper takes a well established psychology theory and applies it to the management of information systems (IS)/IT projects. IS/IT research has not examined how IT professionals attribute success and failure within projects.
project management information technology led strategy