IT project success: A conceptual framework for IT project auditing assurance

Elizabeth Mkoba, Carl Marnewick

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The adoption of project management as a discipline in both public and private sector organisations is still growing. The growth has been evidenced by organisations continually aligning project activities with business strategy to achieve their strategic goals and create value for their organisations. Some of these initiatives are managed as IT projects. In 2016 the global information technology (IT) spend is forecast to total US3.54 trillion. Despite this growth in IT investment, IT projects still fail at an alarming rate. These failed IT projects have resulted in organisations not achieving their strategic objectives and goals, in addition to costing them huge amounts of money. Many factors contribute to IT projects failing, such as a poorly defined project scope, insufficient human resources, cost overruns, poor communication among project stakeholders, project auditing practices not being followed, inadequate practices in project risk management and lack of correct auditing of processes in IT projects. The majority of project audits are based on ad hoc management requests rather than systematic auditing processes throughout the project life cycle. Project managers are still challenged on managing IT projects to successful delivery. The problem addressed in this article is the lack of IT project auditing processes throughout the project life cycle to ensure IT project success. A conceptual framework is proposed for IT project auditing assurance throughout the project life cycle. The framework introduces high-level and detailed IT project assurance processes in each assurance review gate. These processes can be tailored to ensure the successful delivery of an IT project. The benefits of this article are its contribution to the body of knowledge with regard to project auditing. Secondly, practitioners and project managers can use this framework to audit IT projects to ensure successful completion of IT projects.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSAICSIT 2016 - Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Research Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists
EditorsDustin T van der Haar, Duncan A. Coulter, Marijke Coetzee, Elize M. Ehlers, Carl Marnewick, Frans F. Blauw, Wai Sze Leung
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)9781450348058
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Sept 2016
Event2016 Annual Research Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists, SAICSIT 2016 - Johannesburg, South Africa
Duration: 26 Sept 201628 Sept 2016

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series
Volume26-28-September-2016

Conference

Conference2016 Annual Research Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists, SAICSIT 2016
Country/TerritorySouth Africa
CityJohannesburg
Period26/09/1628/09/16

Keywords

  • IT project assurance
  • IT project auditing
  • Project governance
  • Project management
  • Project success

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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