Project success perception and critical success factors affecting project performance: The case of Turkish information technology sector

Information technology projects are generally considered as more complex and less predictable than other types of projects such as engineering and construction. During the last decades, some publications have addressed the issue of IT projects being behind schedules, over budgeted and not meeting stakeholder expectations. Although research about project management is popular, there is not a consensus on the definition of project success or how to measure it. In this study, we intended to analyze project success criteria in order to identify what we understand from project. Also, we tried to identify the success factors and their influence on IT project performance. Finally, we aimed to determine the moderating effects of project duration and organization structure on the relationship between project success factors and project performance. The data were collected from IT professionals working in information systems projects in Turkey. The number of total respondents was 326, a quite high number, when compared to other similar researches in the world. For the study, Project Implementation Profile (PIP) questionnaire was used. The survey also included demographic data and project / company information of the participants. The results show that between ten critical project success factors in PIP and project performance, we find three critical success factors, which are effective: project mission, technical tasks and client consultation. The results also reveal that project duration and organization structure moderate the relationship between critical success factors and project performance.