The Relationship between Information Systems Strategy and the Perception of Project Success

This article reports an explorative study on the relationship between Information Systems Strategy and the Perception of Project Success. The authors built upon the theoretical foundations of prior research and constructed their conceptual research model from literature. The authors' study defines IS strategy as the degree to which the organization has a shared perspective to seek innovation through IS. The authors operationalize project success by grouping six project success criteria into process-orientation and outcome-orientation. The authors use a quantitative and conclusive descriptive design to study associations between these variables. The type of design they follow is cross-sectional where IS strategy and perceived project success are assayed in a sample of subjects once and the relationships between them are determined. The authors' data is collected using an online questionnaire by a combination of business and IT managers and executives, working at organizations with a certain level of IS maturity. The authors' research finds good support to posit that organizations with an innovative IS strategy are more focused on the outcome of a project than on the project process itself and that organizations with a conservative IS strategy do show some characteristics of a process-oriented view. Furthermore, their research indicates that a more innovative organization relates to a lower perceived importance of Cost and a higher perceived importance of Value and Learning. On the other hand, they find support that a more conservative organization relates to a higher perceived importance of Cost and a lower perceived importance of Use. Next to these findings the authors' study concludes with implications for practitioners and suggestions for further explorative research.