1. Introduction

ICT projects are usually a major undertaking for any company. They can involve huge sums of money, months even years of work and the involvement of many staff, who, while they are involved on the project are not available to do their 'normal' role within the business.

Although many IT projects are successful and companies get the system they need, unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons many projects fail completely or don't deliver the system that was originally promised.

This could be because of:

• poor planning
• poor time management
• over optimism or unrealistic time frames
• poor budgetary control
• insufficient budget
• poor communication within the project team or with users
  

A project which fails to deliver ultimately wastes valuable time, money and company resources.

If the project has taken many years the company can be left at a disadvantage against their competitors who have probably introduced similar systems.

It is essential that any company about to embark on a new IT project does everything possible to ensure the successful outcome of that project.