IT Success!: Towards a New Model for Information Technology

5.6. Project critical success factors

The above debate of the waterfall vs the iterative approach should not give the impression that project success is simply a question of using one preferred approach over another – if only things were that simple. As any article, book or study on the subject will show, there are other equally important critical success factors, ranging from active executive sponsorship and a realistic business case to obtaining user buy-in and effectively managing organizational change. Which development methodology you use is but one of a number of things you've got to get right in order to deliver workable results.

For a more detailed look at across-the-board project critical success factors, including a 40 question project risk analysis covering subjects from project definition and organizational politics to balance of permanent staff vs contractors, please refer to Chapter 12 in 'The CRM Project Management Handbook' (see 'Further Reading' at the end of Chapter 9).