Analysis of the Success Factors and Failure Causes in Projects: Comparison of the Spanish Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Sector

Projects are complex works subjected to significant time, budget and quality constraints. One or the greatest challenges in project management still remaining unsolved is determining what is necessary to do in order to achieve success or failure. According to the specialized literature, both concepts of success factors and failure causes in projects are largely subjective and therefore difficult to quantify, depending on the point of view of the stakeholders involved. This paper compares which are the most frequent failure causes and the most important success factors among three different scenarios: for any type of project, for ICT projects and for ICT projects carried out in Spain only, by means of a worldwide empirical survey carried out among project managers intended to gather their personal perceptions on the matter. The survey is based on a questionnaire anonymously distributed through a professional internet network.