- Read the article titled IT Project Failure Rates: Facts and Reasons, located here. Next, propose three (3) critical areas or phases that the IT project manager must pay attention to in order to have a successful project completion. Support your response? According to the article we can summarize the critical factors that cause IT projects to fail as following: - People factors, - Lack of communications between parties, and - unclear business objectives, out-of-sync stakeholders and excessive rework. For a successful project completion of IT project, project manager should pay attention to 1- team attributes as successful completion of a project is generally based on the skills and effectiveness of the people involved and their ability to focus on the project, team dynamics and openness to change. 2-clear, well defined project scope to keep team members focus. IT projects often fail due to a lack of focus among team members. 3- Dynamics between business and IT. Active support, engagement and involvement of business users and executive sponsors is critical, the project manager should establish an open planning process and promote communication and relationship skills to ensure successful completion of the project. - Per the textbook, the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a development methodology that organizations use for large IT projects. Review Figure 13.11 An eight-stage system development life cycle (SDLC), located on page 409 of the textbook and select one (1) stage which you feel is most important for the success of the project. Provide a rationale for your response? The SDLC highlights different stages (phrases or steps) of the development process. The life cycle approach is used so users can see and understand what activities are involved within a given step. It is also used to let them know that at any time, steps can be repeated or a previous step can be reworked when needing to modify or improve the system. If a business determines a change is needed during any phase of the SDLC, the company might have to proceed through all the above life cycle phases again. The life cycle approach of any project is a time-consuming process. Even though some steps are more difficult than others, none are to be overlooked. An oversight could prevent the entire system from functioning as planned. Although, all SDLC stages are important for the success of the project, I feel the planning stage is the most important stage as planning identifies whether or not there is the need for a new system to achieve a businesss strategic objectives. This is a preliminary plan (or a feasibility study) for a companys business initiative to acquire the resources to build on an infrastructure to modify or improve a service. The company might be trying to meet or exceed expectations for their employees, customers and stakeholders too. The purpose of this step is to find out the scope of the problem and determine solutions. Resources, costs, time, benefits and other items should be considered at this stage.