The social representation of success in IT projects in Brazil from the IT professionals' perspective

• Ano de defesa: 2016
• Autor(a) principal: Rodriguez Melon, Marcela
• Orientador(a): Joia, Luiz Antonio
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Palavras-chave em Português: Tecnologia da informação; Sistema de informação; Projetos de TI; Critérios de sucesso; Satisfação; Escopo; Restrição tripla; Teoria da representação social; Evocação livre; Núcleo central
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Information technology; Information system; IT project; Success criteria; Satisfaction; Scope; Triple constraint; Social representation theory; Free evocation; Central nucleus
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/10438/17794

Different authors have proposed different criteria that should be considered to assess the success of Information Technology/Information Systems (IT/IS) projects. Through a review of the available literature concerning success criteria for IT/IS projects, this research identified that there is a clear trend over time to shift from the original budget, quality and time criteria to a larger set of criteria that involves not only those that are internal to the project but also external factors, such as impacts on the organization and people involved. This study aims to expose the perception of the Brazilian IT professionals about success in IT projects by using the word evocation technique and the Social Representation Theory (SRT). The data were empirically collected from 175 IT professionals through a web-based survey. The data was then processed on the software EVOC using the technique of the four quadrants from Vergès to identify the central nucleus and the peripheral system of the social representation of IT project success for the Brazilian IT professionals. The resultant data was then further analyzed and compared to the extant literature. As a result, the Brazilian IT professionals perceive the central core of the social representation of IT project success as formed by 'Satisfaction' and 'Scope'. The results show that while a considerably amount of IT professionals still consider Cost, Quality and Time as relevant factors for project success, due to the high frequency of evocation that these words had, they do not consider as the most important ones. This corroborates with the literature that points towards the evolution of the success criteria for IT projects. The results allow professionals and project managers to better prioritize the goals of their projects, by knowing how IT project success is recognized by the IT professionals in Brazil.