An investigation of the critical success factors for adopting agile project management approach in it firms in Sri lanka

Abstract

Many Information Technology projects worldwide fail due to failures in project management. Most commonly used traditional project management approaches such as Project in Controlled Environment 2 and Project Management Body of Knowledge are widely criticised due to their limitations in accommodating changing business environments, frequently changing customer needs, unclear project objectives, poor communication among team members, and inappropriate project planning. As a result, many Information Technology (IT) project managers nowadays attempt to adopt agile project management practices in managing Information Technology projects. Agile project management has proven to overcome many problems associated with traditional project management approaches. Ability to better cope with changes to the project environment, increased efficiency in project communication, not requiring development of detailed project plans upfront, and ability to handle project risks effectively, for example, are seen as the merits of agile project management. Increasing adoption of agile project management approach in IT field creates a need to identify the best practices that influence the successful adoption of agile project management in IT firms. This research, therefore, aims to investigate the critical success factors for adopting agile project management practices in the IT firms in Sri Lanka. To fulfill the aim of the research several objectives of the research are formulated. They are to, examine the difference between the agile and traditional project management approaches, identify critical factors that affect the adoption of agile project management approach worldwide, develop a theoretical framework by hypothesizing the critical factors for adopting agile project management approach, and providing recommendations for IT organizations for successfully implementing agile project management practices. To fulfil the research objectives, based on the comprehensive review of the literature a theoretical framework is hypothesised by identifying the critical factors discussed, and by using the theories on technology adoption. The hypothesised framework is tested using the Structural Equation Modeling techniques with the use of survey data collected in Sri Lanka. The research findings reveal that organizational and cultural factors, team readiness, management readiness, relative advantage of using agile, agile project management compatible existing practices in the organization, and observability of the results of agile are the most critical factors for adopting agile project management in Sri Lanka. Keywords: Agile Project Management, Structured Project Management, IT Projects, Structural Equation Modelling