SUCCESS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS 
IMPLEMENTATIONS IN SRI LANKAN BUSINESS 
ORGANIZATIONS 
U Vidanapathirana 
(08/9768) 
Master of Business Administration in Project Management 
Department of Civil Engineering 
University of Moratuwa 
Sri Lanka 
May 2011 
"TfBRABY 
prVERSITY OF MORATUWA. SRI LANK. 
^ • MORATUWA 
SUCCESS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS 
IMPLEMENTATIONS IN SRI LANKAN BUSINESS 
ORGANIZATIONS 
Upeksha Vidanapathirana 
(08/9768) 
The Dissertation was submitted to the Department o f Civil Engineering o f the 
University o f Moratuwa in partial fulfillment o f the requirement for the Degree o f 
Master of Business Administration. 
Department of Civil Engineering 
University of Moratuwa 
Sri Lanka 
00S.8 
May 2011 
University of Moratuwa 
IIIIIII  
102494 
102494 
DECLARATION 
"I declare that this is m y o w n work and this thesis does not incorporate without 
a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t any material previous ly submitted for a D e g r e e or D ip loma in any other 
Univers i ty or institute o f higher learning and to the best o f m y k n o w l e d g e and be l i e f it does not 
contain any material previous ly published or written by another person except where the 
a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t is made in the text. 
A l s o , 1 hereby grant to Univers i ty o f Moratuwa the non-exc lus ive right to reproduce and 
distribute m y thesis , in w h o l e or in part in print, e lectronic or other m e d i u m . I retain the right to 
use this content in w h o l e or part in future works (such as articles or books) . 
3-3- 07. 3-o | | 
Signature Date 
T h e above candidate has carried out research for the Masters under m y supervis ion. 
Supervisor Date 
Prof. A s o k a Perera 
A B S T R A C T 
Success o f information systems project implementation is an important goal for many 
organizations. The enormous dependence on information systems had engendered 
proper management o f IT projects a critical requirement o f organizational success. 
But shortfalls occur far more often than they should have occurred. Further the 
failures happen in every country; to large companies and small; in commercial, 
nonprofit, and governmental organizations; and without regard to status or reputation. 
Several commonly identified reasons have paved way to the information systems 
project successes/failures. Studies which carried out in this area have not covered 
software projects in Sri Lanka except one which mainly focused on business process 
re-engineering in ERP implementations. 
The main goal o f this research is to ascertain the overall success and effectiveness o f 
software implementation projects in Sri Lanka and to identify factors that contribute it 
with the help o f evidence elicited from case studies. 
The sample o f this research was formed with IT project managers and the IT teams 
(software engineers, architects e t c . ) , system end users and customers. Three 
government and private organizations were selected to collect data using interviews. 
Questionnaires were used as a secondary source o f data gathering to confirm whatever 
the data gathered using interviews. Questionnaires were administered among a sample 
o f people respondents via web as well as hard copies were distributed. 
It was found that all three projects were considered successful by the users 
irrespective o f time, cost and the scope. There were many factors that contributed to 
project success while many other factors contributed to their failure. Amongst them, 
user involvement and executive support played key roles in project successes. There 
were cases o f user resistance in all the businesses that the new systems were installed. 
One o f the most common challenges faced by all three projects was requirement 
gathering. 
Limitations o f this research were; the study was taken under a limited time and 
resource availability. The researcher had to be satisfied with only three o f cases 
because o f this constraint. Further research could be carried out to investigate 
financial aspect o f software implementations in Sri Lanka as well as to find whether 
employers evaluate the benefits accrued after implementing software installations. 
Keywords: Information Systems, Software Project Success 
iii 
DEDICATION 
This thesis is dedicated to m y little daughter Sanuki who was a great source o f energy 
and inspiration that motivated me to complete it, and also to m y husband and parents 
for all their encouragement, love and assistance. 
iv 
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T 
This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance and the help o f 
several individuals who in one way or another contributed and extended their valuable 
assistance in the preparation and completion of this study. 
First and foremost I offer m y sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Asoka Perera, 
for his unstinting support throughout my thesis; his patience, guidance and wisdom 
made my work easy and rewarding. 
I wish to thank Prof. Ananda Jayawardena, Dr. Rangika Hawathura and all the other 
faculty members for their valuable support and advice during the course o f this 
research. 
Also I am much grateful to the course coordinators, research coordinator of the 
M B A program and all the staff members of Department of Civil Engineering, 
University of Moratuwa for their support and guidance on this project. 
Also I am thankful to everyone w h o helped me in data collection in People's Bank, 
LOLC and M A S holdings who gave their support to me to do the research on their 
software implementation projects. 
Special thank goes to my parents and m y husband for the encouragement and all the 
support they gave me to complete the thesis. Also I am grateful to m y daughter 
Sanuki whose 20 minute brief naps every two hours helped me to concentrate on this 
work. 
Last but not least I would like to thank everyone who helped me in many ways to make 
this research a success. 
T 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
DECLARATION I 
A B S T R A C T ii 
DEDICATION iv 
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T v 
T A B L E OF CONTENTS vi 
LIST OF FIGURES viii 
LIST OF TABLES x 
LIST OF A B B R E V I A T I O N S xi 
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION 1 
1.1 Background 1 
1.2 Problem Statement 2 
1.3 Objectives o f This Study 3 
* 1.4 Scope and the Limitations 3 
1.5 Methodology 4 
1.5 Layout o f the Report 4 
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE S U R V E Y 6 
2.1 Introduction 6 
2.2 Information Systems Development Process 7 
2.3 User Involvement in Systems Development 8 
2.4 Success Factors o f IT Projects 9 
2.5 Conclusion 17 
r 
CHAPTER 3 - RESEARCH M E T H O D O L O G Y 18 
3.1 Introduction 18 
3.2 Research Approach 18 
vi 
> 
3.3 Selection of the Sample 20 
3.4 Questionnaire and Interview Design for Case Studies 2 2 
CHAPTER 4 - D A T A COLLECTION A N D A N A L Y S I S 26 
4.1 Introduction 26 
4.2 Data Collection 26 
4.3 Data Analysis 27 
4.3.1 Case (1) - Lanka Orix Leasing Company PLC 30 
4.3.2 Case (2) - People's Bank 40 
4.3.3 Case (3) - M A S Holdings 49 
CHAPTER 5 - CONCLUSION, R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S A N D FURTHER 
DIRECTIONS 59 
5.1 Conclusion 59 
5.2 Recommendations for the Industry 61 
5. 3 Limitations and Further Directions 62 
> REFERENCES 63 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 67 
APPENDIX A - QUESTIONNAIER 70 
LIST OF FIGURES 
Figure 3 1 - Research Methods 19 
Figure 4 1 - Requirement were properly gathered (%) - LOLC 34 
Figure 4 2 - Proper procedure followed to prepare employees for changes (%) - LOLC 
34 
Figure 4 3 - N e w business processes different from earlier one (%) - LOLC 35 
Figure 4 4 - Software solutions project was successful (%) - LOLC 35 
Figure 4 5 - There is an improvement in the process with the new system (%) - LOLC 
36 
Figure 4 6 - Graphical v iew o f the results - challenges faced - LOLC 37 
Figure 4 7 - Graphical v iew o f results - benefits obtained - LOLC 38 
Figure 4 8 - Requirement were properly gathered (%) - PB 43 
Figure 4 9 - Proper procedure fol lowed to prepare employees for changes (%) - PB 43 
Figure 4 10 - N e w business processes different from earlier one (%) - PB 4 4 
Figure 4 11 - Software solutions project was successful (%) - PB 44 
Figure 4 12 - There is an improvement in the process with the new system (%) - P B 4 5 
Figure 4 13 - Graphical v i ew o f challenges faced - PB 4 6 
Figure 4 14 - Graphical v iew o f analysis o f benefits obtained - PB 47 
Figure 4 15 -Requirement were properly gathered (%) - M A S H L 53 
Figure 4 16 - Proper procedure fol lowed to prepare employees for changes (%) -
M A S H L 53 
Figure 4 17 - N e w business processes different from earlier one (%) - M A S H L 54 
Figure 4 18 - Software solutions project was successful (%) - M A S H L 54 
Figure 4 19 - There is an improvement in the process with the new system (%) -
M A S H L 55 
viii 
T 
Figure 4 20 Graphical v iew o f analysis o f the challenges faced - M A S H L 56 
Y 
r 
r 
LIST OF TABLES 
Table 2 1 - Surnrnery o f success, challenge and failed project rates 12 
Table 2 2 - Summery o f failure rates o f various reaches 13 
Table 3 1 - Methods of data collection 20 
Table 4 1 - Marks given for each priority 29 
Table 4 2 - Adding up the marks obtained by each priority to get the new ranks 29 
Table 4 3 - Summarized Results o f the questionnaire survey (Question numbers 2, 3, 
4, 6, 9)1 LOLC 33 
Table 4 4 - Analysis of the challenges faced / LOLC 36 
Table 4 5 - Analysis of benefits obtained/ LOLC 38 
Table 4 6 - Summarized Results o f the questionnaire survey (Question numbers 2, 3, 
4, 6, 9)1 People's Bank 42 
Table 4 7 - Analysis o f the challenges faced/ People's Bank 45 
Table 4 8 - Analysis o f benefits obtained/ People's Bank 47 
Table 4 9 - Summarized Results of the questionnaire survey (Question numbers 2, 3, 
4, 6, 9)1 M A S H L 52 
Table 4 10 - Analysis of the challenges faced by M A S H L 55 
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 
1. A G M Assistant General Manager 
2. A S D Adaptive Software Development 
3. A S P Agi le Software Process 
4. B 2 B Business to Business 
5. B 2 C Business to Consumer 
6. BP Business Process 
7. CIO Chief Information Officer 
8. D S D M Dynamic System Development Method 
9. ERP Enterprise Resource Planning 
10. FD Fixed Deposit 
11. F D D Feature Driven Development 
12. GL General Ledger 
13. IT Information Technology 
14. IS Information Systems 
15. LOLC Lanka Orix Leasing Company PLC 
16. LOFC Lanka Orix Finance Company PLC 
17. LOIB Lanka Orix Insurance Brokers 
18. LOFAC Lanka Orix Factoring 
19. LOIT Lanka Orix Information Technology 
20. LOMC Lanka Orix Micro Finance 
21 . LOPD Lanka Orix Product Development 
22. M A S H L M A S Holdings 
23 . PB People's Bank 
24. POs Point Of Sales 
25. RUP Rational Unified Process 
26. SDLC Software Development Life Cycle 
27. SAP Systems Applications and Products 
28. U A T User Acceptance Testing 
xi 
29. XP Extreme Programming 
xii