Introduction
Information technology projects are subject to failure or success depending on several socio-technical issues. The success of a project depends on a developer, and the user or the customer. The main objective of the developer is to always meet the customer’s requirements which will deliver a working system. The users’ desirable demands should be met hence they will be satisfied.
Discussion
There are issues which affects the success and the failures of the projects such as the scope creeping which is the most common socio-technical issue. Scope defines the system and its boundaries. It also states what the system is expected to deliver. When the developers stick to the limits of the project, they will deliver a working project within the set project duration. Scope creeping makes the project too large to manage since it increases the system functionalities thus affecting the project timing. It is very crucial to go by the scope while developing so as to attain a good quality project. Scope creeping should be avoided by all means by the developer.
There is an issue of planning which involves having a clear plan for resources to be used in project development. Time is an essential factor and it should not be overlooked since proper time scheduling will lead to a good project. Every project activity must have a well defined time scale and resources needed. Planning gives define milestones to be undertaken in order to achieve the desired goals. A budget should be prepared as a planning tool which estimates the cost throughout the development process. Team motivation is an important factor during the development process which should be highly practiced (Berniker, 1992).
The project development team should always be encouraged so as to concentrate on the project work hence motivated team will strive to deliver what is best. Appreciating the efforts of the team and paying them well is the best way to encourage them. It has been seen with recent statistics that a team that has a good relationship with their team leader tend to be more productive. While the teams which do not have a good relationship with their team leader lacks motivation to work.
User involvement is another important issue in development process. The users should be involved throughout the development of the project since they are the ones who are going to use the system. Failure to include the user will make the dislike the system since they will perceive it as the developers’. Every project should be ended when its duration has elapsed so as to avoid it taking more resources than it had been planned for earlier (Myers & Lamb, 2007).
The developer should ensure that the customer’s critical factors had been included in the project before its closure. If there is need to add more functionality to an already closed project, then it should be considered as another project. New resources should be allocated to it such as time, effort, money and labor.
Risk management is a very vital activity and should be considered at an early stage of development. It should be included in the project plan. A good risk management plan will result in good use of resources. Planning for risk management will help the developer to be ready to tackle any form of risk which may arise. Developers should always learn to refuse doing things which are beyond their understanding. For example it is wrong for a developer to promise the customer something which he/she cannot deliver. Providing reasons as to why a developer cannot handle a particular task increases the trust that the customers have on the developer.
Conclusion
According to Haughey (2001), well planned projects which put customer satisfactions into consideration are always successful. The developers who do not plan the projects well will not succeed. There are others who will not factor in the customer satisfaction. There should be customer satisfaction by the project developed; hence their demands should be prioritized.
References
Berniker, E. (1992). Some principles of sociotechnical systems analysis and design. Web.
Haughey, D. (2001). Eight Key Factors to Ensuring Project Success. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing
Myers, K. & Lamb, R., (2007). For an IT Manager, Getting Technical Often Means Going Social. University of North Carolina: Charlotte