Abstract
Failed information technology projects are a serious problem in the public sector. Unsuccessful projects waste taxpayer dollars, diminish the credibility of government and perhaps worst of all, leave unresolved the business problems and/or objectives, which caused the project to be launched in the first place.
A review of the literature reveals that while there is a great deal of work available on why projects fail in general, there has been far less research conducted regarding the causes of project failure specific to the public sector. Further, much of the work that has been done regarding public sector project failure tends to focus on the "process" side of project management. The behavioral or "people" side of public sector project management is less explored, particularly regarding the influence that a particular organizational culture and/or project leadership style may have upon project success.
This project hopes to build a foundation for extending the body of knowledge of the behavioral aspects of public sector project success factors. Specifically, the objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive survey focusing on behavioral factors, such as different organizational culture and project leadership styles, that may affect whether a project succeeds or fails in the public sector. This survey will then be used to create a database for future research efforts and data analysis. The target population for the survey and database will be the information technology professionals in the largest state in the country, i.e., the more than 9200 information technology managers, supervisors and rank-and-file employees employed by the State of California in 60-plus departments, boards, bureaus, commissions and agencies.