The Standish Group, is an independent research group that studies changes and trends in information technology. In 1994, the Standish Group published its groundbreaking CHAOS Report, which “expose[d] the overwhelming failure of IT application development projects in today’s MIS environment.” Since that time, the Standish Group has published periodic updates to their original report. Go to their Web site at www.standishgroup.com, and follow the links to their public access area, where you can find a summary of their latest CHAOS research report, as well as the original 1994 report itself.

a. What criteria does the Standish Group use to determine whether a project succeeded, was challenged, or failed?

b. Based upon the latest research report, what percentage of projects succeeded, were challenged, or failed?

c. How do these latest rates compare to the project success, challenge, and failure rates shown in Figure 6-1 of the textbook? How would you describe the overall trends, if any?

d. Based upon your reading and experience, what do you believe to be the reason(s) for the changes in project success, challenge, and failure rates?

e. Do you think that current project management and system development methodologies will remain essentially the same but continue to be refined, or do you foresee the emergence of dramatically different methodologies for managing projects and developing systems over the next decade?

Data from Figure 6-1

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100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 16% 53% 31% 1994 Project Success Rate 27% 33% 40% 1996 Year 26% 46% 28% 1998 Succeeded Challenged Failed FIGURE 6-1 Project Success Rates as Reported by the Standish Group Source: The Standish Group Inter- national, Inc., "Chaos: A Recipe for Success" (electronic version), 1999, www.pm2go.com/sample_research/ chaos1998.pdf.