Make Your Plan and Stick to It: The Importance of Adherence to Planning and Process Efficiency in the Success Story of a Software Project

Introduction: Software projects are becoming more and more complex, dynamic in the current global scenario and consequently understanding the factors which affect the success of such complex projects become critical. Lot of research work has been done in this area, and high failure rate of software projects was reported. Proper planning and effective development processare the factors considered for this study; this study tries to understand the impact of planning and processon the software project success.

Design/methodology/approach: Project planning and process is measured through 8 items. An e-mail questionnaire was used to gather the data. Questionnaire measured all items on seven point likert scale, and bi-variate regression was applied to find the impact of planning and process on software project success.

Findings: Project planning and process adapted in a software project has impact on the success of the software project. 77.5% of the variation of Software Project Success is explained by planning and process.

Research limitations/implications: The data were collected from 150 respondents; the size of data can be increased for better result. Planning and processare only two factorsconsidered in the paper to understand the software project success; other factors could also be combined to understand it in a better way. It could be studied in other countries as well.

Practical implications: The findings show the impact of planning and process on software project success, which will help project managers in handling the team in a better way, and management in providing improved working situation for the IT workers for good results in the software projects.

Originality/value: Lot of work has been done to understand the factors affecting the success of software projects, but few studies have conducted such study, with special reference to planning and process, that to in Indian context.