| Information Technology (IT) products have a high rate of failure. Only 25% of IT projects were completed within budget and schedule, and 15% of completed projects were not operational. Researchers have not investigated the success of project management systems from the perspective of customer satisfaction. In this quantitative study, levels of satisfaction were examined in customers of IT projects developed through the use of the Earned Value Management System (EVMS), a project management system in widespread use in IT applications since 2006. Participants included 495 U.S. government employees and military members who had used government IT applications implemented between 2007 and 2009. Projects were selected from 28 major government agencies. Customer satisfaction was evaluated using the Measurement of Expected and Actual Information Systems Performance, a 22-item survey instrument. Satisfaction levels were compared between users of projects developed with an EVMS and users of projects developed without an EVMS. Results of independent samples t tests showed no significant differences between the two groups (t[493] = -1.63, p = .10). Spearman's correlation coefficients were computed at the project level to determine the association between mean customer satisfaction scores for 20 EVMS projects and both cost variance (CV) and schedule variance (SV). No significant association was found between mean customer satisfaction scores and either CV (rho = -.09, p = .72) or SV (rho = -.02, p = .93). Findings may affect future managerial decisions regarding EVMS implementation. Future researchers may investigate project management methods more appropriate to IT projects, such as the efficacy of subdividing large IT projects for increased flexibility and ease of coordination. |
