Are software projects evaluated using software teams’ success criteria? A systematic literature review

Systematic review of software project success criteria from future software practitioners’ perspective

This study examines the relationship between software project team characteristics and team performance by focusing on two questions: whether or not different team characteristics in software project team affect project performance, and whether or not different types of team motivation lead to different level of influence to the relationship between team characteristics and performance? In this study, we argue that team motivation should be considered as a moderate between the relationship of team characteristics and performance. Different kind and level of team motivation can result in different project performance outcome. We examine the interaction effects between team characteristics and team motivation before their final impact to the performance. The results show that the relationship between project team characteristics and performance can be interfered with team motivation. Management should pay more attention to team motivation within project teams so that a better project performance could be achieved.

An international association advancing the multidisciplinary study of informing systems. Founded in 1998, the Informing Science Institute (ISI) is a global community of academics shaping the future of informing science.

Favorable planed management is the base of software project succeed. In this piece aim at the present situation of software project management, comprehensive use the thought of software engineering and project management, explore process and method of project schedule planning control. On the base of analysis software project schedule planning control difficulties, research based on PSP method. PSP follow adjustment, practice, measurement, comparison result and readjustment such a circulation and the continuous improvement of process, it is a process step by step for a long time. This paper studies the successful application of content; it can change insufficient plan in software project management process, the phenomenon of control adverse, improve comprehensive management ability and competitive power of project, creating Value for software company, improve high quality service for user.

Purpose In today’s complex and rapidly evolving project environments, leadership competencies are increasingly recognised as a critical factor in achieving project success. This paper explores the core leadership competencies project managers need and examines the enablers that support as well as the barriers that limit, their effective application. Design/methodology/approach Following PRISMA 2020, 43 peer-reviewed studies published between 2005 and 2025 were identified through systematic searches of leading academic databases. Studies were assessed for relevance, quality and alignment with project leadership and success criteria. Findings The findings show that emotional intelligence, communication skills, strategic thinking, adaptability and empowerment consistently contribute to project success across sectors. These competencies enhance collaboration, stakeholder engagement and decision-making in uncertain contexts. Enablers such as supportive organisational cultures, effective communication and empowering leadership behaviours strengthen their application, while barriers including an overemphasis on technical skills, rigid cultures and limited use of competency-based frameworks continue to undermine effectiveness. Research limitations/implications The results emphasise the importance of a holistic approach to project leadership that develops behavioural, emotional and strategic capabilities alongside technical expertise. They also underline the need for deeper investigation into how leadership competencies shape success across diverse project types and contexts. Practical implications Organisations are encouraged to institutionalize leadership development practices and adopt adaptive frameworks to enhance leadership impact in real-world project environments. Originality/value Insights from 43 practical studies are consolidated, offering a comprehensive understanding of both enablers and barriers of project leadership competencies. The study provides actionable directions for organisations and future research on how leadership competencies drive project success.

Software development is a social activity and the formation of the right team is a critical success factor. Although personality types in software teams and software projects’ success criterias have been studied before, there is no well formed methodology for establishing software teams according to the personality types. This study is performed to search the relation between software team members’ personality types and project success. To achive this goal, a questionnaire based approach is developed to measure project success and personality types. Two software development projects are assessed with a questionnaire that assesses project success in different aspects. Also, all project team members are assessed with respect to their personality types. Results provide insight that, personality type consideration while forming software teams can play a significant role in project success.

Software project management is the art and science of planning and leading software projects. It is a subdiscipline of project management in which software projects are planned, monitored and controlled. To ensure that a certain software project is successful is the main responsibility of the project manager. From the point of view of a project manager, a success is defined as: Did the system come in “up to specifications”, in time and on budget? Many factors come into play in deciding the success of the project such as project management, customer involvement etc. In this paper, online survey is used to collect project data about a number of factors upon which the outcome of the project depends. Data mining tools such as Association Rule Mining, Naive Bayes, Decision Tree and Neural networks are used to determine whether a project will be successful or not. In addition to that, it also finds out the most important factors guiding the project to success and determine the changes required to turn an unsuccessful project into a successful one.

Risk and risk management in software projects: A reassessment

Defining ‘success’ for software projects: An exploratory revelation

This article presents a thorough framework for project communication while examining the critical role that communication plays in managing multinational projects. Examining existing research on global project management success criteria, the study highlights contemporary global communication concepts and obstacles. The study suggests using cross-cultural communication practices to reduce miscommunication with a complete overview of the project communication life cycle, which includes planning, initiation, execution, monitoring, and closing. Developing an organizational structure and developing a plan are necessary before starting a project's communication. Environmental analysis, communication objectives, stakeholder identification, communication channels, information format, guidelines, resources, and project ethos are all included in the strategy. By identifying methods, designing content, and doing stakeholder analysis, project communication planning promotes alignment with project goals. Project communication implementation places a strong emphasis on communication skills, delivery methods, and information sharing. It's important to keep up communication skills, and having a specific channel for project information makes it more accessible. Monitoring adherence to communication management techniques, spotting deviations, and putting corrective measures in place are all part of controlling project communication. Robust document control, including identification, versioning, owner assignment, approval, distribution, retention, and security, is necessary for administrative closure. Cultural obstacles, language barriers, time zone differences, technical barriers, organizational hierarchy, and a lack of in-person engagement are some of the unique communication issues encountered in multinational initiatives. The pros and cons of various communication models—such as technology-driven, agile, interactive, transactional, cultural, and linear—are compared. The study offers a comprehensive framework, integrates multicultural features, explores problems, and suggests communication cycles, all of which greatly improve project management and communication in global projects. The significance of communication culture and recommendations for high-performing businesses are highlighted. According to recognized success criteria, the research emphasizes the importance of communication in project success. With all factors considered, it offers scholars and professionals insightful information as well as useful recommendations in the ever-changing field of international project management.

Formal model for assigning human resources to teams in software projects

This paper presents an empirical research to the relations and dependencies between the fields of software product management and software project management in product software companies. By carrying out interviews and an online survey, we answer several current business issues on the leadership roles of product and project managers within the organizational structure, and provide a definition of software products and software projects based on their dependencies.

Project success criteria are dependent variables that measure the successful outcome of a project, while project success factors are the independent elements of a project that can increase the likelihood of success. In other words, success criteria are used to measure success whilst success factors facilitate the achievement of success. The purpose of this paper is to systematically record and identify project success criteria as well as critical success factors found in the literature and published in academic journals in order to form an effective and widely accessible framework to measure project success. Time - schedule, cost - budget, user satisfaction, quality-performance, business and commercial performance are the most frequently used success criteria, followed by technical specifications and requirements, stakeholders’ satisfaction, strategic goals/objectives and competitiveness, functionality, project team satisfaction and safety. Some researchers also refer to contractor satisfaction, future perspective and environmental impact, while handful are those that support that effectiveness and suppliers’ satisfaction can influence project success. The critical factors influencing the success of projects are identified and commonly related to the following areas: project (e.g. clear goal, realistic schedule, adequate funds, resources, size, complexity), project manager and leadership (e.g. leadership, management of changes, effective conflict resolution, communication), project team members (e.g. communication, technical background, qualified team), organization (e.g. top management support, responsibility and authority chart) and external environment (client, technological environment, political environment, social environment, physical environment).

In the realm of software project management, predicting and mitigating risks are pivotal for successful project execution. Traditional risk assessment methods have limitations in handling complex and dynamic software projects. This study presents a novel approach that leverages artificial neural networks (ANNs) to enhance risk prediction accuracy. We utilize historical project data, encompassing project complexity, financial factors, performance metrics, schedule adherence, and user‐related variables, to train the ANN model. Our approach involves optimizing the ANN architecture, with various configurations tested to identify the most effective setup. We compare the performance of mean squared error (MSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) as error functions and find that MAE yields superior results. Furthermore, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our model through comprehensive risk assessment. We predict both the overall project risk and individual risk factors, providing project managers with a valuable tool for risk mitigation. Validation results confirm the robustness of our approach when applied to previously unseen data. The achieved accuracy of 97.12% (or 99.12% with uncertainty consideration) underscores the potential of ANNs in risk management. This research contributes to the software project management field by offering an innovative and highly accurate risk assessment model. It empowers project managers to make informed decisions and proactively address potential risks, ultimately enhancing project success.

Due to globalisation, advances in computing technologies, as well as the deployment of software projects in distributed, collaborative and virtual environments, the software project management environment has changed. Traditional project management methods fail to address these added complexities. As a result, numerous software development projects either do not live up to expectations or they fail outright. The authors proposed the software project management model, entitled software project management supported by software agents (SPMSA) that aims to enhance software project management by taking the unique nature and changing environment of software projects into account. The SPMSA model supports the entire spectrum of software project management functionality, supporting and enhancing each key function with a team of software agents. In this extended paper, the authors adapt the SPMSA model to incorporate PMBOK2004 guidelines. The SPMSA model makes a fresh contribution to enhance software project management by utilising software agent technology.