Factors Affecting The Success Of Information Technology Projects Within The Kenyan Banking Industry: Commercial Bank Of Africa

In a bid to remain relevant and sustain customer growth, Kenyan banks are increasingly looking to introduce new and innovative products and service channels to leverage on emerging technologies. The introduction of these new products and channels is often done through IT project teams comprising of bank and non-bank employees especially when the new technology is bought from external parties. Whereas it would be expected that projects run for or by banks would be smooth and ultimately deliver on the intended business benefits, several instances have been witnessed within the Kenyan banking industry where IT projects that had been touted to take as little as six months have been highly unsuccessful running into years, costing tens of millions of shillings more than had been initially intended and delivering far less benefits that had been projected. Based on the foregoing revelations, the researcher sought to identify factors affecting the success of Information Technology projects in Kenyan banks using the Commercial Bank of Africa as a case study. The dependent variable for the study was the success of Information Technology projects whereas the independent variables were ProjectManager Competence, User Involvement, Top Management Support and Business Objectives. The specific research objectives were to investigate how Project Manager Competence affects the success of Information Technology projects, to establish the effect of user involvement on the success of Information Technology projects, to determine the extent to which top management support affects the success of Information Technology projects and to find out the relationship between business objectives and the success of Information Technology projects at the Commercial bank of Africa. The scope of the study was limited to the 12 projects started and completed at the Commercial Bank of Africa between the years 2011 and 2013 with all CBA staff involved in any of these projects forming the study‟s population