KEY SUCCESS/FAILURE FACTORS AND THEIR IMPACTS ON SYSTEM PERFORMANCE OF WEB-BASED PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN CONSTRUCTION

摘要

The effectiveness and usefulness of Web-based project management system (WPMS) applications in construction projects are still not yet as high as initially expected, mainly because many important factors that can greatly impact system performance are left unknown or misunderstood by most practitioners. Understanding which factors are critical for system success is fundamental for improved WPMS implementations. To this end, an empirical study was conducted to capture the important factors for successful WPMS implementations and their cause-effect relationships with system performance. This paper discusses results from a survey of 82 different construction projects managed with the use of 14 different commercial WPMSs. The results reveal that certain characteristics of the project, the project team, the service provider, and the system have significant correlations with one or more WPMS performance perspectives (strategic, time, cost, quality, risk, and communication), while eleven variables prove to be critical to the success of WPMS implementations. The paper also addresses how practitioners judge the overall performance of WPMSs and reports on the relationships found between system success and project success. Findings presented in this paper can lead to more productive and successful ways of implementing WPMSs and, therefore, benefit companies that are currently using or planning to exploit such systems.