Influence of Strategic Success Factors on Implementation of Information Communication Technology Projects in Kenyan Commercial Banks

Abstract

Increasingly these days institutions like banks are project based, meaning that the work they do apart from the normal banking services is split into programs of projects designed to deliver their strategies. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of strategic success factors on implementation of ICT projects in Kenyan commercial banks. This study was guided by the following objectives; to assess the influence of the project mission on implementation of ICT; to establish the influence of top management support on effective ICT project implementation; to determine the influence of project schedule on ICT project implementation and to establish the influence of user involvement on ICT project implementation. The findings of this study would also be of importance to the ICT project management policy makers, would also contribute to the body of knowledge on ICT project management and the results of the study would form a base upon which future research. The study assumed that the respondents are knowledgeable on ICT project implementation and assumed that the respondents filled out the questionnaires correctly. The researcher adopted the descriptive approach to research design. The study was in form of a census survey as all the commercial banks in Kenya were studied. The target population was 86 ICT project team members from different commercial banks. Data was then analyzed using excel and Statistical Program for Social Scientist version 22 (SPSS) as the basic computer method for data analysis. Descriptive statistics was used mainly to summarize the data. Measures of central tendency including mean, standard deviation and percentages were used for quantitative variables. Tables were used as appropriate to present the data collected for ease of understanding and analysis. The study found out that bank’s ICT project executive team was clear on their organizational objectives and expected benefits to be derived from successful implementation of the project, organizational objectives were documented and signed off by the Executive Team before any ICT project commenced, bank’s top management team was supportive to project managers and teams and were readily available for decision making. The study established that commercial banks undertakes baselines for each ICT project undertaken, there was proper well structure and documentation in the ICT projects in the banks and ICT project product end users were always involved at all stages of the ICT projects in the Banks, users’ expectations were managed during ICT project implementation in the banks. The study concludes that top management support needs to be focused on the initiation and realization of success of ICT projects implementation, for any success in ICT project implementation, effective project management which includes; planning, budgetary, monitoring and evaluation are critical and helps in achieving project goals and the involvement of user participation in early stages of system development was of great importance. The study recommends that top management at Commercial Bank in Kenya should engage in consistent communication with established project teams so as to identify their needs and progress in achieving successful implementation of ICT projects, there is a need for proper leadership and management in all areas to in order to support the project throughout the project cycle and management should engage users of the ICT systems at all stages of project implementation; from the designing and planning stage to the implementation stage