Case study: factors for early prediction of software development success

Project managers can make more effective and efficient project adjustments if they detect project high-risk elements early. We analyzed 42 software development projects in order to investigate some early risk factors and their effect on software project success. Developers in our organization found the most important factors for project success to be: (1) the presence of a committed sponsor and (2) the level of confidence that the customers and users have in the project manager and development team. However, several other software project factors, which are generally recognized as important, were not considered important by our respondents.