The Role of Business Analysis in the Success of Information Technology Project Management Case Study: Dimension Data East Africa

Abstract

The Researcher undertook to study “The Role of Business Analysis on IT Project Management Success”. Exploring the role Requirements Gathering and Elicitation play in the success of IT Project Management. Studying the role of Requirement Analysis and Engineering on the success of IT project management. And the role of Requirements Traceability and Solution Evaluation on the success of IT Project Management. These objectives guided the literature review that the researcher undertook. Where it was seen, that it has been growingly becoming imperative that project managers have to have the scope right, with greater understanding of the stakeholders and their needs; if they are to deliver a successful IT solution project. Business Analysis has thus become very crucial in IT Project Management despite the fact that many organizations have been too reluctant to implement these practices despite the known advantages. The research employed a case study research design to study the 95 respondent population of Dimension Data where 76 respondents were sampled using both a close ended questionnaire and a structured interview. This was because the research was using both primary data from the respondents and secondary data from journals, pulse of the profession publication, books or knowledge and text books. The study findings revealed a very strong positive relationship between requirement gathering and elicitation and IT project management with correlation coefficient r = 0.802**, significant at p< 0.01. Also revealing a very strong positive relationship between Requirement Analysis and Engineering and the success of IT Project Management with correlation coefficient r = 0.711**, significant at p<0.01, And lastly showing a strong positive relationship between Requirement Validation and Solution Evaluation and the success of IT Project Management with correlation coefficient is 0.783**, significant at p< 0.01. The regression equally showed that requirement gathering greatly determines the success of IT project management with Beta of 0.443, followed by Requirements validation and solution evaluation with a Beta of 0.410. It was thus noted that where Business Analysis has been applied there has been a great improvement in the success of IT Project Management. It was thus recommended that more awareness among corporations should be extended to ensure more application to harness the benefits of the practice in IT project management. This in addition to having Business Analysts closing working with IT Project managers to ensure more consolidated efforts and benefits realization. The researcher recommended further research on the role of Resource Skills on IT Project Management success, the role of Business Analysis on organizational performance and the role

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