Date of Conferral

2016

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)

School

Management

Advisor

Charlene Dunfee

Abstract

Despite the use of earned value management (EVM) techniques to track development progress, federal information (IT) software programs continue to fail by not meeting identified business requirements. The purpose of this logistic regression study was to examine, using IT software data from federal agencies from 2011 to 2014, whether a relationship between schedule variance (SV), cost variance (CV), and actual cost (AC) could predict the success of IT software program, as operationalized by meeting the identified business requirements. The population of interest was 132 IT software programs developed between 2011 and 2014 for federal agencies. The sample source was an archival database located at ITdashboard.gov. The theoretical framework for the study was earned value (EV) project management theory. The EV project management theory is a project performance measurement system that involves integrating cost, schedule, and performance elements for planning and control. EVM contributes to project success by providing early warnings when programs deviate from cost and schedule plans. This study found that only SV was significant (SV days, p = .002). The null hypothesis was rejected, suggesting that a relationship exists between IT program success and the SV, CV, and AC. This study may contribute to social change by increasing the program managers' understanding of EV in federal project management and by decreasing federal spending through successful programs and more cost-efficient use of taxpayers' money.

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