IT Mega Projects: What They Are and Why They Are Special

In the last few years an increasing number of very large, publicly funded, IT development projects have gained significant media attention due to cases of budget overrun, management problems or outright failure. Examples of such projects include the European Galileo, the German Toll Collect project, or the Australian Custom’s Integrated Cargo System (ICS). Further projects in an earlier lifecycle stage are the British NHS project or the renewal of the US Air Traffic Control system. These projects show a number of common characteristics, such as largeness, technological and institutional complexity, political involvement and public awareness, which set them apart from the average IT project. Drawing on both the literature on IT project management and the growing body of literature on mega projects we describe this type of project as “IT mega projects”. Since IT mega projects and their management challenges are not well understood, we aim to improve our conceptual understanding by identifying and discussing typical characteristics of IT mega projects that impact on management and the resulting research issues. By pointing out their particularities we hope to pave the way for future research on IT mega projects.