How User and Requirement Risks Moderate the Effects of Formal and Informal Controls on IT Project Performance

Controlling information technology (IT) projects is a prime concern for both project managers (PMs) and users, yet little is known about how key risks affect the relationship between controls and performance. Based on data collected on 128 completed IT projects, we examine the moderating effects of requirement and user risk on the relationship between controls and process performance from the perspectives of both the project manager and the user liaison. Both risks were found to suppress the relationship between controls and process performance for each group. While both formal and informal control explain a significant amount of variance in process performance, formal control had a more significant role than informal control from the PM perspective, whereas informal controls play a more significant role than formal controls from the user perspective. The relationship between formal control and process performance was found to be stronger for PMs than for users.