Abstract—The necessity to discover risk factors that could lead to failure will continue as many IT projects continue to fail or stay in the area of Grey IT Project (GITPro). The current study is an exploratory examination to identify IT project risk factors across the private and public sectors in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews using the critical incident technique (CIT) with 15 IT managers. Then, the data gathered were analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis method. The study finds 18 IT risk factors with actions undertaken to avoid every risk. Findings suggest that a new framework of Risk Factor Classification (RFC) and Project Outcome Model (POM) can play a significant role in risk management.

Index Terms—failure, IT project, risk factors, success

Cite: Umar A. Altahtooh and Margaret W. Emsley, "IT Projects: Classifying Risk Factors and Identifying Project Outcomes," Journal of Industrial and Intelligent Information, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 246-252, September 2015. doi: 10.12720/jiii.3.3.246-252