ERP System Implementations vs. IT Projects: Comparison of Critical Success Factors

The aim of our study was to gain insight into the research field of critical success factors (CSFs) of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation projects and of IT projects and to compare the different CSFs. Therefore, we conducted two literature reviews, more specifically systematic reviews of relevant articles in different databases and among several international conference proceedings. Ultimately, we identified 241 relevant papers (111 single or multiple case studies, 82 surveys, and 48 literature reviews or articles from which CSFs can be derived). From these existing studies, we discovered 31 different CSFs for ERP implementation and 24 different CSFs for IT projects. The top two factors identified are equal in both reviews – Top management support and involvement and Project management. However, there are nine CSFs that seem to be relevant only for ERP implementations and two factors that could be found only in the review of IT projects.