How do you judge the success of an IT project?

UK businesses are giving up on return on investment (ROI) as the best way to measure the success of IT projects.

ROI has historically been used to calculate how successful a project is in terms of the extra profit or cost savings it generates.

But new research from IT services company Unisys shows this method is gradually being ditched by companies which increasingly view it as irrelevant.

The survey questioned 400 senior IT and finance decision makers working in organisations with more than 500 staff. It found that half of finance directors now look at customer satisfaction and the ease of access to information as a barometer of a project's success.

Those still using ROI are a "diminishing breed", according to Brian Hadfield, managing director of Unisys UK.

He said: "The problem with ROI is that it is only when you get to the end of a project that you know how well it's done."

At which point, it could be too late to realise it might be failing, he explained.

Hadfield added that in the public sector in particular there is a "tendency to go with low cost - but what's cost got to do with the real value of a project?"

Hadfield's advice to IT directors working in the public sector is to take a new approach to projects and focus on quality and service levels. He said: "If you think someone else is going to solve the problem forget it. The person at the other end is probably thinking the same thing."

A recent report from the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) staff illustrated just why there is such a high churn rate of IT staff in the public sector. They are still being paid less than their private sector peers while having to manage resources that are stretched to breaking point.