When planned IS/IT project benefits are not realized: a study of inhibitors and facilitators to benefits realization

•Organizations fail to realize intended benefits from IT projects.•Organizational change is necessary for the delivery of benefits.•IT evaluation methods lack an organizational dimension.•Results show facilitators to organizational change vital for business benefits.•Assessing the organizational dimension can enhance project evaluation techniques.

IS/IT evaluations reveal that many organizations fail to realize planned benefits from their IS/IT projects. Benefits management researchers argue that organizational change is necessary for the delivery of IS/IT project benefits. However, existing IS/IT evaluation methods adopt a narrow quantitative focus on costs and benefits and fail to consider the organizational dimension. This study brings together the concepts of benefits management and IS/IT evaluation using the Cranfield Benefits Dependency Network (BDN) as a diagnostic tool to examine an underperforming IS/IT project. The analysis revealed that planned benefits had not been realized because of a lack of attention to technical and organizational facilitators and inhibitors associated with IT-enabled organizational change.