Identifying Effective IT Project Manager Personality Characteristics

The topic of IT project management success is critical as its failure wastes all levels of organizational resources. The United States has launched a healthcare modernization program to help decrease the cost of healthcare through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The decision to reduce the cost of medical care requires the adoption of new technologies and delivery through successful implementations. Information Technology failure mechanisms are not clearly understood. The assumptions of the IT project management community are that competence and knowledge are the most important ingredients in success. However, the continued failure of moderate technical complex projects suggests there may be other factors influencing successful outcomes. The goal of this study is to identify specific personality traits that support project success. Personality characteristics in the field of behavioral psychology identify extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness as universal characteristics known as the Big-Five traits. The literature cites conscientiousness as an important factor in achieving project success. This study examined the relationship of each of the Big-Five personality traits to the project success factors of on time, desired quality achieved, and within budget. The results of this study demonstrated that conscientiousness represents a strongly correlated project success factor. The evidence of the study identified the personality traits of neuroticism and agreeableness as strongly significant in undermining or achieving project success. This research provides information to guide team member selection and opens several doors for further research.