Hard lessons learned: Delivering usability in IT projects

Effective project management requires the development of a realistic plan which aims to ensure the success of the project and ultimately deliver a high quality product to customers. However, experience shows that the majority of software vendors managing projects suffer from numerous problems to provide usability in IT solutions and complete a project in a given time with success. In this paper we discuss, analyze and synthesize the outcomes of a study conducted among IT firms in Poland. As a result, we have identified eight stimulants and three non-stimulants that affect the usability of software products, which later were stratified into three levels. Finally, we outline some of the lessons learned, summarized and expressed as a set of eleven goal-oriented rules.