Critical success factors and criteria in the purchasing process A case study of a development project in Uganda

Abstract

The research concerns how critical factors influence the procurement process to assure available equipment in the project. The case studied, Distance Education Leapfrogging Project, is a development project at Makerere University in Uganda. The project’s procurement process is critical to achieve project success, due to delays of equipment needed and equipment delivered with wrong specifications. Hence, to ensure adequate equipment according to schedule and more likely achieve success in DELP, the research concerns how critical factors influence the procurement process in the project to achieve success. The research question illuminate the theoretical perspectives of critical factors in purchasing decision-making and project management literature. Thus, the factors identify critical areas of concern and provide information of what influence the criteria to measure success in the critical areas. Hence, the influencing factors that are critical to achieve success, which must be given special and continual attention to contribute to high results in the project. To answer the research question, “How does critical factors influence the procurement process in Distance Education Leapfrogging Project to achieve project success?”, qualitative method is used, collecting information from multiple sources of evidence to strengthen the validity. Furthermore, critical factors are found to influence the results of the procurement process. The research indicates that personal skills, social skills, regulations, market conditions and the bureaucratic organization structure is critical to achieve costs within budget, quality required and time scheduled in the decision making process. Furthermore, the communication and cooperation within the buying center, visibility and reputation of the project, training of users and stakeholders and commitment to the project is found to be critical to the overall procurement process to achieve project success in DELP. Taking into account the factors, it shows several areas in the procurement process that are critical. The risk of the poor outcome the factors can influence in the procurement process, is considered critical to project success in DELP. Thus, the research provides critical factors to help the members in DELP understand how the procurement process is critical, and how the factors influence the process to achieve a more effective process that can result in lower total costs in the future.