Computational Intelligence for Information Technology Project Management

Abstract

With the growing complexity of information technology (IT) projects, the management of these projects is proving to be a daunting task. The magnitude of this problem is underscored by the assertion that approximately 70% of IT projects fail to meet their objectives (Lewis, 2007). Computational intelligence (CI) is an area of research focused on developing intelligent systems to help with complex problems. Specifically, CI seeks to integrate techniques and methodologies to assist in problem domains in which information, data and perhaps even the problem itself are vague, approximate, and uncertain. It would seem that research aimed at leveraging the power of CI against IT project management problems is critical if IT project success rates are to be improved. This work examines the core CI technologies – fuzzy logic, neural networks, and genetic algorithms – and looks at current and potential future applications of these techniques to assist IT project managers.