The objective of this planning study is to develop and test a theory-based method for uncovering critical success factors (CSF) in organizations and for using CSF to plan information technology (IT) investments and projects. CSF are the small number of performance objectives on which the success of the organization depends. Hitherto methods for eliciting CSF have been informal, resulting in CSF that may have been biased or incomplete. Personal constructs theory (PCT), applied in the marketing research and knowledge acquisition fields in the form of an interviewing and analysis technique called 'laddering,' is adapted to develop a complete and unbiased set of CSF. In this planning project, the PCT literature relevant to laddering is reviewed and a prototype laddering procedure is developed for application to data gathering and analysis of organizational CSFs. The result of this project is a detailed-plan for a field study, involving data collection and analysis, using PCT and the traditional CSF methodology as a control to determine whether PCT produces better results than the traditional CSF methodology. The results of the ensuing study will have important implications for firms. If firms can explicitly direct IT investment resources toward projects that support firm CSF, they may be able to optimize the beneficial effects of such investments for the firm and for society. http://crab.rutgers.edu/~peffers/
