Designing a Hybrid Model of Criteria for IT Project Selection in Meeting Banking Industry Business Goals

Abstract

One of the challenges facing banking industry managers today is coordinating decision-making criteria for selecting IT projects in line with business goals. The present study was conducted qualitatively and quantitatively with the aim of designing a hybrid model of IT project selection criteria in meeting banking industry business goals. In the qualitative section, the criteria along with the indicators were identified and evaluated for content analysis using a semi-structured interview tool, and the content validity of the indicators was assessed. The statistical population of the qualitative section includes managers and senior experts in the banking industry, who were selected in a number of 12 groups through purposeful, theoretical, and accessible non-probability sampling. The statistical population of the quantitative section includes 180 experts knowledgeable about the research topic through random sampling. The fuzzy DEMATEL method was used to generate the model, and its findings showed that the criteria of "alignment with business goals", "competitiveness", "economic advantage", "risk management", "efficient operations" and "providing superior services" are effective in selecting information technology projects in the banking industry, respectively. Then, the relationships produced were tested using structural equation modeling. The findings of this section showed that all model relationships were confirmed except for the correlation of "alignment with business goals" with "efficient operations" and "providing superior services" as well as "competitiveness" and "risk management" with "providing superior services". These findings indicate that there is a need for information technology projects to be selected in line with business goals and also providing up-to-date services.