The never-ending project : understanding e-government project escalation

Public information technology (IT) projects are characterised by the numerous problems encountered during the realisation of the projects. This is demonstrated by major overspending resulting in the desired outcome not or only partially being achieved. This dissertation provides an insight into the escalation of commitment in public IT projects, a process in which a project is persisted in despite being shown not to achieve the desired outcome. Causes of this process as well as ways to prevent these are shown. Furthermore, it is examined how the escalation of commitment problem can be solved in a political environment.