Journal of Engineering, Project, and Production Management 2022, 12(2), 166-178 Cost Management for Information and Communication Technology Projects Zulkiflee Abdul-Samad 1 and Patrick Pragasam Kulandaisamy 2 1 Senior Lecturer, Department of Quantity Surveying, Faculty of Built Environment, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Email: zulkiflee1969@um.edu.my (corresponding author). 2 Project Manager, Ericsson Resource and Competence, Jalan Tiang U8/92, Bukit Jelutong Timor, 40150 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Email: patrick.pragasam@gmail.com Project Management Received October 9, 2021; revised December 7, 2021; January 2, 2022; accepted January 20, 2022 Available online February 12, 2022 _________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: Information and communication technology (ICT) is an important sector that contributes to the development of a country. However, the success of this sector depends on the success of the ICT projects. Hence, ICT projects must be managed efficiently and effectively to ensure that they are successfully implemented. The literature review reveals that most of the ICT projects around the globe are in a challenged state, especially in terms of cost. This quantitative research aims to explore the cost influencing factors of the ICT projects in Malaysia and to build a cost influencing factors framework as a knowledge base for project managers. A 5-point Likert scale survey was conducted using the purposive sampling and the snowball sampling method to solicit responses from a large population of ICT project managers. The responses of 194 ICT project managers in Malaysia were analyzed, and the top 15 cost influencing factors were identified at different phases of a project. This result was used to build a cost influencing factors framework as a knowledge base for ICT project management. Keywords: Project, cost management, cost overrun, information and communication technology (ICT). Copyright © Journal of Engineering, Project, and Production Management (EPPM-Journal). DOI 10.32738/JEPPM-2022-0015 _________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction Information and communication technology (ICT) is an emerging sector in Malaysia. Based on the study conducted by Vu et al. (2020) on 208 journals globally from the period of 1991 to 2018, it was revealed that the economic advancement of a country was positively correlated with the development of the ICT industry. ICT is the key driver for fostering positive market competition, increasing access to health and government services, and enhancing communication infrastructure (World Bank Annual Report, 2020). ICT spurred countries’ economic development (Jin and Cho, 2015). The study of Seo et al. (2009) showed that labor productivity increased with the use of ICT, which contributed to the economic growth of a country. Various study data confirmed the positive relationship between ICT and GDP growth (Niebel, 2018). This was further strengthened by the study carried out by Appiah-Otto and Song (2021) on 123 countries that revealed the ICT sector had contributed positively to the economic development and growth of the country. Many countries have formulated an enhanced ICT policy to use and manage ICT technology effectively (Al-Mutawkkil et al., 2009). In Malaysia, ICT is an important sector that is a catalyst for sustainable economic development (Solarin et al., 2019). However, a high percentage of ICT projects suffered from cost overruns (Procte and Businge, 2013). ICT projects were mostly constrained by the cost factor, which is one of the pillars of project success criteria (Catanio et al., 2013). This exploratory research explores the cost influencing factors of ICT projects in Malaysia and develops a cost influencing factors framework as a knowledge base for ICT project management internationally. 1.1. Literature Review In this section, a literature review of referred journals and government department annual reports from the year 1990 till the year 2021 was conducted. This paper adopted a simplified systematic review method in which similar findings from journal papers were identified, analyzed, summarized, and grouped to form 15 major cost influencing factors for ICT projects, as shown in Table 1. The ICT industry is the backbone of national development. The benefits of ICT projects include cost savings, increased customer satisfaction, greater accountability, real-time monitoring of information, and operational efficiencies (Baltzan and Phillips, 2015; Siddique and Hussein, 2016). Increased ICT expenditure in Malaysia suggested that more and more local organizations integrated ICT into their business activities (Arokiasamy