Improving the success of IS/IT projects in Healthcare: Benefits and Project Management approaches Jorge Gomes, Mário Romão ISEG, Rua Miguel Lupi, 20 1200-781 Lisboa, Portugal {jorge.gomes@phd.iseg.ulisboa.pt; mario.romao@iseg.ulisboa.pt} Abstract. Rapid changes in the business environment are increasing the pressure on organisations to ensure the delivery of successful projects to fulfil their strategic goals. The use of emerging information systems and technology (IS/IT) has rapidly grown in several contexts, including healthcare. There have been two major drivers for the investments in Health IS/IT: the ever-increasing burden from chronic disease with costs growing significantly faster, and; the recognition of the need for greatly improved quality and safety in the delivery of healthcare. Both of these key drivers have led to very heavy investments in IS/IT in order to enable timely information-sharing for clinical decisions. The authors argue that by combining the Project Management (PM) approach with the Benefits Management (BM) approach, one can improve the current low success rate of implementations and enhance the reliability of the delivery of benefits from investments in IS/IT. Keywords: Project Management, Benefits Management, Project Success, IS/IT Health investments. 1 Introduction The investments on IS/IT for healthcare are financially relevant and still growing worldwide. Therefore it seems wise that the organisations should give more attention to adopting formal project evaluations and benefits management methodologies in order to ensure that the expected benefits from investments are eventually realised [1], [2], [3]. Since the late 1960s we have been witnessing an increased boom in IS/IT healthcare investments and this phenomenon has expanded dramatically over last 10 years. IS/IT for healthcare refers to any tool or framework that enhances the communication, processing or transmission of information by electronic means for the purpose of improving human health [4]. IS/IT is recognised as a key instrument in healthcare delivery and in public healthcare [5]. The globally accepted assumption is that technology can, and does have a positive effect on healthcare, although the evidence supporting its practical use is low [6]. In fact, many decisions on the implementation of the IS/IT in healthcare are made with little or no information about the impact and consequences of its use [7]. Project Management is a set of initiatives