Research indicates that any e-governance project has 70% chances of failure. This is equally applicable to India, and proof of this could be seen in the limited success of e-Procurement (a Government-to-Business type e-government project) implementations in India. In fact, while National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was launched in 2006 to promote e-government, the country has not made much progress since then. Various Government Orders on compulsory changeover to e-procurement w.e.f. 2007 (for purchases above a specified threshold) are yet to be implemented. Since procurement efficiency has a profound impact on the optimal utilization of public funds in a transparent manner, the e-procurement has been the subject of constant interest to researchers. Therefore, e-procurement system and Critical Success Factors (CSFs) associated with its success is a well-researched area. However, a detailed literature review by the authors reveals that studies on the subject do not provide a synthesized framework for identification and testing of CSFs in a particular cultural/ environmental context. In this paper, we aim to suggest a unified framework for identification of CSFs of any e-gov project, their empirical evaluation in various e-gov project stages, and subsequent classification into various project dimensions.

A seminal work on Critical Success Factors (CSFs) in the context of information systems and project management was carried out by Rockart (1982). Since then, the concept has attracted a number of researchers who have not only used CSFs in general managerial context but also extended its use to research in diverse domains, from construction industry to educational institutions. The credit for empirically linking project success to CSFs goes to Pinto and Slevin (1987) who defined project implementation success as a function of contributing CSFs.

Panda et al. (2011) brought out that though a large number of studies identify CSFs for e-procurement implementation both for corporate and public sector, the number of CSFs identified and their attendant nomenclature in these studies vary. Panda and Sahu (2012) underlined that contemporary studies related to identification of CSFs and their evaluation framework are limited in scope because they suffer from one or more of the following factors:

• Lack of a uniform process for identification of a factor as CSF.
  
• Failure to appreciate national culture as a determinant of behavior of project stakeholders.
  
• Failure to take the difference in the enabling environment like IT infrastructure, penetration of Internet and IT literacy from one country to another, into consideration.
  
• Existing literature indicates the flat nature of CSFs.
  
  

Supply Chain Management Journal, Critical Success Factors, e-Gov Project, A Unified Model, e-Procurement, National e-Governance Plan(NeGP), Critical Success Factors (CSFs).