Three aspects of successful software development projects "when are projects canceled, and why?"

Successful project execution, successful technical solutions or a promising business case, are they equally important selection criteria in a product development process? We have used experiences gained from a large multinational industrial company that is currently deploying a software product line strategy to try to answer that question. The product line´s core assets include, among other things, a new software platform that is introduced to the company´s software development organizations by means of a portfolio of targeted pilot projects. A business decision-making process is used to select and prioritize projects within the portfolio. We find from an analysis of a large number of projects and will indicate that the three criteria are not equally important.