There’s not much new in getting a successful project.  Here’s the latest list from [1] BigNews Biz on how to implement Business Intelligence:

1. Focus on business processes and requirements. Often companies get tied up in the technical capabilities and ignore how you want your business operations to run and what your key business requirements are. Once you have this defined, you can engage in a more effective BI system.
2. Focus on achieving a healthy ROI (Return on Investment). This requires developing a high-level business case, establishing key performance measures, setting baselines and targets for those measures, and tracking performance after go-live.
3. Strong project management and resource commitment. Ensure you have a strong project manager to support and participate in the project.
4. Commitment from company executives. Besides support from a CIO or Director, support from the CEO and top management is also needed.
5. Take time to plan up front. Ensure things are done right at the beginning of the project rather than spending time to fix the problems later on.
   Ensure adequate training and change management. Help people to understand and effectively use the BI system.

Take out the references to BI and it could be any software project.