Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Beyond Time
A structured format for developing project success criteria that actually means something.
Project teams are fond of defining schedule success as being on time. A lovely concept to be sure, but essentially useless from a management perspective. Here are some basic questions that this phrase doesn't answer: Is it OK to be one day late? One week? One month? If we finish early, is that bad? Are we measuring against the original schedule or the current baseline? Do individual activities have to be on time as well?
To overcome the tendency to oversimplify, try using a structured format for developing project success criteria. Start with a stock intro ["one key success measure for this project is to have ..."]. Follow that with the item to measure ["the completion date of every major milestone..."]. Next comes a comparison statement ["plus or minus..."] and finally, the number ["one week of the baseline schedule date."]
Most projects will have at least three project management success measures — one each for cost, schedule and stakeholder satisfaction. Larger projects may have more, but three is the minimum.
Excerpted from For Good Measure by Bill Duncan.
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