Much More Than the Triple Constraint

Kumar Srikant, PMP, is an educator/trainer in Bangalore.

  Communications Management   Cost Management   Quality   Risk Management   Schedule Management   Scheduling   Scope Management  

While congratulating the EL Segundo Refinery Coke Drum Reliability Project for winning the Project Management Institute’s 2015 Project of the Year Award, PMI President Mark A. Langley said:

“The team was able to complete the installation under budget and ahead of schedule by applying sound project and risk management principles to overcome the myriad logistical and safety challenges, while minimizing the impact to the local community.”

It’s worth noting that the project was not only completed within budget and ahead of schedule, but it also achieved significant project benefits like overcoming a number of logistical and safety challenges and minimizing the impact to the local community.

PMI’s Project of the Year winners always signify successful project management. But what is project success? How is it defined? Projects that are delivered on time, within budget and that meet the scope may not necessarily be successful. There are significant other criteria like return on investment (ROI) and project benefits, to name a few.

The following are telling facts and figures about project success/failure rates:

• On average, large IT projects run 45% over budget and 7% over time while delivering 56% less value than predicted (source: McKinsey & Company with the University of Oxford).
• A study published in Harvard Business Review …

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