The Three Levels of Success
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By Rex M. Holmlin
As project managers, we would like our projects to be successful. Successful projects are more fun and, as a general proposition, our bosses like it better when our projects are successful. But how can we set our projects up for success?
A helpful first step is to define what success is. For many of us, that means meeting scope, cost and schedule targets. However, I will argue that there are three levels of project success we should think about:
1. Project-level success
2. User-level project success
3. Enterprise-level project success
For a project to be truly successful, we must be successful on each level.
Project-level success is the area most of us are most familiar with. Success at this level means we meet our scope, cost and schedule objectives. When we meet these objectives, many of us are looking for a ticker tape parade down the hallway. However, we are only looking at part of the success equation.
User-level success means delivering the benefits that the users desire from the project. While our users, and other stakeholders, may be interested in scope, cost and schedule objectives, the truth is we can meet project-level objectives and still have a project that does not deliver the benefits the users and stakeholders were looking for.
At the enterprise level, senior leaders in our organization are interested in having the projects that we execute make a positive contribution to key metrics at the enterprise level (profit targets are one example). We can meet project-level objectives, but not make a contribution to key enterprise-level metrics.
In a recent webinar, I asked the participants whether their organizations defined success at each of these levels. Approximately two-thirds of attendees felt their organizations had well-defined project-level objectives, but less than half of those felt their organizations set clear and well-defined user/stakeholder- and enterprise-level objectives
It is often quite challenging to meet scope, cost and schedule objectives. However, our projects will still fail if we do not deliver the benefits users and other stakeholders desire and make a contribution to key enterprise-level metrics. As project managers, we need to ask questions about the benefits users desire, and understand the key enterprise-level metrics we can contribute to. The more specific we are, the greater the chance we will have a successful project. When it comes to project success, ignorance about the other levels of project success is not bliss.
Please drop me a note and let me know if your organization defines all three levels of project success.
Posted
by
Rex Holmlin
on: July 22, 2015 03:39 PM |
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Rex Holmlin
Clinical Professor of Project Management| Mason School of Business College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Va, United States
Hi Robert!
It's not reassuring to learn that the project management skills of Dutch elected officials are almost as poor as those of elected officials in the United States. How we as project managers might help them may be the topic of a future Blog Posting.
Our focus with this series of conversations has been the various levels, or perspectives, on Project Success. In addition to the three mentioned in the original post (Project Level, Stakeholder and Enterprise level) in our conversations we have added 2 additional perspectives that might be considered. Those include a project context or "societal/complete environment" perspective and a project manager (personal) perspective on success. I believe any project, and all of the stakeholders, would benefit from definition of these five perspectives (viewpoints) and integration of the resulting success objectives into project plans.
Again, many thanks to everyone from our worldwide community of project managers who offered comments on this topic.
Karen Chovan
CEO| Enviro Integration Strategies
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Hi Robert,
If I follow your train of thought correctly, you are maybe inferring that decisions made by one political party may differ from the next to follow, and there could then be issues with how the success of a long-term project may be viewed. I agree this can be an issue, but I think more importantly than what a governing party decides are the other stakeholders. Rather the end-users and those directly impacted by the projects themselves. If local stakeholders have presented their concerns and issues and they have been addressed, AND if the project has looked for options to perform better than current regulatory requirements call for, then future changes in politics will have less an impact on the project or the view of its success. It is less likely that a governing body will reverse stringency on regulations than increase them.
We are getting a bit off topic, so I would be happy to take this offline, or maybe put up a blog post on my own site to invite other comments...
In my organization, as far as my understanding the resources are approved strictly ONLY when the financial benefits are demonstrated at the organization/enterprise level and not at project or user level.
This is a good approach. At the same time, there is too much emphasis on financial benefit and the project team cut costs by compromising on project level metric and/or user level metric and the program/project is approved.
However, at the benefit delivery phase or transition or program closure phase, business value is affected as either project level metric is undervalued by the stakeholder or user says that benefit is not realized.
This leads to not closing the program/project as the product/service or result is not received fully positively and organization/enterprise has to incur some more investment to achieve full benefits
Rex Holmlin
Clinical Professor of Project Management| Mason School of Business College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Va, United States
Hi Balaji!
Thanks for your comment and for describing the strengths and weaknesses of the approach in your organization. Your comment was both interesting and very helpful. Thank you for sharing!
Joanna Newman
Head of Innovation and Transformation , Telecoms| Vodafone
Cholderton, United Kingdom
Enterprise level metrics can be hidden / rolled up into other bigger finance metrics. Is the organization spending its money and resources the right way? Is it getting the expected return on those measures? Are they winning awards for technical achievement or gaining new deals? Are our employees engaged and motivated?
Most organizations have this information, what is lacking is the connection from these big ticket items to portfolios, programmes and projects
Rex Holmlin
Clinical Professor of Project Management| Mason School of Business College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Va, United States
Hi Joanna!
Thanks for your comments! I think your observation that we may need to "dig" for the information is quite useful. I particularly appreciate your observation about the connection of enterprise level metrics to portfolios, programs and projects. Even when we are managing a smaller project that doesn't seem to "move the needle on the gage" of enterprise level metrics, understanding how we contribute - the connections you highlighted - is essential. Thank you!
Gagan Mathur
Program Manager| Shell India Markets Pvt. Ltd.
Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
Hi Rex, certainly an excellent article. I agree with your thoughts around measurement of project success. However, I would like to add another dimension to it. I've been following this in many of my projects. A Project Manager should also be conscious of the expectations of his teams from the project. I believe each person working in the project, knowingly or unknowingly expects certain benefits from the project. PM should be aware of these expectations and should track if these are being met. This will always result in a highly motivated, cohesive and highly productive team. It will also help in achieving the critical project objectives.
Rex Holmlin
Clinical Professor of Project Management| Mason School of Business College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Va, United States
Hi Gagan!
Thanks for the Post and kind words about the article. I think your suggestion about a project manager being conscious of the expectations of their team is an important one. Several of the readers of this article made similar observations, although they didn't link this to team cohesiveness or productivity. The Develop the Project Team process from the PMBOK involves the project manager in improving the competencies of the team. This might tie back to, and perhaps start with, the team's expectations. I believe you're absolutely on target linking project success to meeting the team's expectations. Thank you for sharing your thinking on this!!
Manas De Amin
Director| Computer Technology Group Kolkata
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
A good article.We really need to be aware of success at all the levels. I also agree to the idea of the "4th level". Any organisation survives until the society perceived its existence as beneficial to the society which karen has described as "Social license to operate".
It may be difficult to perceive how a software development project can contribute to the 4th level, but if we keep in mind the "Social license to operate"; it becomes clear.
UNO is propagating the doctrine of "Sustainable Development" for at least two decades. This we all need to be aware off.
Robert is Omgevings Management = Sustainable Development? All the materials I found on net is in Dutch.
Thanks Prof. Rex for such a great article.
Manas De Amin
Director| Computer Technology Group Kolkata
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
A good article.We really need to be aware of success at all the levels. I also agree to the idea of the "4th level". Any organisation survives until the society perceived its existence as beneficial to the society which karen has described as "Social license to operate".
It may be difficult to perceive how a software development project can contribute to the 4th level, but if we keep in mind the "Social license to operate"; it becomes clear.
UNO is propagating the doctrine of "Sustainable Development" for at least two decades. This we all need to be aware off.
Robert is Omgevings Management = Sustainable Development? All the materials I found on net is in Dutch.
Thanks Prof. Rex for such a great article.
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