What Defines Project Success?
From the Voices on Project Management Blog
by Cameron McGaughy,
Lynda Bourne, Kevin Korterud, Conrado Morlan, Peter Tarhanidis, Mario Trentim, Jen Skrabak, David Wakeman, Wanda Curlee, Christian Bisson, Ramiro Rodrigues, Soma Bhattacharya, Emily Luijbregts, Sree Rao, Yasmina Khelifi, Marat Oyvetsky, Lenka Pincot, Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres, cyndee miller
Voices on Project Management offers insights, tips, advice and personal stories from project managers in different regions and industries. The goal is to get you thinking, and spark a discussion. So, if you read something that you agree with--or even disagree with--leave a comment.
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Date
By Linda Agyapong
During lunch one day, project managers Jim, Mary and Alex got into an argument over who was best adhering to their industry’s project success criteria. They all had sound arguments. The problem was, however, an “industry standard” did not appear to exist.
Jim argued that he follows the good old “triple constraints” or “iron triangle” concept (i.e., time, cost and scope). Mary sharply retorted that she follows the “quadruple constraints” concept (i.e., time, cost, scope and quality), where the “quality” minimized bugs or defects. Alex quickly asserted that he is the best project manager because in addition to what both Jim and Mary did, he reduces risk, meets stakeholder expectations, and his projects generally add value to the organization in extra areas.
Before we jump into crowning who we think should be project manager of the year, let’s take a trip down some project manager memory lane based on recent research I performed.
Although PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) makes certain recommendations, the subject of project success criteria has been evolving for more than five decades.
In her report, Kate Davis summed up the different success criteria throughout the years:
1970s: Project success was centered on the “operations side, tools and techniques (‘iron triangle’).”
1980s: The technical components of the project and its relationship with the project team and project manager.
1990s: The “critical success factor” framework, and its subsequent dependence on both external and internal stakeholders.
21st century: The focus has primarily been on the stakeholder.
Davis isn’t the only one pointing out the changing criteria. Many academics and authors have noted the differences, including:
1980s: Jeffrey K. Pinto and Dennis P. Slevin expressed their frustration in a Project Management Journal article by asking, “How can we truly assess the outcome of a project when we (in the project management field) cannot fully agree on how project “success” should be determined?”
Late 1990s: David Baccarini from the Curtin University of Technology recounted in a Project Management Journal article that “a review of the project management literature provides no consistent interpretation of the term ‘project success.’”
2008: Graeme Thomas and Walter Fernández said that “although IT project failure is considered widespread, there is no commonly agreed definition of success and failure.” They described project success as being “a difficult and elusive concept, with many different meanings,” and hence called it protean (likening it to the Greek sea-god Proteus), based on its ability to continually change its “form to avoid capture.”
The current decade: Hans Georg Gemünden criticized the triple constraints for failing to consider other factors, such as stakeholder impact, since “value lies in the eye of the beholder.” He recommended project success criteria be based on its “targeted outcome and impact” to the organization’s business case.
Standish Group’s 2015 CHAOS Report redefined a successful project from one being “on time, on budget and on target,” to one being “on time, on budget and with a satisfactory result.” This redefinition was to ensure project deliverables met stakeholder expectations and also added value to the organization.
So based on the above, which of our three project managers (Jim, Mary or Alex) should be crowned project manager of the year?
Posted
by
Linda Agyapong
on: June 27, 2017 08:27 PM |
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Sante - that is very true... never thought of that.
Cheikh FAYE
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Expert, CEO and owner| Eurêka Technologies
Dakar, Senegal
Fortunately, after every edition of the PMBOK guide, the Project Management as a discipline makes its evolution. What's worth a project success when the client, the sponsor and the stakeholders are not satisfied of its outcome ?
The only technical criteria of triple or quadruple constraints is no longer sufficient.What about quality and business value? Project management success has to be redefined.
Aklilu Tekle
Project Manager| Turnkey Ltd
Kampala, Kampala, Uganda
What an interesting topic. Project management is the " management of change" and if there is one thing in this world which never stops, its change,( PRINCE 2,2017). So the success/failure criteria can never stop and should continuously evolve, but for sure the era of triple constraints is over.The field has grown to be more strategic from being more operations.My understanding is that we can have a better understanding of the success/ failure of projects if we see them in terms of their Operational or immediate and Strategic ( long term) benefits.
I fear if we solely emphasize on the "business value" side of projects we might forget that projects are done for various reasons and in different contexts.
Zaheer Ahmad Awan
Head of Projects & Service Delivery| Khaleej Digital FZCO
Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
In my view the project should be considered successful if it satisfies project objectives and the following key stake holders:
- The Organization (Business Users)
- End Customer
There could be two types of projects:
1: That improve customer experience/service
2: That enhance operational efficiency
In first type of projects normally business ensures while improving customer experience/service, business processes do not get impacted inversely, which is a good thing. However, in second type of projects, many times it happens that business processes are improved but end up creating additional steps for end customers. So, that is why in operational improvement projects special attention should be paid towards customer experience. The project should improve customer experience as well or at least it should not inversely impact existing customer experience/service. Thanks
Thank you all for your wonderful contributions!
Aklilu - that's a very objective point there. Just curious, but other than the "business value" reason, - or in broader terms "stakeholder value" reason - what could be the other set of good reason(s) for which the project could have been undertaken?
Aklilu Tekle
Project Manager| Turnkey Ltd
Kampala, Kampala, Uganda
Hello Linda, thank you for the topic and discussion. I have been making a thorough research regarding this particular topic recently.
You may correct me if I am wrong, but I link " business value" to profit or return on investment. Judging project success/ failure in terms of their contribution to the business of value of the implementing organization is valid but one side of the whole body. We might also see other benefits like preparing the organization for the future, in terms customer satisfaction,team satisfaction. There are also many projects done for symbolic, political, humanitarian purposes where justification in terms of business value might not be appropriate.
The issue of stakeholder is valid yet generic for me. Because each stakeholder has his/ her own way of measuring success/ failure. You must have encountered projects where they are said to be successful by the implementing team while customers or end users treat it as a failure. Therefore the stakeholder is a huge umbrella which covers lots of constituents. So the issue of stakeholder satisfaction can be likened to the analog of ...the eye of the beholder. It's a highly subjective issue.
Aklilu Tekle
Project Manager| Turnkey Ltd
Kampala, Kampala, Uganda
Additionally Linda, you have also asked if we can get an industry definition of project success criteria. Do you mean industry specific, or general frame work? If you were meant the later one my idea is as follows.
Many researchers and scholars have tried to answer this question. Shenhar, et al, (1997), in their empirical research discovered that project success has four dimensions namely, project efficiency, Impact on customer, business success, preparing for the future. They also said that the relative importance of each of these success criteria increases with time, meaning project efficiency( project being finished on time, budget and according to predefined quality) is very important after the immediate completion of projects, but its less important after some time, and impact on customer follows next and etc.
We can take the discussion to much detailed level as every success criteria has its own details and requirements.
This is a very interesting article.
In my opinion, project success can only be measured in line with outlined expectation.
What is the business case?
What are the expectations?
To what extent would/ does the outcome look like the expectation?
How well are the resources utilized in meeting the expectation?
Basically, a lot must be evaluated to determine project success.
Aklilu - I really admire your sense of objectivity :)
So first, my question regarding the industry specific definition was actually in reference to the Project Management Industry, and hence the fundamental PM discipline. What does the PMBOK say about this subject?
Hence not so much what does ABC company say, or what does the construction or pharmarceutical industry say, but rather "What does the core PMBOK say?"
Just to bring it home - if I have just gotten my PMP certification, and I get a consulting offer with a construction company... if the contract is done in 6months and I get another offer with a pharmaceutical company, would I need to switch hats and hence expect the core success criteria of the new project to be different? Obviously am not referring to the deliverables, but rather what are the core standards?
For lack of a suitable example, if a medical doctor in Africa is reading an xray result and diagnoses an issue, more than likely a medical doctor in the Americas (i.e. 2 completely different continents) might diagnose the exact same issue - why? Because they are all leveraging the same medical knowledge / framework.
and so my question is, "can we say the same for our dear project management discipline", for something as fundamental as "what defines the success of a project"??
Meanwhile, I will not touch on your second point regarding "stakeholders" just yet, because the general stakeholder concept is actually my 'baby', and so will try to address it very well in one of my future blogs.
Thanks again for your attention.
Aklilu Tekle
Project Manager| Turnkey Ltd
Kampala, Kampala, Uganda
Hello Linda, I also admire your passion on project management and your followup on this interesting issue you have raised. It is interesting, because it helps align our perspective and paradigm on the field and I believe change in paradigm greatly affects project success/ failure.
To come to your point of " project management commonality of success/ failure criteria definition" I would say the field has common principles and definitions regardless of the industry or sector in question. But I would also add there is difference in success or failure priorities.
For example, we see major public or governmental projects go out of budget in big amount ( like the Olympics or the FIFA world cup) whereas time is constrained due to the fixed nature of the project duration. These attributes may not be found in private or commercial projects. To summarize, my understanding is that the principle of success and failure criteria remain fixed cross industry or sector, but the issue of prioritization may vary.
Aklilu Tekle
Project Manager| Turnkey Ltd
Kampala, Kampala, Uganda
So ...........If you have just gotten your PMP certification, and you get a consulting offer with a construction company... if the contract is done in 6 months and you get another offer with a pharmaceutical company, would you need to switch hats and hence expect the core success criteria of the new project to be different?
My answer is NO, because the principles remain the same, but you might be required to make lots of tailoring to match the general principles to the specifics and technicalities of the new offer.
Aklilu - thanks for your interesting responses. Like you rightly said, the underlying principles are always the same regardless of the environment, but I just wanted us to start a discussion on this topic, to create awareness on how the success criteria has been changing over the decades.
Thanks again for engaging me on this!
Nice article, I agree with Sergio formula too. All the same, I will give give the crown to Alex!
Tajudeen - Looks like we all forgot about the crowning piece :) Thanks for the reminder!
Aklilu Tekle
Project Manager| Turnkey Ltd
Kampala, Kampala, Uganda
Hello Linda, the discussion on this particular topic seems to end here. You also hinted you that you would come up with a discussion topic in stakeholder management. Stakeholder management is a topic I have been researching too, so would love to see your guiding input here.
Regards
Haha... it may have ended here, but am enjoying the comments about this topic on LinkedIn :)
Meanwhile, yes I will stick to my promise regarding 'stakeholder mgt'... so stay tuned!
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:linkedInArticle:6289700736053837824/
I think the real point I took away from this blog was to make sure you get the requirements and deliverables correctly from the customer.
You can have a project that delivers a golden egg, but if the golden egg smells rotten (doesn't work as needed), then it really wasn't a successful project, even if the scope and deliverables are technically completed.
Excellent.. Thanks for sharing...
For me Projects Success is dependent on its objectives being actualized because it is the project objectives that should drive the project start, continuity and conclusion.
Thank you for this interesting perspective. I think if there is any positive perception of any of the project outcomes, it should be considered part of the Project success.Honestly, with this sense I fully share the redefinition of success indicated on the Standish Group’s 2015 CHAOS Report.
Stéphane Parent
Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker
Prince Edward Island, Canada
I too like Sergio's formula. I can easily translate into something more measurable such as
Success indicator (SXI) = CPI * SPI * (New ongoing revenue / new ongoing costs)
Like the CPI and SPI, SXI values above 1 would denote positive outcome and values below 1 would denote negative outcome.
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