Priya PatraDelivery Director| Capgemini India Technology Services LtdMumbai, India
I have delivered the scope, deadlines within budget. I have documented the lessons learned and am ready for the next project ? Wait a second.. is my project a success ? What are the criteria that make a project a success? Is it only the iron triangle ? Saving Changes...
The project manager must know (especially when this is an external project; but for internal, too) what is considered to be project success when he/she begins it. This is obvious. hence, without too much philosophy: success is what is defined as success; ergo success is defined by documented project requirements; ergo the only measure of success is filling its requirements (requirements may be updated but this process must be under control). Hence, this discussion should be replaced with the one about the ways of defining project requirements.
...
1 reply by David Portas
Jun 02, 2020 4:40 PM
David Portas
...
Hi Stanislaw,
The upfront success criteria for complex problems are often of very little relevance by the time the project is done. The earliest forecasts and assumptions are inevitably going to be inaccurate and uninformed (cone of uncertainty). There is also the point that measuring success by an early forecast of scope, time and budget means you could end up rewarding cautious estimates and quality compromises while disincentivising risk taking, innovation and excellence.
What would you recommend, David, as a way to recognized project success?
Thomas and Kiron already made some good points about this. Customer satisfaction first, other empirical measures (volume, profit, performance) and the triple constraint. A project that delivers on time, scope and budget but does not satisfy the customer seems like a failure at customer engagement, inspection and adaption. Saving Changes...
The project manager must know (especially when this is an external project; but for internal, too) what is considered to be project success when he/she begins it. This is obvious. hence, without too much philosophy: success is what is defined as success; ergo success is defined by documented project requirements; ergo the only measure of success is filling its requirements (requirements may be updated but this process must be under control). Hence, this discussion should be replaced with the one about the ways of defining project requirements.
Hi Stanislaw,
The upfront success criteria for complex problems are often of very little relevance by the time the project is done. The earliest forecasts and assumptions are inevitably going to be inaccurate and uninformed (cone of uncertainty). There is also the point that measuring success by an early forecast of scope, time and budget means you could end up rewarding cautious estimates and quality compromises while disincentivising risk taking, innovation and excellence. Saving Changes...
Within scope, schedule, budget and to the quality specified. Saving Changes...
Zehui ZhangCEO| Aura International Consulting Hongkong, Hong Kong
Oct 24, 2019 6:35 AM
Replying to Milena Ilieva
...
The project success factors should be agreed upon at the beginning of the project and documented in the project charter between the Sponsor and the PM. It should be the Sponsor (ideally) identifying the project as a success or not. Of course he/she can take into account quality, stakeholders' satisfaction, etc.
Triple constraints form the baseline to measure project performance, so that project can achieve agreed success factors. Triple constraints can be a success factor themselves.
If in the course of the project delivery any of the triple constraints change, lets say loss of 2 Mio occur, or why not even budget + 2 Mio due to a large change request, there can be a decision to continue with the project and the new baseline has to be approved by the sponsor and/or steering committee. The new baseline becomes the one project performance is measured against.
Yes?triple constraints can be a success factor themselves but sometimes the triple constraints come from the stakeholders' expectaion especially the sponsors,so most important is the satisfaction of sponsors. Saving Changes...
