Patrice BlanchardExpert in transferring his expertise| Museum Box srlBraine L'Alleud, Brabant Wallon, Belgium
We all think that a successful project meets its milestones, delivers the projected scope and is under budget. But what about project that encounter unplanned impediments and where the PM manages them. Finally the project can be delivered years later with a correct management. It is still not in line with what was originally planned. Is it a success or a failure? How can we measure that clearly? Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
A success of fail of a project has to be meassure with the project goals stated in advance. For example, in the place where I worked on, measures were TTM (Time to Market) and NPS (Net Promoter Score).
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1 reply by Patrice Blanchard
May 27, 2023 7:43 AM
Patrice Blanchard
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Thanks for your reply. The outcome must than be extremely well defined. What about a project filling the TTM requirements but delivered with a huge cost overrun?
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Patrice,
it is a common view that we set goals and measure success of the project by the grade we achieve the goals. It is a predictive model of a project.
Another also common view is that project success is determined by stakeholder satisfaction and it implies even if we set goals but did not reach them. So success can only be determined after the project has concluded.
Large projects (programs) like Sydney opera house, Hamburg Philharmony or Olympics have goals that they only partly reached. And project managers were fired (and maybe that was a reason why they were hired in the first place, as scapegoats).
Nevertheless they are deemed successful by the public after some time. Saving Changes...
Anton OosthuizenSenior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self EmployedPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Million dollar question. We obviously measure the success of a project against all sorts of legal documents, contracts and agreements. So if you deliver X by Y for an amount of Z everybody considers it a success. If you manage to squeeze in a few change orders then that 'success' is amplified on the supplier side. But this is just patting ourselves on the back BS because often what is left in the wake of a 'successful' project is NOT what adds value to the end user.
Why is a different discussion but this is a long way of saying that TRUE success can only really be measured against REAL value-added and REAL value-added can be seen in things like adoption rate etc. Survey the end users and you will often be surprised at the feedback.
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1 reply by Patrice Blanchard
May 27, 2023 7:45 AM
Patrice Blanchard
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I totally agree with you. I delivered once a project within schedule and cost constraint. The scope was the one expected.
However the user decided not to use the product for market reasons
Was that a success?
Saving Changes...
Patrice BlanchardExpert in transferring his expertise| Museum Box srlBraine L'Alleud, Brabant Wallon, Belgium
May 26, 2023 6:26 AM
Replying to Sergio Luis Conte
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A success of fail of a project has to be meassure with the project goals stated in advance. For example, in the place where I worked on, measures were TTM (Time to Market) and NPS (Net Promoter Score).
Thanks for your reply. The outcome must than be extremely well defined. What about a project filling the TTM requirements but delivered with a huge cost overrun?
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
May 27, 2023 8:11 AM
Sergio Luis Conte
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Projects have sense because they are the mean to create a product/service/result. Both compose a solution a solution creation has sense to solve a business problem with emerges when needs to put strategy into action emerges. So, if this situation is aligned with the strategy then it is acceptable. I was involved into two mega-projects where the situation was what you stated but for a strategical reason (to have a predominant position in the market, to be the first to set up a mobile technology) an everybody were aware very early in the project.
Saving Changes...
Patrice BlanchardExpert in transferring his expertise| Museum Box srlBraine L'Alleud, Brabant Wallon, Belgium
May 26, 2023 10:45 AM
Replying to Anton Oosthuizen
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Million dollar question. We obviously measure the success of a project against all sorts of legal documents, contracts and agreements. So if you deliver X by Y for an amount of Z everybody considers it a success. If you manage to squeeze in a few change orders then that 'success' is amplified on the supplier side. But this is just patting ourselves on the back BS because often what is left in the wake of a 'successful' project is NOT what adds value to the end user.
Why is a different discussion but this is a long way of saying that TRUE success can only really be measured against REAL value-added and REAL value-added can be seen in things like adoption rate etc. Survey the end users and you will often be surprised at the feedback.
I totally agree with you. I delivered once a project within schedule and cost constraint. The scope was the one expected.
However the user decided not to use the product for market reasons
Was that a success? Saving Changes...
Patrice BlanchardExpert in transferring his expertise| Museum Box srlBraine L'Alleud, Brabant Wallon, Belgium
May 26, 2023 8:35 AM
Replying to Abolfazl Yousefi Darestani
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Achieving project goals and objectives as described in the Charter is one of the key factors.
But than the charter must be clearly defining the tolerances in cost for example.
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1 reply by Abolfazl Yousefi Darestani
May 29, 2023 8:35 AM
Abolfazl Yousefi Darestani
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Yes, sometimes.
Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
May 27, 2023 7:43 AM
Replying to Patrice Blanchard
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Thanks for your reply. The outcome must than be extremely well defined. What about a project filling the TTM requirements but delivered with a huge cost overrun?
Projects have sense because they are the mean to create a product/service/result. Both compose a solution a solution creation has sense to solve a business problem with emerges when needs to put strategy into action emerges. So, if this situation is aligned with the strategy then it is acceptable. I was involved into two mega-projects where the situation was what you stated but for a strategical reason (to have a predominant position in the market, to be the first to set up a mobile technology) an everybody were aware very early in the project. Saving Changes...
