PMO Leader | Speaker & Mentor | Content Leader – PMOGA Latin America
Hub| Catholic University of UruguayMontevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
what is your opinion on the latest PMI Maximizing report?
Project Success
Elevating the impact of the Project Profession. Elevating the impact on our world. Saving Changes...
I asked Copilot to generate a summary - which gives a quite good overview: The article discusses a PMI global research initiative that redefines project success to include stakeholder value and desired outcomes, beyond traditional metrics like schedule, budget, and scope. It emphasizes strategic thinking, flexibility, and aligning stakeholders to ensure success. Key points include managing value perceptions, owning project success, reassessing parameters, and aligning with broader business goals. The report highlights actions and capabilities predictive of success, underscoring the value of projects and the project profession.
Actually, I do not think that this approach of thinking is revolutoinary. Stakeholder values and perceptions are key to definig a project scope and in the end to evaluate the project success. There is this very old image which is still absolutely true: Tree Swing : r/ProgrammerHumor
Projects are investments and even if the expected outcomes are not financial, those funding the project should get a value return on their investments, otherwise they are just throwing money away.
Project "success" is one of those terms that I wouldn't mind if it was changed, with my preference being that projects be thought of as effective, instead of successful. Projects deliver a product or service along with the potential for a product to create value. This potential is also affected by market and economic factors, such as demand and economic stability, as well as internal factors, like effective sales and marketing. You can complete a project on time, in scope, and within budget (effective) and yet the product/service can still fail (unsuccessful). I blogged about a related topic a while ago - sometimes a good idea is a bad idea. A project can also miss deadlines, go over budget, and be missing a few features, and yet the product/service can still be wildly successful. Or, at least, not a failure.
I'm not ignoring the fact that an ineffective project can lead to product/service failure. My point is that calling a project successful, when all you've done is deliver a product or service (which can be a lot of effort, I'm not trying to diminish that), can create the impression that value has been delivered when, in most cases, all that has been delivered is the potential to create value. Success should be a measure of value realized through effective delivery AND utilization of the product/service. Saving Changes...
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