Program Manager| HARPER SRLSanto Domingo / Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic
We measure cost, scope, and schedule with precision, but when it comes to community impact or social outcomes, the metrics feel vague. Have you seen credible methods for tracking social value at the project level?
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Lissette, you're absolutely right but unlike cost, scope, and schedule, social outcomes often take months or even years to materialize, making them harder to quantify with immediate precision. However, this doesn't mean they can't be measured credibly. Many organizations now use Social Return on Investment (SROI) to evaluate the broader value a project creates for stakeholders, combining financial proxies with qualitative data to assess long-term impact. SROI helps translate social outcomes like improved well-being, skills development, or community cohesion into measurable indicators and outcomes over time. Saving Changes...
PMO Leader | Speaker & Mentor | Content Leader – PMOGA Latin America
Hub| Catholic University of UruguayMontevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
Yes, social value can be measured, though not with a single formula.
Combining hard data (such as access, improvements, beneficiaries) with real stories and community participation makes the metrics come alive. Tools like SROI or theory of change help, but the most powerful thing is to design indicators that reflect what really matters.
Example: In a digital inclusion project, we not only measure how many people accessed the Internet, but also how many people got jobs or resumed their studies thanks to this access. That's the difference between counting users and telling stories.
Are your metrics telling what really transforms? Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Lissette Indhira Pimentel Sosa Excellent question — and highly aligned with PMI’s current emphasis on maximizing project success beyond the traditional constraints of scope, time, and cost.
We increasingly recognize that Project Management Success (the Iron Triangle) is necessary but not sufficient. True Project Success includes:
- Long-term outcomes
- Stakeholder benefit
- Sustainable value
- Positive societal impact
The recent PMI framing through the MORE™ model (Meaningful, Outcome-Oriented, Resilient, Experience-Based) gives us a more comprehensive compass.
It prompts a powerful shift: we’re not just managing tasks — we’re enabling transformation.
To quantify “social value delivered”, several tools and frameworks can help:
- Theory of Change (ToC) – for linking project activities to social outcomes;
- SROI (Social Return on Investment) – to assign financial proxies to social benefits;
- SDG Alignment – to connect project outputs to global goals;
- Benefits Realization (expanded) – including non-financial, non-tangible outcomes;
- Outcome Harvesting & Stakeholder Value Dashboards – especially in complex or adaptive contexts.
From my perspective, what drives Project Success today is clarity of purpose, trust among stakeholders, and the ability to integrate outcomes into organizational learning.
The question is no longer just “Did we deliver the project?”, but “Did the project deliver what matters most?”
Looking forward to learning how others are integrating social value into their project success frameworks — and how we can push this conversation forward in the profession.
Like any intangible outcome, it is a good idea to attempt to identify a quantifiable substitute measure which can be used to determine whether the project succeeded or not. Getting agreement from all key stakeholders on what that measure or measures are will be the challenge as well as determining who will be responsible for gathering the baseline in advance of the project's delivery and then measuring it thereafter.
For example, if the project is expected to "reduce food insecurity" measures could be the number of folks using food banks in a given time period, or the number of cases of malnutrition identified by local physicians.
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