As a marketing strategist, I prioritize ROI and conversion rate because they directly reflect business impact rather than just task completion. What’s your approach?
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Syed, in construction, I focus on delivering projects on time, within budget, and meeting quality and safety standards. For me, success isn’t just completing tasks but more about minimizing delays, controlling costs, and ensuring the finished project performs as intended. Saving Changes...
It depends on the project. A flow time reduction project will probably not have the same KPIs as a new product development. When I'm not handed a set of KPIs, like EVM metrics, I employ a systems thinking approach to defining the right KPIs. What are the top 3 to 5 most important qualities of the project that align it with the business strategy? What can be measured that serves as a direct or proxy measurement to evaluate how well the project is performing based on those qualities?
Some less common types of KPIs I have used other than cost, and on-time performance are: reduction in rework metrics, number of improvement ideas implemented, product functional performance targets, process flow reduction, and customer survey metrics, to name a few.
Senior IS Project Manager| Baycare Health SystemsClearwater, Fl, United States
Syed - one of my projects resulted in 'less clicks' for the end users which also resulted in a much improved level of customer satisfaction, or in other words a win-win result! Saving Changes...
Project Manager| AWR Development (BD) Ltd. Cox's Bazer , Bangladesh
Great point, Syed. Beyond schedule and budget, I usually look at value delivered and stakeholder satisfaction. If the project outcomes create real business impact and stakeholders feel the objectives were achieved, that’s a strong indicator of true success. Saving Changes...
One thing I’ve learned over time is that no single KPI actually tells you if a project succeeded.
If I had to pick one signal, it would be this:
Can the organization predictably turn decisions into outcomes?
Schedule and budget matter, but they mostly measure execution efficiency, not whether the work actually created value.
The KPI set I tend to rely on most includes five signals:
1. Delivery predictability Are teams delivering roughly when and how the organization expected?
2. Value realization Did the project produce the business outcome it was meant to create?
3. Decision velocity How quickly can the organization resolve tradeoffs or unblock work?
4. Rework / churn How often are teams revisiting decisions or rebuilding work late in delivery?
5. Stakeholder confidence When leadership trusts the execution system, projects move faster and friction drops.
When execution health and business outcomes move together, projects tend to be truly successful. Looking only at schedule and cost usually misses half the story.
I wrote about this recently after noticing how often organizations default to the same two metrics. Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Interesting perspective. ROI and conversion rate are indeed among the clearest indicators of business impact, particularly in marketing initiatives where the connection between activity and revenue can be observed directly.
From a project management perspective, however, many practitioners recognize that project success cannot be captured by a single KPI alone.
The PMI M.O.R.E. perspective offers a useful way to frame this.
M – Manage perceptions A project is ultimately considered successful when key stakeholders perceive that the value delivered justifies the resources invested. Metrics matter, but perceived value often determines the final judgement of success.
O – Own project success beyond project management success Delivering scope, schedule and budget is important, but project leaders must take ownership of the broader outcome and the tangible and perceived value created for the organization.
R – Relentlessly reassess project parameters Projects operate in environments of constant change. Success requires continuously reassessing assumptions, priorities and value perception as conditions evolve.
E – Expand perspective Projects should always be viewed within the broader organizational context, understanding how the initiative contributes to strategic goals and long-term enterprise value.
Some organizations complement this perspective with indicators such as the Net Project Success Score (NPSS), which integrates delivery performance, stakeholder perception and value realization into a broader signal of project success.
ROI tells us whether a project generated financial return. The M.O.R.E. lens reminds us that real project success is ultimately defined by value delivered, value perceived and the broader impact the project creates for the organization. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Those which are aligned with the Project Goal stated into the Project Chart or similar document. Saving Changes...
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