saurabh mahajanPMP, ITIL, PRINCE2| vodafonePune, Maharashtra, India
From a project manager's point of view when can he/she say the project is success
1) Only when the results meet client needs in defined time and cost ?
2) When project manager has managed all project management areas well ? even if he/she manages 8 areas well out of 10 knowledge areas can the project be success ?
or questions like below also should add to project success
1) is the team happy to work ?
2) Is the manager good ? Saving Changes...
Is this how you think we manage projects by knowledge area? Saving Changes...
saurabh mahajanPMP, ITIL, PRINCE2| vodafonePune, Maharashtra, India
Surely we don't, but it was just a baseline I thought some might be thinking about.
The point in mentioning it knowledge wise was, does Project Manager think they are managing it successfully by just taking care of each area of project management ? Saving Changes...
Anonymous
I am not sure how one can manage by knowledge areas since they are all integrated. However, I have seen it all and nothing will prevent people from managing by knowledge area - to me it is just illogical.
Yes we manage cost, schedule, scope, quality --- but they are integrated and I am not sure if we can assess individually; of course with minor exceptions.
Measuring success is a big topic and varies based on the perspective of who is interested. Saving Changes...
A project is a success when it meets its objectives. More of the challenge these days may be to define the objectives effectively and ensuring alignment (with the greater purposes) on a continual basis Saving Changes...
Francisco AbreuPortfolio Manager| Banco Central do BasilBrasilia, Df, Brazil
Your statement makes me think about it: Only when . . .?
My opinion is in general finish one Project is one very complex task.
With Exception of small projects with “just” dozens of activities such as one Birthday’s Party Project of your 1-year old daughter, delivery projects is a very difficult challenge.
In all TI projects with hundreds of activities in which I participated (my area), get one convergence between Requisites X Cost X time X Quality is almost a coincidence.
Independent of PM’s maturity using PMBOK’s disciplines the amount of variables with he has to handling is huge and nor all of them are under his control and domain.
For example, one Project with 12-months duration, all PM would like of “the world around” has no transformation in this period. Totally unreal.
This world transforms constantly and your Project will be impacted: budget cut, functionalities that arise, new requisites, business transformation, speed of competition, hire/fire of persons your team, Company prioritization, new stakeholders, new sponsor, new board, new company’s policies, annual outcomes, etc. . .
All those examples are in the external environment of your Project and they could impact it.
PM’s maturity is very important. Once happened the event, he quickly get map the impact of event in his project and he work to minimize it. But it is the only thing he could do.
The event is external e completely out of his control . . .
Each time that this kind of event happens, our PM works harder to minimize its impact but his project will be more far to meet Requisite X Cost X Time X Quality.
My conclusion is: manage a project is a very complex activity that if you finish it meeting Requisite + Cost + Time + Quality is the main measure of success in project management.
I hope to have contributed Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
PMBOK said: "success is masured by product and project quality, timeliness, budget compliance and degree of customer satisfaction". So, that is all if you follow the PMI guidelines. Project quality is definied from product quality (product quality accountability is on business analyst role). Time and budget is defined from product scope and are part of the project scope (project scope is defined from product scope. Product scope accountability is on business analyst role). Customer satisfaction is achieved when you achieve project quality. Define in objective way what customer satisfaction mean is a matter of defining project quality. Easy indeed (hehehehehe) Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
Success is determined by the people who receive the outcome/output. Different people will judge success for your project differently, which is why it is important to be connected to stakeholders. It's also why it's important to find out what success looks like for your most important stakeholders before you start because it could be different on each project. We set success criteria for each project.
You've also got the concepts of 'project management success' (we integrated the knowledge areas and did good project management) and 'project success' (the sponsor got what they wanted and the project delivered a useful outcome).
Success is a big topic, and I don't think you can limit it time, cost and project management practice. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Elizabeth, in order to learn from your comment please let me say that I disagree with your point about "the project deliver useful outcome". The project manager is accountable for project quality what mean to deliver the outcome as defined. But is not in charge to,define the outcome. So, if the outcome is useful or not is outside project manager scope of work.
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1 reply by Rolf Dieter Zschau
Apr 26, 2016 8:18 AM
Rolf Dieter Zschau
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Sergio, that is what is the different between Project success and Project Management success. I came across that some time ago and suppport Elizabeth's Statement. PMI defines success like "Project Management success". Sponsors are more interested in "Project success" as useful outcome. Agile practices take that into account and focus more on "Project success" as they stress Business value for prioritization of backlog.
Saving Changes...
Carla Fair-WrightProgram/Project Management Consultant| Optimal Consulting LLCHouston, TX, United States
Sergio, I think Elizabeth is making a valid argument. Validating useful outcome is often part of the pre-project activities, but can (in my experience) be part of the Project Manager’s task. It is true that not all companies have the same level of maturity in their processes (Hurdle rates or Decision Quality methods), but there is usually some method to determine the value of a project. Why are we doing this? What is the return in profit or increased efficiency? The “Useful outcome” is defined in the “Why” of the project.
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Oct 12, 2017 4:18 PM
Sergio Luis Conte
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That is the problem. The profit is not returned by the project. Profit is returned by the product/service/result created by the project. When you read the new version of the PMBOK Guide you will see lot of work making on that.
Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
Sergio, thanks for responding to my comment. I think the role of the project manager used to be exactly what you describe, and in many places that is still the case. However, I think the discipline of project management is changing and that the role of the PM is evolving into something else, which does see us getting involved more and more in the 'adding value' part of doing new work and not purely in the role of delivering what someone else has scoped. It will be interesting to see how far this goes and whether this is supported by the professional bodies over time. But without the ability to execute, project managers can add little if any value, so we need to be able to do both.
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Oct 12, 2017 4:20 PM
Sergio Luis Conte
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Fully agree with you. And that evolution is to perform the role of Business Analyst. In the new versions of the guides and standards there are a lot of changes on that sense. Obviously lot of people like me (and perhaps you too) are devolving both roles from years.
