Measuring Project Success
The Who, What, Where, When and How to Project Success
- Project success goes beyond hitting project end dates.
- All organizations should focus on two critical sets of questions when defining both project and portfolio success:
- Did we launch the "right" set of projects? Did the projects best support our goals? Did we meet our business outcomes? How does this information help inform us for next year's planning?
- Did we manage projects "correctly"? Did we manage each project successfully? Did project end on time and on budget? Can we improve our project management practices to manage projects more efficiently?
- There must be alignment between the project's Business Opportunity (Why we are doing it), the Goal (What we are doing), and the Major Deliverables (What we will create) to Expected Business Outcomes (The impact on the company).
- Project success mans different things to different people. Make sure all project stakeholders (Sponsor/Executive Leader, Project Manager and Project Team) all have a shared definition. Revisit peridically throughout the life of the project.
- Project success measures must be quantifiable. Words to avoid include "Significantly", "Acceptable", "Attempt".
- Measures must address "When".
- Often times, project success cannot be measured until well after the project has ended. Be sure to identify the Who, What, Where, When and How before the project is completed and operational hand-off has been made.
- Instill accountability by being explicit; document project success factors in all project stakeholder's performance plans.