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What's project success?!

Nader K. Rad, 2024-06-25

We do talk a lot about project success, but we don't spend enough time defining it. I'll criticize the two common definitions that cover almost all alternatives and then offer my own suggestion.

Definition 1: time, cost, and quality

Some people consider a project successful when it's delivered on time, within budget, and with the desired level of quality. This definition doesn't work because it's based on how optimistic or pessimistic the initial estimates of time and cost are. The more pessimistic they are, the more "successful" the project would appear at the end. This, of course, doesn't make sense.

Definition 2: impact, value, benefits, etc.

The new trend is to talk about impact, value, benefit, satisfaction, and the like. What the proponents of this option miss is the difference between these two:

These two are COMPLETELY different because what we do in the project is only one of the things that contribute to the success of its output. It's also about portfolio management, operations, and other products and services in the organization.

It means that we can have

I've seen both cases, especially the second one.

Let's say you have an excellent idea for a privacy-friendly social network:

Impact, value, and benefits are all about how the project's output works in operation. This goes beyond the project itself and involves many other layers of management.

It doesn't make sense to label a project as successful or unsuccessful based on what happens outside the project.

My definition

When we talk about project success, we practically want to have a label for what we want to repeat in future projects. So, when defining success becomes too complicated, we can simply talk about what we want to repeat in future projects and why.

For me, a successful project should meet the following two conditions:

The first condition covers time, cost, and quality on the one hand and benefits/value on the other. How do we measure it? We should compare it with hypothetical cases. Yes, it's not easy, but difficult is better than superficial and wrong (I'm referring to options 1 and 2). Besides, these things never really work with measurements, but as sources of inspiration, and for that, this is more than enough.

The second condition is something that is missing in other definitions, but I strongly believe should be considered. Some may say that caring for the well-being of team members is justifiable because it helps improve performance in the long run, but I believe it should be done as a matter of principle rather than for utilitarian reasons. It's simply an ethical responsibility of the project manager to care about the well-being of the team members.

Update 1

Some people won't consider a project successful unless its output is successful as well. I don't accept it for the following reasons:

So, I wouldn't consider outcomes in the definition of project success because 1) it goes beyond what the team does, and 2) the team can't even do anything about it in some (or many?!) projects.

Instead of making it part of the definition of project success, we have standard mechanisms to encourage the team to get involved and contribute when it's possible.