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Define Project Success Criteria
July 30, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices
Define Project Success Criteria (#2 in the series 21 Project Management Success Tips)
By Karl E. Wiegers
At the beginning of the project, make sure the stakeholders share a common understanding of how they will determine whether this project is successful. Too often, meeting a predetermined schedule is the only apparent success factor, but there are certainly others. Begin by identifying your stakeholders and their interests and expectations. Next, define some clear and measurable business goals. Some examples are:
- increasing market share by a certain amount by a specified date
- reaching a specified sales volume or revenue
- achieving certain customer satisfaction measures
- saving money by retiring a high-maintenance legacy system,
- achieving a particular transaction processing volume and correctness.
These business goals should imply specific project success criteria, which should again be measurable and trackable. They could include achieving schedule and budget targets, delivering committed functionality in a form that satisfies customer acceptance tests, complying with industry standards or government regulations, or achieving specific technological milestones. Also, keep your eye on team member job satisfaction, sometimes indicated by staff turnover rate and the willingness of team members to do what it takes to make the project succeed. The business objectives define the overarching goal, though. It doesn’t matter if you deliver to the specification on schedule and budget if those factors don’t clearly align with business success.
Remember that not all of these defined success criteria can be your top priority. You’ll have to make some thoughtful tradeoff decisions to ensure that you satisfy your most important priorities. If you don’t define clear priorities for success, team members can wind up working at cross-purposes, leading to frustration, stress, and reduced teamwork effectiveness.
A condensed version of this paper was published in Software Development magazine.
Karl Wiegers, Ph.D., is Principal Consultant with Process Impact, a software process consulting and education company in Portland, Oregon. Karl’s most recent book is “Practical Project Initiation: A Handbook with Tools.” Karl is also the author of four other books and 170 articles. Karl is a frequent speaker at software conferences and professional society meetings. You can reach Karl through www.projectinitiation.com or www.processimpact.com.
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