What Is Project Success?

Project success wasn’t as complex to define as it is today. Reason for this assumption is that many years ago, project manager perceived project to be successful as far as it met the cost, schedule and its specifications. However, in recent years, project success has become more complex to define. This was supported according to Pinto & Slevin (1988) that “project success is something much more complex than simply meeting cost, schedule, and performance specifications”. However, as diverse as the perception relating to project success definition might be, one point researchers and authors all have in common is that, project success must include the three basic traditional elements in addition with client’s satisfaction as the forth element. This was supported according to Meredith and Mantel (2000) who supports the three traditional items for project success, and in addition also believe that “the triple constraints of time, budget, and specification are rapidly being replaced by a new model that invokes a fourth hurdle for project success: client satisfaction”.

Therefore, what is considered project success? Verzuh (1999) defines a successful project as “one in which the project objectives were reached on time, on budget, and with a product of high quality. Quality in turn would be measured by functionality and performance” he continued saying “a successful project must meet stakeholders’ expectations”. However, the main description most widely supported by researchers was that of Baccarini (1999) who identified project success to be categorized into two distinct components, this however includes project management success and product success. Project management success focuses on the project processes and the successful accomplishments of time, cost and quality objective, while product success deals with the effects of the final product (Baccarini 1999). Therefore, to properly define project success, a distinction should be made between product success and project management success, as they are not the same (Prabhakar 2008). In addition, Pinkerton (2003) also supports these components and therefore indicated further that “The three dimensions (cost, time and quality) show the degree of the efficiency of project execution”. He also continued saying that “If the venture/process is not a success, neither is the project”.

Secondly, the different perspectives on project success would now be discussed. Different stakeholders view the term ‘project success’ differently. For example, Freeman and Beale (1992) provided the different points of view of people such as “An architect may consider success in terms of aesthetic appearance while an engineer in terms of technical competence, an accountant in terms of dollars spent under budget, a human resources manager in terms of employee satisfaction, and chief executive officers rate their success in the stock market.” this was also supported according to Stuckenbruck 1986, that “Project success may be assessed by different interest groups-stockholders, managers, customers, employees, and so on”. He continued saying “Criteria for measuring project success must therefore reflect different views” this however bring us to the point, that is, what are the factors for success in project.

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Critical success factors for a project

The construction industry would be used as a point of reference in this section. Therefore, according to Chan and Scott (2004) who described the construction industry as “dynamic in nature due to the increasing uncertainties in technology, budgets, and development processes”, they continued saying “Nowadays, building projects are becoming much more complex and difficult”. Therefore, to minimize the complexities and uncertainties of projects, various researchers and authors have identified various success factors they believe project managers should have in mind when planning or implementing a project. It was also indentified with the belief that it can help minimize the rate at which projects fail.

The success factors can be grouped into five major areas and they are as follows:

Factors related to project

Project management factors

Factors related to the project participants/stakeholders

Factors related to the project organization and structure

Factors related to the external environment (Belassi and Tukel 1996; Chan and Scott 2004; Kendra and Taplin 2004). However, before explaining these factors, it should be clear that each industry have different perspectives of what they consider to be success factors, but as diverse as this factors are, they all fall under the five categories mentioned above.

Factors related to project

One belief is that the factors associated to the project must be one that is measureable, therefore the various attributes used to measure this factor are the type of project, the nature and complexity of the project and size of the project, for that reason, in the case of the construction industry; the attributes could be the number of tiles, bricks and floor and so on (Chan and Scott 2004).

Secondly, the basic element of project success itself such as the time, budget and specification must be well estimated and planned out. That is, even if this is just a part that determines if a project is successful or not in modern terminology of project success, it still serves as one of the important basic elements of success in projects. This was supported according to van der Berg and Kupakuwana (2005) that “The traditional three project success parameters of on time, in budget, and to specification will not disappear, but they will be relegated to a secondary position behind customer satisfaction”.

Lastly, having Clear scope and objectives is one of the elements of this factor that determines whether the project would be successful and in the case of the construction industry, it basically means having a clear design and specifications of the clients and to enable the people involved to understand what is supposed to be done. This was supported according to Ward (1995) that “scope and objectives are the guiding principles that direct the efforts of the project team and they will determine a project’s success or failure”.

Project management factors

According to Hubbard (1991) that “Project management action is a key for project success”, therefore, according to Jaselskis and Ashley (1991) that “by using the management tools, the project manager would be able to plan and execute their ….. Project, thereby maximizing the project’s chances of success” this however is very applicable to industry such as construction, software and so on. The variables however used in project management include adequate communication, control mechanisms, feedback capabilities, troubleshooting, coordinating effectiveness, decision making effectiveness, monitoring, project organization structure, plan and schedule followed and other related previous management experience (Belout 1998; Chua et al. 1999; Walker and Vines 2000). These variables however are the management tools used in monitoring the progress and feasibility of the project. Therefore, as important as the end product for the project might be, the project management processes/variables mentioned above is just as important. Reason for this assumption is because without the careful evaluation and monitoring of the project, having a successful product can be rather difficult to attain. Also, these variables are important for the implementation/execution stage of the project therefore, a well planned construct for the entire variables ranging from the way information would be communicated to the way the information is being used to schedule and plan can increase the chances of having a successful project. Additionally, having a self-sufficient performance management system in place can enable business processes, performance metrics and implementation to be measured and achieved at in a reasonable amount of time and at a cost that makes sense. These although does not necessarily accomplish a successful project, but it is a great way to assess the profitability, project metrics on time, cost, quality, project milestone and process measures (Kendra and Taplin 2004). This way, the project managers can determine if the project is on the right path to success or not.

Factors related to the project participants

The project participants are the stakeholders who affect or are affected by the project and they are follows: the project manager, the project team, the project sponsors and the clients. In the case of the construction industry, all are stakeholders with the addition of the contractors, subcontractors, consultants, suppliers and manufacturer (Chua et al 1999). The question now is how these stakeholders are important to the success of the project. A few important stakeholders would be explained which are: the project manager, project team, clients and project sponsors.

The project manager

People management drives project success more than technical issues do (Scott-Young & Samson 2004). The project manager competence and skills such as flexibility and adaptability, preference for significant initiative and leadership, aggressiveness, confidence, persuasiveness, verbal fluency, ambition, activity, forcefulness, effectiveness as a communicator and integrator, broad scope of personal interests….. able to identify problems, willing to make decisions, able to maintain a proper balance in use of time (Archibald, 1976; Belassi and Tukel 1996) are critical factors affecting project planning, scheduling and communication. According to Turner & Muller (2005), “the literature on project success factor has largely ignored the impact of the project manager, and his or her leadership style and competence, on project success” he continued saying “This may be because most of the studies asked project managers their opinion and the respondents have not given due consideration to their own impact on project success”. They also pointed out that “However, in the general management literature, it was argued and pointed out that the leadership style and competence do have a direct and measureable impact on the performance of the organization or business. Therefore, the authors were commissioned by the project management institute to study whether the leadership style and competence of the project manager is a success factor on projects and whether different styles are appropriate on different types of projects”

Additionally, in the environment where the organizational environment and project characteristics is changing which thereby makes the role of the project leader difficult, a competent project manager is frequently regarded as having a significant impact on overall project success as well as being critical to other project elements such as the project team (team member motivation and creativity) (Krahn & Hartman, 2004; Ammeter & Dukerich, 2002; Smith, 1999; Sutcliffe, 1999; Rickards, 2001).

The project team as a success factor

The most important element in this factor is team spirit. As stated above, the project manager has a significant impact on the team’s motivation and creativity, that is, it is his/her responsibility to motivate the team members in other to achieve their full commitment. Team effort by all parties to a contract-owner…. is a crucial ingredient for the successful completion of a project (Hassan 1995). It was also mentioned that the leadership style of a manager has an impact on the team member’s motivation. For example, Sirota et al. (2005) found that “the use of autocratic, coercive, or laissez-faire management styles are detrimental to employee satisfaction”. Other leadership models that rely less on power and influence frame the role of a successful team leader as “initiator, model, negotiator, and coach” (Luecke, 2004). This example shows how much the leadership style can affect or boost the motivation and creativity of the team which can then determine the success or failure of a project.

The client and the project sponsor as a success factor

According to Crawford et al 2008 that, “the success and failure of projects is not entirely within control of the project manager and project team”. Additionally, Contextual issues are crucial in influencing the progress and outcomes of projects, and a key theme that has emerged is the importance of top management support (Baker, Murphy, & Fisher, 1988; Lechler, 1998; Lechler & Thomas, 2007; Zimmerer & Yasin, 1998). Having the top and executive support for a project is also a factor that determines if the project would be successful or not and it is also the responsibility of the project manager to get this support. The project sponsorship role is a key way for executive support to extend to projects.

The client’s full interest and involvement in the planning and implementation phase can help project managers determine exactly what the project needs to be successful and also what they would have to do to satisfy the end-users and at the same time the client. Therefore the project manager must determine who the client is, their experience, the client’s confidence in the team, and the client’s needs in other to generate the scope and so on (Chan and Kumaraswamy 1997; Songer and Molenaar 1997; Dissanayaka and Kumaraswamy 1999).

Factors related to the project organization and structure

The project structure and organization is also an important factor to successful projects. The way in which the team is organized that is, is it cross functional or is it a dedicated team also can be used to measure if the project is to be successfully implemented. This was supported according to Kendra and Taplin (2004), that “the macro-social dimension of project success is specific to the project organization design”. Additionally, Project success could be measured by determining what structure (matrixed or projectized) is suitable for the project. This was thereby supported according to Shenhar, 2001 that “the structure is dependent on the project type”

Organizational culture as a factor

A factor which has recently being used by project managers. It was mentioned by most researchers that a critical factor for project success is for the organizational culture to support the project management processes. That is, does the project in question require a more formal approach/process or an informal one? Additionally it was stated according to Ainsworth 1998, that “every organization conducts projects, but the most successful one embrace a formal project management process”. Therefore, for example, in the construction industry, a formal approach would be reasonable.

Lastly, Factors related to the external environment

The attributes used to measure these factors are the social, economic, political, physical, technological environments. It is evident that although the external environment can be measured from time to time, but they are not within the control of project manager/stakeholders. The most important is how the project manager is able to adapt and face the changes that occur in the external environment which may have either a positive or negative effect on the success of the project.

Conclusion

In this current and changing environment, meeting the time, budget and specification does not necessarily determine a successful project. This is to say, with projects becoming more complex and more expensive, several other factors have to be considered to clearly determine if a project would be successful or not.