What is a Successful Project?

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What is a Successful Project?

A successful project is one that delivers expected results. These traditionally include a budget, a schedule, and a scope. Any project that meets these "big three" measures is, by this definition, a success. In fact, many project managers are regarded as successful if they can hit two of the three.

However, budget, schedule, and scope are technical metrics that define how well the project was managed. They bear little relation to the real concerns of the client.

A project is executed because the client expects some benefit, such as reducing inventory, cutting staff, or increasing annual sales. The project may be executed perfectly: on time, on budget, and doing what it is supposed to. But if the company does not actually reduce inventory, cut staff, or increase sales at least enough to cover the cost of the project, then the money the client spent is wasted. For example:

A company with a $10 million inventory budgeted $100,000 for an inventory control system, expecting to cut inventory by 20 percent, or $2 million. At 10 percent interest, the carrying costs would be cut by $200,000 per year. The project suffered a 100 percent cost overrun.

If the company does not implement the system or does so but fails to reduce its inventory, it has wasted $200,000the budgeted cost plus the overrun. But if the company does implement the system and cuts inventory as expected, it will recover the cost of the overrun in just six months, and it will pay for the entire system in one year. This is not unusual: The benefits from a system normally exceed even devastating overruns. The catch is that the system must be implemented and the benefits realized.

This is not an argument for ignoring the project budget. It is an appeal that you recognize that your role includes helping the client realize the benefits that justify the project. You must be as concerned with the delivery of benefits as you are with the delivery of the system.

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