Project Management Success Criteria Tutorial | Understand and Know More

Introduction of Successful Criteria

As a project manager, the major objective of the project manager is to deliver the project within the time stated and on a budget explained.However, that’s not all when it comes to the project success criteria.In addition to above conditions, the project manager require to work closely with the customer and should ensure that the project deliverables have met the customer expectations.There are more parameters in a project success criterion.

The first project success criterion is to deliver the projects bearing in mind the business drivers.Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) is a method used to measure the benefits gained from the undertaking of the project.These provide an insight to the scope of a project.

The performance indicators are below:

• Established by the clients at the initiate of the project and are listed on a priority basis.
• Aligned with a business objectives.
• Able to made critical decisions based on the KPI’s for the project.
• Prove to be a stance for the products to be accepted by aclients.
• It’s a quantitative method and also it’s measurable.

To generate project success, criteria based on the KPI is not enough and targets need to be set.These set targets need to be realistic and more achievable at the end.

Success Factors

In a summary, management’s contributions to a project’s success are the success factors.

The following five categories best describe them:

Project manager:The project manager is the key player in the team and will need a wide range of expertise to see it through successfully.

Project team:The team needs to consist of different skills and experience.Collectively as a team, success is simple to achieve with the proper guidance.

Project:The scope and timeline of a project is a crucial.

Organization:The organization needs to offer support to both the project manager and the project team

External environment: External constraints are should not affect the project.Back-up plans need to be in place in case daily tasks cannot be carried out by the team.The project’s quality should not be compromised an under any circumstances as this will drive away the potential customers.

What are Project Success Criteria?

Project success criteria vary depending on the company’s industry, the company itself, and what plan to achieve.However, they can be said to be the measurable terms or factors that are needed for the successful finishing of a project. Project success criteria are derived from a project deliverables and also project benefits.

Success across three levels for easier evaluation.

Level 1:

The Project Completion Success

This level is based on the success of the project and the process of meeting on deliverables.If stick to the scope, schedule, and allocated budget while offering the quality, then the project will be considered to be a success.Here, the criterion is explained and limited to the period the project is running

Level 2:

Result Success

This criterion will base the project’s success on how to successful the end of product and service are.

Level 3:

Development Success

Here, will explain the success based on how much value of the product/service brings to the beneficiaries and how much it will be contribute to their well-being.

Project success criterion should have the below crucial aspects that will give a smooth time while working:

• Regular tracking meetings with the leaders of every team.
• Ensuring that stakeholders sign off all the milestones achieved.
• Weekly team meeting on a project update.
• Monthly budget review.

How to Measure Project Success Criteria?

Finding the balance between evaluating the performance of a project and maintaining the project and work in motion can be complex.Do not want to spend too much doing one and neglecting the other as they are both are crucial.This is why should ensure that are measuring the right things.Several things can help to point out if a project is succeeding.

However, the big question is, how do evaluate and measure a project this is ongoing?

Should break down the project into phases and every phase with set goals at the end.Then measure and evaluate every phase at the end informally.A formal evaluation would only be necessary after a whole project.Measuring a project’s success upon the completion is a valuable practice as it provides a learning opportunity to the company/organization.It will also guide on how to undertake the projects in the future by examining the effectiveness of the project.

Below are some of the ways can measure project for success criteria.

1.Scope:This refers to the goals set for the project and the results it is expected to provide upon completion. To examine and find whether the project met the objectives within the allocated time to conclude whether the success criteria worked or if it was a failure.

2.Schedule:This is a easy way to measure success.All need to ask yourself is if the deliverables were met in the time.If it was handed in late, how far behind the schedule was it finished?

3.Budget:The project success is based on the ability to meet a project deliverables and deliver the project within the allocated budget.It would be best if calculate how the project is performing financially.To go about this, compare how much had budgeted for the project against what have spent so far.Also be able to define any variances if there are any.If can tell by the end of a few phases of the project that are spending is a bit too much, will have surpassed the budget at the end of the entire project.Therefore, ensure that evaluate the spending as the project progresses.

4.Team Satisfaction:Get feedback from the team and find out if they were happy with the project, how they conducted it, and pleased with the result.They have the better insight into the project than anyone else since they are working on it hands-on.How they feel about the project will also find and affect their motivation to undertake the next. Remember, finishing one project is not the end of the world.One other thing you can do is ask the team what they might have done differently that would have affected the project.If your staff doesn’t appear invested in the project and isn’t demonstrating their enthusiasm, you might consider keeping them actively involved in the process at all stages. However, make sure that you do that regularly as it could help modify their behavior and attitude toward the project.

5.Client Satisfaction:Customer and client reactions to the final product are also crucial.Can can monitor the status of their comments and gauge their level of contentment up to the point of delivery.

6.Superiority:Rather than just completing the required tasks, the project’s goal should be to excel in every way possible.Make sure everything is perfect and don’t be afraid to make changes if you need to.Success on a project may also be evaluated by looking at how well it was managed.

How to Document Project Success Criteria?

Once explained what project success criteria mean to and have started undertaking the project, should document the criteria at every phase.Ensure that it is as detailed as possible to benefit the company at length.Before beginning the project, decide how will documenta project success criteria.This will help to develop and cultivate the working practices and get the most out of documentation.Need to emphasise the need and importance of documentation to all the team members and ensure that they understand.This ensures that each phase and crucial aspect of the project is entirely examined.

Project Success Criteria Examples

• Completing the project on time, and completing the project within the financial constraints set out in the budget.
• Planned training is being conducted successfully with appropriate teams.
• Achieving a customer/client satisfaction target.
• Effectively raising customer and team awareness about the project to an appropriate level.
• The project meets all the internal appropriator data security policies and other available policies.
• Project handover to the operational team was well documented and finished in the required manner.
• The project meets all the commercial objectives for profit and revenue.
• The project delivers all deliverables within an agreed scope.
• The quality targets of the project are meeting quality metrics according to the Quality Management Plan.

Why are project success criteria important?

Organizations don’t explain failure.We don’t document how will know if a project has failed – what failure looks like – because thinking about the failing is not a good way to motivate the project team when the work has only just started. The absence of a formal explanation of failure mades it uncomfortably simple for internal and external stakeholders to brand projects a failure.Think about some of the projects that have to hit the headlines recently .Projects ‘fail’ in the eyes of the media and the stakeholders because for people are left to guess what success are looks like.Is it delivery on time? Is it delivery on budget? Perhaps those two things really don’t matter much to the stakeholders concerned if they get a more quality result and happy customers, which is pretty much the theme of book, Customer-Centric Project Management.Successful organizations take the guesswork out of the process.Explain what success looks like, so they know when they have to achieved it.

If want project success, have to explain what success looks like for the project.

• Perhaps budget is the more important thing to the stakeholders, and quality is taking a back seat on the project.
• Perhaps customer satisfaction is need, and don’t care how many overtime hours the team has to work to get that end result.
• Project success criteria are a great tool to use with the stakeholders to create engagement.

How Project Manager Delivers Project Success?

ProjectManager is a cloud-based software that delivers real-time data to maintain track by making better decisions. Tracking the project is as important as explaining project success criteria.Using project management software gives the tools to know if meeting the baseline for a project.There are some ways can see how a project is performing.Get a high-level view with the live dashboard, which automatically calculates data from the team’s status reports and updates easy-to-read charts and graphs on time, costs and more.

Project success criteria:The summary

To summarize:

• Must explain what success looks like for the project or won’t know if have achieved it.
• Success criteria measure what’s important to the stakeholders.
• Document success criteria and get an everyone to agree to them.
• Use a continuous measurements where possible.
• Baseline a today’s performance so know where are starting from.
• Trace as appropriate and report on the progress.

Conclusion:

Project success criteria are a very crucial and critical part of the project management.Without them, any team will be working blindly a without knowing what the end goals.Therefore, before starting the project, identify and explain the success criterion to guide as the project progresses.Remember to be specific and easy.Do not want to keep on defining the criteria to the team members and stakeholders.It would also be best to keep in mind that the project success criterion will find how successful a project is.Therefore, document the success criteria at the end of each project phase and keep it as detailed as possible.This will evaluate each phase and aspect simply.Remember also to measure the success of the project to enable to know the effectiveness of the success criterion are chosen.