Own goals?
by jed simms on May 5, 2010
A recent article told project managers that their primary goals should be (in order) …
- To deliver the project on time
- To deliver the project under budget
- To deliver the requirements (number 3 ??)
- Ensure the business users are happy
- Ensure the project team members are happy.
Frankly, I could not believe that this had been published in 2010. So I wrote back with my five goals for project managers …
“If we look at projects from a business perspective, rather than a project perspective, the five goals that matter to the business are …
- You deliver what I need to realize the business value available
- The solution is usable, reliable and cost-effective to operate
- Opportunities to increase the value at little to no cost have been seized
- I can take the project’s outputs and easily realize the benefits, and
- I can build on the project’s deliverables to extend the value to the business at minimum cost.
On time/on budget are measures of project efficiency not business value. Until we take a business perspective, we’ll continue to disappoint our business partners.”
However, this exchange does illustrate a critical point – that few project teams are aware of the business’s measures of success. And then they wonder why they are not seen as successful (however well they have delivered the project).
An exercise we do with Project Governance Teams is to get them to identify
A their own measures of success for the project
B the business users’ measures of success for the project.
When we then add the project’s “on time/budget/to specification” measures — we end up with three sets of different success measures – all of which are valid and all of which need to be met.
If you don’t clearly know the governance team’s and business users’ measures of success for your project – you’re in trouble!
© Jed Simms, Australia 2010
Related Publication – Understanding Project Success
When is a project considered a ‘success’?
At first, this may seem a surprising question, but there are four different standards of project success, there are three different, yet equally valid, inter-related sets of success measures which all need to be identified, tracked and measured.
Many organizations have progressively reduced their standards for success to, almost, “Whatever we can implement.” This is just not good enough. We wouldn’t accept poor standards of success in our private lives, so why at work?
Understanding Project Success takes this often overlooked subject and dissects it into its component parts so people can easily see why so many projects are deemed ‘unsuccessful’ on one or more dimensions and what needs to be put in place to ensure full success in the future.
This Understanding Project Success Guide is essential background for all parties involved in projects and project delivery. More information
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