Define Success For A Project

Submitted By zacharyshands
Words: 426
Pages: 2

- How would you define "success" for a project?
There are a few things I look at to determine if a project was successful. First, and most important, the project must be completed on time. If you do not deliver on time you have failed as a project manager as you should have a detailed plan to avoid late deliveries. As a project manager your responsibility is to maintain on schedule through the project, if you fall behind, it’s your job to recover before the final deadline. Secondly, you must perform under or right on budget to consider a project successful. Before a project is started there is an estimate of the work effort and cost that is documented and agreed upon. If the project exceeds that number, it is a result of poor planning and estimating on the project manager’s part. The project can no longer be deemed successful, even if the project was delivered on time. Lastly the final product must deliver the expected value to the business. They must be happy with their return on investment when the final product is complete.

- Based upon this definition, of the projects you've been associated, how many have been successful? Based on my definition of a successful project, of the projects I have been associated with, majority of them have been successful. In general, majority of my projects have been in great groups, where collaboration was easy. It always started with the mutual respect we had for one another, which led to less conflict and open communication. In estimating dates, we gave real estimated completion dates so there were no surprises down the line. However, majority of my projects were not large scale in terms of project budgets. As shown, the rate