Project Success Metrics

“The future of successful project management involves being more successful more of the time”.

But what does this really mean? When maybe a project considered successful? Is it when the triple constraint (budget, scope, time) has been met? Or when doubling revenue quicker than expected? Perhaps upon achievement of complete customer satisfaction? then, who has the ultimate say? Is it the SEO results? The finance team? Marketing?

It’s all of them and neither. It depends on who and once you ask. The thing is, without proper constraints (or criteria), you can’t really determine the boundaries of success. At best, they’ll be vague. Even once you determine them, you continue to got to identify who gets to make a decision if the result has been successful or not.

Definition

To set your project up for fulfillment (a beloved phrase altogether PMP literature), you ought to start with defining what success actually is for all stakeholders. Any criteria that serve a selected goal or aim at a particular milestone will do. But take care to pick only the foremost valuable criteria (we’re after fixing a boundary here, remember). an honest approach is to list a variety of success criteria then — after a radical discussion — limit the amount to only those of highest priority.

For example, the success criteria for your project could be:

1. Project is delivered on time
2. The project cost doesn’t exceed envisioned budget
3. Forecast of probable future benefits is achieved
4. Project team satisfaction level is reached
5. The project meets established quality and safety standards
6. Training is delivered as planned and on time
7. Detailed functional and technical documentation is handed off upon release
8. Perhaps all of these are important for your project, but they are doing (or should) have different priorities. Identify those highest on the list and persist with them.

Another important thing to think about is making them as descriptive as possible. this may help the evaluation process afterward. Descriptive criteria include metrics and/or targets to succeed in at delivery.

Measurement

Reliable measurement of every of the chosen success criteria are often achieved if all stakeholders are aligned with the defined metrics, the frequency of measurement, and roles related to it (who will perform, track and enforce the measurement process).

To achieve efficiency, the entire team should be involved in defining the measurement map (metrics – frequency – roles). this may help in fixing the proper expectations with all stakeholders upfront and, eventually, identify areas to exceed them during the project execution.

Documentation

Once an agreement is reached on success criteria of the very best importance, measurement metrics, and frequency, the subsequent step is to document and share them with everyone within the team. it’s crucial to urge everyone to accept as true with the list as defined. Otherwise, the success boundaries will become flexible and measurement won’t be effective, or worse — it could provide misleading results.

Current Snapshot

In some cases (legacy systems, projects that replace existing ones), it’s advisable to urge a picture of the present state of the system that’s being enhanced. this may allow the team to form a comparison whenever criteria is measured, usually at sprint reviews or working increment demonstrations. it’ll also help get a more conclusive result on the measurements.

Continuous Monitoring

Once you’ve got the success criteria identified, prescribed , and documented, you don’t just leave them there. Tracking success should be a part of the project management team’s role and has got to be regularly evaluated during the project risk assessment.

Because success criteria directly relate to project risks, it’s highly advisable to never change the list of criteria, defined and prescribed during the start of the project. Otherwise, this might affect the direction of the project and success might get harder to succeed in .

The agile nature of IT projects provides a huge sort of management approaches and models – Scrum, the Lean Startup, Jobs To Be Done, the Iron Triangle (the triple constraint) and lots of more. Yet a standard problem with all of them is the way to make sure the project is perceived as successful by all stakeholders within the end. Using the project’s success path and aligning everyone with it makes this task achievable.

To recap, here are some important steps to require to pave the way for a fruitful project:

1. Define what success means for the project and specialise in the foremost important criteria.
2. Apply metrics and targets to gauge each of the chosen criteria. Define measurement frequency.
3. Document the chosen success criteria and metrics. Get everyone to accept as true with them.
4. Create a picture of the present state of the system before the project begins.
5. Track project progress and monitor the success metrics continuously.
   It’s no secret that it’s easier to manage a project once you know where the main target and most efforts should go. an equivalent goes for fulfillment. it’s not a mystical category somehow assigned to certain undertakings but a results of precise planning, measurement, and oversight.