What is project success? I always find the answer to this question interesting when speaking with different executives and mangers across the country during my seminars and workshops. Most of the time, during these seminars, I get quick and confident answers back…often many people at once saying the same thing, ” being on time and budget” as if they are part of a congregation or cult. The fact is that is that we have all been taught this simple rule of project management&thou shall not be late and thou shall not exceed the project budget.
I got it. If I deliver my project on time and on budget, my boss will be happy (this is good), I will be considered a good project manager (hopefully get promoted, this is great), and the company overall is better off because the project I just completed was a success. All is good.
Now don’t get me wrong, being on time and on budget is a good thing, but does this really mean that a project is successful? Is it possible that although a project is on time and on budget that the company is really better off? Perhaps the best way to answer these questions is to first define project failure. I can’t tell you how many times executives have told me that their project(s) failed because the solution implemented (whether a new technology, process or organization change) was not adapted to by the people impacted by the project. These same executives tell me quite passionately that they have spent money (in some cases millions of dollars) with little or no result because the people just won’t adapt to the new change within the organization. In the case of system implementations, this means that the system users were not using the new technology and went back to manual processes or spreadsheets. In the case of process changes this means that department personnel and process owners were not adhering to the new policies and procedures. In any case, the bottom line is that the people went back to the old way of doing things after the project was implemented even though it was on time and on budget. This means that the project objectives were not achieved and as such, no business value was obtained. Does this sound familiar?
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