When is a Project Successful?

Organizations regularly execute projects to improve their performance. Yet there is little agreement in the literature or in practice on evaluating project success. As a result, managers tend to use different scales for project success measurement. Inconsistencies in project results prevail. It is difficult to apply project success measures to all project types. Discriminating between project success and project manager performance is also difficult. In this paper, we introduce a generic success measure for any project. Performance measures of two key managers are also introduced. The three dimensions are: first, project management success-the performance of the project manager in achieving the project plan; second, project ownership success-the performance of the project owner in realizing the business case; and, third, project investment success-the investment performance of the project for its funder. We provide some insights for managers and organizations in utilizing these measures. © 1973-2011 IEEE.