Towards an Outcome Based Project Management Theory

The importance of projects to improve operations management continues to gain wide acceptance. However, although all projects are approved in order to achieve outcomes (benefits) defined by the project funder, project management is often perceived by organisations as a process aimed at generating a unique output. While output delivery can still be accepted as an important milestone towards outcome achievement, a project should be considered complete only after the reason for its approval has been fulfilled. A model, based on such an approach has been developed. Practical implications of this model mean that although senior managers do not normally influence project results directly, they have an indirect effect on the eventual levels of success by clearly defining, analysing and validating the relationship between project outcomes and outputs. The added value of this includes the development of an outcome based project theory and the definition of the project owner's new role.