2.1 Defining “Success”:
A successful project is “One that delivers the planned benefits to the business and meets all the product, cost and schedule targets.”
[As ‘TSB Guide to Project Management’ in ‘Project Management Handbook, Pg(20)’]
“A successful project is a project which meets time, cost, user satisfaction (information needs) and the impact of computer operations.”
[As Powers and Dickson [no date] in W John (1998) ‘How can IS/IT projects be measured for success?’]
According to Turner (no date), a project delivering its functionality, being implemented to budget, on schedule to technical specification, commercially profitable for the contractor, efficient termination were termed as important success criteria [W John (1998) -> Turner (no date)].
Other aspects are giving expected revenue to top management, effective functionality to users, good returns to stakeholders and also it has to satisfy the needs of the project team and supporters. Stated business purpose has to be achieved [W John (1998) -> Morris and Hough (1981)]. Project management success, project success and consistent success of the projects were to be considered for this [T Cooke – Davis (2002)].
2.2 “Success Criteria”:
“… Success criteria may be quality levels set by organization within the scope of its culture and values and meeting post-audit analysis.”
[Cleland D.I and Stuckenbruck L. C]
The Critical Success Factors (CSF) is set of important aspects for an organization to reach the success criteria. The Project Manager needs to know the success criteria specific to the organization or project to list out the CSFs.
3 “Critical Success Factors”:
The CSF approach was introduced by Daniel D. R. during 1960s[R A Caralli (2004)]
According to Lewin Kurt [no date]
“At any point in time during the life cycle of a project, there will exist driving forces that will push the project forward success …”(Source: Project Management , Krezner)
Every organization has specific goals, missions, technological competence, strengths and weaknesses. If the organization’s present staff were rated low, then, a new innovative project may have ‘hiring technically competent team members’ as a critical success factor.
3.1 Literature:
In a review done by W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996), classification of Literature on CSFs since 1960s was tabulated.
[Source: Belassi, W. & Tukel, I. (1996). A new Framework for determining critical success/failure factors in projects. International Journal of Project Management, 14(3), pp 142]
A theoretical study was done by Avots (1969) and according to him; the critical terms which may lead project failure are mentioned as wrong selection of project manager, unplanned project termination, unsupportive top management. Baker, Murphy and Fisher (1983) supported the selection of Project Manager to be a critical factor by mentioning that a perceived performance should be measured [W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996)]. It is not enough to have a technically efficient project manager but communicative to other team members and top management. Hughes (1986) suggests that improper focus on management system, rewarding wrong actions, lack of communication of goals all over the team causes project failure.
Thus, after the review of various success factors brought up by various scholars, in 7 lists of Critical Success Factors were tabulated which were shown in table-2 [Belassi, W. & Tukel, I. (1996)].
Few CSFs, listed in Table-2, were often specific to a project or related to a particular strategy. All the factors can be grouped, for them to be used in spite of differences in type of project and organization. Schultz, Slevin and Pinto (1987) made first attempt to do that. Critical success factors were grouped to be ‘strategic’ or ‘tactical’ where strategic factors include project mission, top management support, project scheduling and tactical factors include client consultation, human resource management like, hiring and training [Schultz, Slevin and Pinto (1987)]. Analysis and listing out CSFs is not the only action required to ensure success of the project, but
Table-2 Seven lists of CSFs.
[Adapted: Belassi, W. & Tukel, I. (1996). A new Framework for determining critical success/failure factors in projects. International Journal of Project Management, 14(3), pp 143]
The performance should be continuously measured at every stage of project life-cycle. Practically, the strategic and tactical operations come up at every stage of the project-life cycle. Hence the impact of strategic and tactical CSFs should be monitored at each stage of project life-cycle [Pinto and Prescott (1990)]. The importance of each success factor varies at different stages of project life-cycle and depends on success measure used [W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996)]. For example, if an Organization expects more projects based on completion of the current project if they do it in time, overrun of funds or quality may be of secondary importance.
3.2 Sources/dimensions:
The factors mentioned in table-2 concentrate on project/top level management but not in team coordination [W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996)]. Identifying key sources/dimensions can help Project Manager make sure no critical factor is left.
The Internal aspects may include project objectives and the technical uncertainty and innovation involved in it. The external aspects may include government, which often have power to terminate the project and public, who may suffer due to execution of the project. The dimensions within the organization may be their financial position, legal authorization and human resources (W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996)).
The concept of grouping the success factors helps project manager and organization evaluate the performance of factors related to the group.
3.3 Grouping Critical Success Factors:
The grouping can be done on the basic sources/dimensions of success criteria of top management on the particular project.
3.3.1 Project:
According to Morris and Hough (1987), schedule duration is a critical success factors related to project. The schedules set for many projects were failed where the projects involved more than 100 activities [W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996) -> Tukel and Rom [no date]]. So, size of the project counts when calculating the risk of project moving out of scheduled time. Penalties for this may include ‘loose of credibility’. Uniqueness of the project also affects the success of project. The density of the project, defined as “the ratio of total number of precedence relationships to the total number of activities [W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996)]. It is the project manager’s responsibility to utilise the resources efficiently for the smooth functioning of value activities. Lastly, urgency, which often forces the team to go on with few performance loopholes and poor quality, is also termed as a critical success factor [Morris and Hough (1987)]. According to W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996), lifecycle and value of the project are termed as critical success factors for an organization or concerned authorities to select the project.
Risk management is where planning is utmost required specific to project. Of course, the risks come up in any dimension. The risks like failing to receive the required resources should be maintained. Visible risk register can help Project manager in this [W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996)].
3.3.2 Project Manager and Team:
Hiring an efficient project manager and project team is termed as an important success factor [Locke et al (1971-1984)]. The competence of the project manager should be measured based on the size of the project he previously managed rather than his experience in dealing number of projects. Recruiting technically efficient project team is an important success factor which ensures the quality of the product [Martin (1976)] as a team of average programmers can not bring up an outstanding performance. The cooperation and communication among the team members is really required for smooth completion of project operations in time. Lack of communication among project manager and team members and among the team members causes conflict and thus, leads to termination of project success. Thus, well established communication channels between project manager, team members and client is a critical success factor [W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996)]. The project manager should be able to coordinate the activities carried on during the execution and delegate authorities at required levels.
The commitment of project manager and team counts as an important factor for the successful completion of the project.
3.3.3 Organization:
Organization need to have clear set of objectives. Top management support (whoever may be the sponsor, organization /top management) would affect the project success. If a project terminate at the starting point, that may be fine, but, after spending lot of time and money on it, if the project looses funds and active cooperation from top management, due to any reasons like mergers (change in management) or change in priorities (attaining more attractive project or don’t find any commercial benefit out of it), it’s a matter of greater loss.
A project champion’s selection would add the success rate of the project. Functional manager’s support (especially for project-based organizations), which stresses the importance of adequate supply of resources, adds to critical success factors. This can be rather placed in the project group for project-based organization but for non-project based organizations like non-profit organizations or product based organizations, the functional manager’s importance is seen on an organizational level. [W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996)]
Organization structure, which specifies the level of authorities and integration among various departments, is also a critical success factor [W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996)].
3.3.4 External environment:
Environmental aspects like political, economic(financial and legal problems [Morris and Hough (1987)]), social aspects are a class of key concerns which come into this group [W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996)]. Few projects like construction, renovations may affect public and may be required to attain government permissions [Morris et al (1980’s)]. Inflation causing loss of expected revenues to the organization can be an example for this.
Client acceptance may be a critical success factor for the project being success. This is in congruence with study done by T Cooke – Davis (2002) in listing out the critical success factors based on the question ‘What factors lead to project success?’
Cooperation and timely response of suppliers and sub-contractors required at every point of value activities. If it is a technical project, the level of technical changes or innovations going on in the market is a critical factor to be considered. If the project duration is 2 years and by the time the project gets completed if market explores an innovation towards the same task, it might lead to failure of project from an organizational point of view though it can be termed success to team members.
3.4 Execution/Implementation:
Execution and status should be continuously monitored to get the advantage over listing out factors in advance.
System Responses are actions expected to implement the identified CSFs. ‘System response’ (figure-2) may help monitor the performance of each group. [Belassi, W. & Tukel, I. (1996)]
Success or Failure
Figure-2
[Adapted: Belassi, W. & Tukel, I. (1996) A new Framework for determining critical success/failure factors in projects. International Journal of Project Management, 14(3), pp 144]
4 CONCLUSIONS:
The report identifies how ‘success’ and ‘success criteria’ differs from various projects and organizations and thus, emphasizes on grouping the critical success factors based on various dimensions and sources available for an organization to obtain them. The report reviews the literature on Critical Success Factors since 1960s and attempts to look at various factors generated and derive a set of factor groups, suggesting that it would help an organization/ Project Manager develop critical success factors specific to them. The report emphasizes the importance of execution and monitoring of the performance of the listed critical success factors by ‘system response’ approach [W Belassi and O I Tukel (1996)].
REFERENCES:
- Belassi, W. & Tukel, I. (1996). A new Framework for determining critical success/failure factors in projects. International Journal of Project Management, 14(3), pp 11-151.
- Cooke-Davies, T. (2002) The “real” success factors on projects, International Journal of Project Management, 20(3), 185-190
- Kerzner, H (2004) Project Management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling and consulting.
- Maylor, H. (2003) Project Management, Financial Times, London
- Morris & Hough (1987). “The anatomy of major projects”
- Richard A Caralli (2004), “The Critical Success Factor Method: Establishing a Foundation for Enterprise Security Management” pp 16-29.
[Web-source: www.cert.org/archive/pdf/04tr010.pdf ]
- Wateridge J (1998). How can IS/IT projects be measured for success? International Journal of Project Management, 16(1), pp. 59-63.