Project Success and Failure

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PROJECT SUCCESS AND FAILURE

STUDENT ID: 14025191

INTRODUCTION

How do we define whether a project is a success or a failure? Kerzner (2003) suggests success is nothing more than meeting the expectation of the customer and also states that, a project can be called a success if it can be delivered within the three constraints of time, cost and quality. According to Johnson (2015) PMI has defined success based on the triple constraints. But in a recent article published in PMI’s website, Jack (2015) emphasizes on the importance of satisfied Stakeholders as an important factor of success and suggests that we move on from using one triangle (Project outputs- cost, time and scope) to two triangles (Business outcomes- faster delivery time to market, benefits and end user/ customer adoption).

Kerzner (2003) states that, once the terms are agreed and expected results are not obtained, the project is considered a failure, even if the initial expectations were unreasonable. He also classifies failure as planning and actual failure. Agreeing to unmeetable expectations automatically leads to planning failure, while poor performance results in actual failure. Jenner (2015) suggests that if projects are built upon feeble base and unrealistic forecasts failure occur.

Williams (2011) states that Success or failure of a Project is subjective as cited in Lock and Scott (2013, p.13) and both supplier and customer can have different perspective of looking at a project.. A project can be considered a failure from supplier’s perspective if it is over budget, but the same project might be viewed as a successful one by the customer, if the product delivered suits the customer’s need. Therefore he argues that value is the most common measure of success.

Freeman and Beale (1992) as cited in Siguroarson (2009) suggest that success can be both subjective and objective. According to Why Projects Fail blog...