What is project success?

Project success is an outcome that satisfies the clients, customers or other stakeholders, such as the project team, company executives or board members. Successful projects typically meet the expectations and requirements established at the start of the project. For example, stakeholders may consider a project successful if it's completed on schedule and within budget. Often, a variety of factors can contribute to the overall success of a project. It's important to define these criteria at the project's start so the team understands how it can successfully achieve the project objectives.

Why is it important to define and measure project success?

While working to deliver the project outcomes, teams can benefit from knowing the standards for success so they can work toward those goals. Here are some benefits of defining and measuring project success:

• Establishing benchmarks: Knowing the expectations for project success can help project managers establish benchmarks so they can track a team's progress toward the end goals.

• Minimizing project risks: Understanding the project success criteria can help project managers recognize factors that may affect a project's success and take steps to minimize those risks.

• Increasing engagement: Defining and measuring project success can help create engagement between the project team and other stakeholders, such as the clients.

• Creating transparency: Setting criteria for project success can help create transparency among stakeholders by making sure everyone understands the expectations for the project outcomes.

• Improving future projects: Taking time to define and measure project success can help to improve processes for future projects by identifying what went well during a project and areas for improvement.

7 project success criteria examples

Project success criteria are measurable factors that determine the project's success. These criteria establish standards that stakeholders can use to evaluate the project and decide whether it meets the expected outcomes. Here are seven common types of project success criteria:

1. Cost

This factor measures the total cost of the project against the expected budget that stakeholders establish at the beginning of a project. It considers how effectively a project manager uses the budget to deliver the project outcomes. While working on a project, managers can ensure they're meeting this success criterion by continually evaluating the costs of staffing, resources and other expenses to make sure they're staying within the expected budget. If any parts of the project cost more than expected, project managers can document those increases to show stakeholders how they effectively managed the budget.

2. Timeline

Another important factor in the success of many projects is the timeline, which is the length of time it takes to complete the project. Typically, project managers and other stakeholders decide on a project timeline during an initial meeting at the start of the project. If a project team produces the deliverables within that timeline, stakeholders often consider the project to be successful. The timeline is important because it can contribute to many other success factors, including the overall project budget and resource availability.

3. Scope

Project scope defines the goals, objectives and deliverables of a project. Typically, the project manager works with other stakeholders to determine the project requirements and establish the scope. At the end of the project, stakeholders usually evaluate the outcomes to determine whether they meet the project scope. If so, this factor can be a good measurement of success because it shows stakeholders that a project manager successfully led the team to deliver outcomes that meet or exceed the project requirements. Satisfying the scope criterion for success means the team accomplished the project objectives.

4. Deliverables

This factor of success measures the quality of the finished product or outcome. There can be many ways to determine the quality of deliverables. For example, the success of a new mobile application may depend on whether customers find it easy to use the product features. Project managers can ensure they're meeting the expectations for deliverables by reviewing quality during each project phase. By doing this, project managers can perform quality assurance testing to make any adjustments to the deliverables before moving on to the next phase, which can also improve efficiency in production processes.

5. Resource capacity

During a project, it's important to plan resources effectively so the project team has the necessary support and supplies to meet the objectives. This factor of project success considers how well a project manager allocates resources to keep the team working toward the project objectives. Resource capacity may include staffing, such as making sure a project team has enough members to complete the work, and monitoring items and supplies a team may require for project tasks, such as computer software. Managing a project's resource capacity effectively can help managers meet this success criterion.

6. Business goals

This factor evaluates the accomplishments of the project against the expected outcomes. It measures how well a team meets or exceeds the business goals. For example, if a project has a high return on investment (ROI), then stakeholders may decide it's successful. While working on projects, it's helpful for project managers to keep records of various project phases and milestones that a team completes. This can help them show stakeholders the different objectives their team has accomplished throughout the project. Meeting the criterion for business goals means a team has delivered outcomes that achieve the expected benefits of the project.

7. Stakeholder satisfaction

This success criterion evaluates stakeholders' engagement and satisfaction with project management processes and project outcomes. It's helpful for managers to provide regular updates to other stakeholders on the project's progress, including its cost and timeline, to help ensure their satisfaction. For example, a project manager may compile weekly reports for company executives to keep them engaged with the project. At the end of the project, managers can survey the team, clients or customers to help measure their satisfaction with the outcomes. For example, project managers may ask the team to complete a survey to give their feedback on the project.

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/project-success-criteria-examples 

H1.1 critically analyses the factors affecting design and the development and success of design projects 

Student learn about: 

factors affecting designing and producing, including:  

• appropriateness of the design solution  

• needs  

• function  

• aesthetics  

• finance  

• ergonomics  

• work health and safety  

• quality  

• short-term and long-term environmental consequences  

• obsolescence 

• life cycle analysis  

Studnet learn to: 

• debate the issues and factors influencing design and design practice  examples of success and failure in design 

• apply factors affecting design to the development of the major design project 

• critically analyse examples of success and failure in design solutions