Critical Success Criteria

Question: How important is Critical Success Criteria? Answer: Without predefined criteria, you cannot rate the success of a project

Introduction In spite of decades of research, Information & Communications Technology (ICT) based projects still often fail to deliver the objectives expected of them. Managers require information systems to achieve their business objectives and the failure of these projects inevitably hinders the progress and success of their organisations. Following my previous paper on Quality “What role does Quality play a role in project success” this review paper examines the key criteria by which ICT based projects are judged to be successful and what factors are important in influencing the success of ICT based projects. This also extend to Business related programs and projects. The review paper shows that very often different participants in a project are aiming at different targets and they each have their own perception of project success. There must be greater convergence on the criteria for success. To achieve this, the criteria for success and associated factors that influence success need to be defined clearly, agreed by all parties at the start of the project and reviewed as the project progresses. Agreeing the criteria is not sufficient to guarantee success. The project has to be carried out within a defined framework. The project life cycle is used to link the two disciplines of project management and systems development, and to highlight the fundamental issues that must be carried out on all projects. However, it’s clear that project managers need to focus more on the products of the system and not on the plans and schedules. Therefore, there should be the emphasis on configuration management as a means of linking the two disciplines. Furthermore, automated tools need to provide additional functionality to be of any practical use to project managers and system developers. Multi-disciplined Project managers are crucial to the development process and they need a portfolio of skills to deliver successful projects in the future. Below is a variety of identified reason why project fail, and all of these can be dealt with appropriate level of Governance, Quality Compliance, Acceptance Criteria and appropriate stakeholder management and more critical – Stakeholder participation These were:

project was over ambitious and was developed and implemented against an

impossible timetable;

quantitative not qualitative procurement;

contractor experience and expertise;

failure to follow Project Management Method;

no full-time, professional and experienced project management;

no staged implementation;

each stage was not justified, qualitatively and quantitatively;

incomplete ownership of the system;

incomplete training;

Critical Success Criteria

lack of testing;

overloaded technical communications infrastructure;

possible misuse of the system;

no review of the project;

poor communications between management and staff

Project Success criteria are not just owned by the core team. It is the ENTIRE team, Vendors, Support

personnel, Stakeholders, Sponsors customer / client etc.

This review paper will discuss the following 3 major outcomes from research I have conducted as

part of some recent academic studies I have been doing over the past 7 years as key contributing

factors to the success of projects.

There are 3 major outcomes of this research:

• Conclusions about achieving successful projects;

• Development of a project Health Check to help the team identify problems and provide solutions;

• Indicators to further work.

Conclusions about achieving successful projects;

The contribution of this research is to identify that:

All stakeholders involved in projects need to agree the criteria and apply factors that will deliver the success criteria. There are some key elements which need to be considered when undertaking any project;

the project Health Check will help the project manager choose the appropriate factors and methodologies to deliver successful projects;

project management and system development are the two main disciplines within an project but Configuration Management and the project life cycle provide the links between them;

support tools must focus on certain facilities in order to provide proper functionality for project managers;

there must be the development of a complete and comprehensive programme for lessons learned within organisations, with continual development, for project teams, to meet future challenges.

To this end this set of conclusions highlight eight key elements which can be summed up as follows: 1. Define and agree success criteria.

The criteria against which a project can be judged was proposed. Although many of the criteria are subjective, they are definable and measurable. Therefore, initially all participants, at the outset of the project, must define their success criteria, secondly agree the ways in which a project is to be judged and thirdly continue to monitor the criteria. This is fundamental to the success of the project. (I will provide a range of sample of success criteria’s in a later publication.)

Critical Success Criteria

It is noted that different participants will have different views on how they will judge the outcome of a project. However, only by agreeing the success criteria and appreciating differing aspirations can a project move in a direction which is complementary to all.

Sample of “Critical Success Factors” 1. Project Mission. Initial clarity of goals and general direction. 2. Top Management Support. Willingness of top management to provide the necessary resources and

authority or power for project success. 3. Project schedule/plans. Detailed specification of the individual action steps required for project

implementation. 4. Client Consultation. Communication and consultation with, and active listening to, all

affected parties. 5. Personnel. Recruitment, selection, and training of the necessary personnel for the

project team. 6. Technical Tasks. Availability of the required technology and expertise to accomplish the

specific technical action steps. 7. Client Acceptance. The act of 'selling' the final project to its intended users. 8. Monitoring and Feedback. Timely provision of comprehensive control information at each stage in

the implementation process. 9. Communication. Provision of an appropriate network and necessary data to all key actors

in the project implementation. 10. Trouble Shooting. Ability to handle unexpected crises and deviations from plan. 11. Characteristics of project leader

Competence of the project leader (administratively, interpersonally, and technically) and the amount of authority available to perform his/her duties.

12. Power and politics. The degree of political activity within the organisation and perception of the project as furthering an organisation member's self-interests.

13. Environmental events The likelihood of external organisational or environmental factors impacting on the operations of the project team, either positively or negatively.

14. Urgency. The perception of the importance of the project or the need to implement the project as soon as possible

2. Apply appropriate factors for the criteria

There has been little attempt to define success criteria. Additionally, there is very little agreement on the factors that contribute to successful projects. The success criteria is inevitably going to vary from one person to another and, therefore, certain factors will be appropriate under certain circumstances. Researchers have not matched the factors to the criteria. A mapping of the factors to the criteria is proposed. A sample matrix showing this mapping is provided later in this review.

3. Keep projects small and develop programmes of projects

Many projects which have failed in recent years have been large and complex.

Some have only delivered a system after excessive time and cost, others have been abandoned and delivered nothing. This research advocates the implementation of small (or a programme of) projects. The benefits of this approach would be:

• alterations to criteria and factors would be minimal; • products can be delivered incrementally; • changes in specifications would be reduced.

4. Apply appropriate tools, techniques and methodologies

Critical Success Criteria

Success depends on the appropriate use of methodologies, tools and techniques for project management, system development and configuration management. Very often in the past they have been used inappropriately and/or applied badly. IS/IT projects are no more successful now than they were a decade or so ago despite the increased usage of methodologies in recent years.

A project life cycle must be proposed and used, giving the basic activities which need to be carried out on all projects. It is believed that it is important to follow a life cycle approach but the particular life cycle will depend on the project itself. However, project managers will need to understand the objectives, agree the success criteria and apply the appropriate factors for the project. There is a need to plan strategically. However, a project strategy is more than merely planning and scheduling. It entails, in addition, defining and agreeing criteria, assessing risks, estimating and selecting and allocating resources. All these have to be considered on any project. Configuration management is the tool which links project management and system development. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on configuration management in a system development environment.

There is strong evidence to show that automated tools can help the project process. Such tools support project managers and system designers in their efforts. However, very often the automated Project Management Information System (PMTS) does not provide the features that project managers require.

o configuration management; o additional functionality; o a recognition of the iterative nature of software development and a move towards

ability to plan that certain activities will be repeated; o the ability to plan, schedule and allocate resources for a programme of projects; o risk analysis; o comprehensive reporting and analysis capabilities.

5. Apply appropriate education, training and development

This and other industry based research have shown that project managers, in the past have generally learned their project management skills from experience. The conclusion is that experience of bad management is being replicated consistently on many projects. A further implication is that there is not been adequate training and development for project managers until the last decade or so. The lessons of decades of research into why projects fail are not being heeded.

Consequently, there has been commitment on the part of universities and colleges to develop programmes in project management. The careers of project managers have been developing and must continue to be developed through a structured programme of development.

However, nothing can replace the skills acquired in actual hands on project management. These skills will not be acquired instantaneously but will be developed over time.

6. Promote ownership, commitment and communication

A number of interviewees remarked that the project team had to identify with the project and consequently show commitment towards the project. To foster this commitment and ownership, project managers must recognise the need for communication in the project process.

The analysis of the factors which user respondents of the questionnaire identified as problems concluded that the lack of user involvement and general problems in communication were high on the list. This supports previous research results. Project managers are not heeding the lessons of the research and, consequently, greater emphasis needs to be placed on the acquisition and use of these inter-personal skills.

Critical Success Criteria 7. Staff the project carefully

In the comparison of different research views on factors influencing project success, there was one area of agreement - the importance of a qualified team. Different projects will have different staff needs. However, a clear definition of the project and the tasks involved will indicate to the project manager the people and skills required and enable the project manager to select the project team to achieve success.

Although some tasks will inevitably be sub-contracted, the project team has to be made up of the right people, with the right skills at the right time. The conclusion is that project personnel need to be identified early in the project. If personnel are not required at the outset of the project, then the right people need to be recruited to and employed on the project at the right time.

8. Review projects

Project managers must learn from their successes as well as their mistakes.

Consequently, it will be necessary to have constant monitoring to review the criteria as the project progresses and to review the factors to deliver that criteria. At the end of the project there must be a formal evaluation and post-implementation reviews to measure the success of the project against the stated criteria, to understand the project experiences and to improve the development and management processes. These need also to measure the benefits to really understand the gains (effectiveness, efficiency, competitive advantage) made by the organisation. These evaluation and post implementation reviews are often neglected as part of the project life cycle.

It is imperative, therefore, that organisations learn from their mistakes and carry out that learning process in a structured way. A review process needs to be part of the project life cycle. This review process should not only occur after the project implementation; it needs to occur during the project in order to identify potential problems and rectify those problems at an early stage. There needs to be a diagnostic method to achieve this. The

Project Health Check Project reviews are an essential part of the project life cycle. There have been many attempts at providing a diagnostic tool for project managers to assess projects. However, many of these diagnostic tools are retrospective providing technical support for the project manager or addressing the human, behavioural and managerial aspects of successful project management. They only help future projects. There is a great need for providing a model that:

provides feedback during the project on its current state;

allows the project team to identify their important (and not so important) success criteria;

provides feedback to the project manager on project issues and direction;

gives an assessment of the team's views on the progress of the project;

identifies the areas where improvements could be made before the project proceeds too far.

The recommendation is that organisations should adopt a model:

to monitor their projects in the early stages;

to understand in outline what skills are needed on the project;

to focus on the problem areas in the project;

Critical Success Criteria

to rectify these problems that may have already occurred on the project;

to anticipate future problems. The project 'Health Check' enables project managers to do exactly this. It will enable the project manager and the team to identify the successful aspects of the project and also to identify the factors upon which they need to improve. It allows the project manager to evaluate and appraise the project and then identify and understand the strengths and weaknesses of the project. It addresses the fundamental aspects of the project:

the success criteria;

the factors employed;

the methodologies, tools and techniques used;

the skills required;

the project execution. The project 'Health Check' needs to be completed by all members of the team anonymously at the start of the project. It would be appropriate for the 'Health Check' to be answered again at about one quarter to one third of the way through the project. The important aspect of the 'Health Check' is not the high or low score given but the variations by different members of the project team in the scores given to each question. Projects managers need to investigate these variations and discuss the results with the project team in order to understand the problem areas (if any) and focus on the issues which need attention.

Part 1 is used to identify the important project success criteria and the understanding of the general goals and objectives of the project - the Project Mission.

Part 2 examines the factors that are being used by the project to deliver the success criteria.

Part 3 assesses whether appropriate tools, techniques and methodologies are available, are being used by the project team and are being applied well. This part also examines the use of computer based tools on the project and whether they are being used effectively.

Part 4 can identify the requirement for additional skills (for organising, planning, controlling the project and developing the system) which need to be acquired by the project manager and other members of the team.

Part 5 examines the execution of the project and whether appropriate methods (the project life cycle, project initiation, project risks, and project deliverables) are being used.

Project managers need to identify where there are differences of opinion on the project and then try to bring those opinions closer together to ensure that everybody is moving in the same direction. Further Work The conclusions and recommendations proposed in this research have been discussed with people in industry who are involved in projects. They have expressed the belief that the conclusions and recommendations would help projects succeed more often in the future. Project managers have an important and pivotal role in the success of projects. Therefore, project managers need to be informed of the results of the research in order that projects can improve their success rate. Greater emphasis must be placed on project managers attending conferences and seminars and learning the results of the research.

Critical Success Criteria

Success criteria and factors for success In this section the previous overview on success criteria and success factors is reviewed.

The question: 'What can be defined as success criteria and what are the factors that enhance the chances of success?' There seems to be no conclusion on the success criteria. Cost is a concern, particularly in recessionary times. There are, of course, projects where timescales are important (for example, the implementation of a payroll system at the start of the financial year). Some stakeholders identify on time, within budget and to specification as the standard mnemonic for judging success. However, this measure is primarily a view of the contractor. The criteria needs to take account of all parties in the development process. In the early 1990’s when I started project management, one of the examples I was given by a college trainer which I kept for many years on a printed card was:

'If the project meets the technical performance specification and/or mission to be performed, and if there is a high level of satisfaction concerning the project outcome among: key people in the parent organization, key people in the client organization, key people on the project team, and key users or clientele of the project effort, the project is considered an overall success.'

What is important in this definition is the recognition that all people in the development process need to be satisfied at the end of the project, what is termed 'perceived success of a project'. However, meeting the objectives is vital to the success of a project and to a subsidiary issue alongside the idea of a project meeting its technical performance specification (that is, its functionality). Meeting objectives, functionality and having satisfied participants are important but different projects will have different, and perhaps more extensive, criteria. Although they discuss the issue of time and cost not being included in the definition, the commercial success of a project may be depend on its meeting time and cost constraints. To ignore time and cost is to simplify the definition. Consequently, a more detailed definition is needed. Below is a more extensive list for judging success from the standard criteria. The list is:

it achieves its stated business purpose;

it provides satisfactory benefit to the owner;

Critical Success Criteria

it satisfies the needs of the owner, user, and stakeholders;

it meets its pre-stated objectives to produce the facility;

the facility is produced to specification, within budget and on time;

the project satisfies the needs of the project team and supporters. Noting that many of these criteria are subjective, with only time and cost being objective. Furthermore, they are not mutually exclusive and can be satisfied simultaneously. However, some projects are developed by organisations for the open marketplace. These projects should be profitable for all parties concerned. Therefore, a success criteria of 'the project is a profitable or a commercial success' can be added. A project to develop a particular package (for example, an accounting system, a payroll system) may be delivered on time, to specification, to budget, it satisfies the need of all interested parties but it may not be a commercial success or it may not be profitable and consequently it will be judged as unsuccessful. Now, let me add another “general” definition from a client I worked for many years ago in Thailand.

'one that is developed on time and within budget; is reliable (bug-free and available when needed), and maintainable (easy and inexpensive to modify);meets its goals and specified requirements; and satisfies the users.' firstly, the necessity to satisfy the needs the users of the project.

However, users are not the only interested parties in a project. There are sponsors, the technical participants and other stakeholders). My view, this list is much more extensive and wide-ranging, examining the importance of commitment, definition, planning, controlling, communication and leadership as preconditions for project success. Maybe we can call these preconditions. Additional focus needs to be on the following areas:

a positive attitude and commitment to success;

a full and workable definition of the project;

management of external forces;

an assessment of the schedule, finance and implementation (organisation, communication, controls and staffing) matters;

effective human resource management.

Critical Success Criteria Critical Success is also impacted by the importance of the “Project Objectives” In addition, there are many other factors affecting project success that needs to be addressed. I have provided a table below with 6 subject headings. Each containing a basic breakdown of “other factors”

Project Definition

Project viability evaluation

Unclear objectives

Changes to specification

Technical factors

Technical uncertainty

Coordination of project interfaces

Design management difficulties

Finance /commercial

Amount of finance required

Public/private sector funding mix

Financial risk

Environmental, social, political

Geophysical challenges

External factors

Schedule makers

Schedule length and review points

Urgency

Managerial / organisational factors

Inadequate planning

Leg/contractual matters

Organisation structure

Absence of effective controls

Leadership

Human relations and teamwork

Labour relations

Communications

Error, incompetence, incapability

When you include the above list of possible objectives, it is clear these are wide-ranging, so in examining the importance of commitment, definition, planning, controlling, communication and leadership as preconditions for project success. A generic model can be developed to illustrate these preconditions. This model focused on the following areas:

a positive attitude and commitment to success;

a full and workable definition of the project;

management of external forces;

an assessment of the schedule, finance and implementation (organisation, communication, controls and staffing) matters;

effective human resource management.

Critical Success Criteria

Tools and techniques Now let’s look at Tools and Techniques that can greatly aid in the Success of Projects and managing, implementing and reporting on the success criteria of a project. Project Management

System Development

Project Planning Prototyping WBS, PBS Data Analysis Project

Organisation Process design

Estimating Techniques

Configuration Management & Life Cycle

Testing

Milestone planning

Training

Risk Assessment QA Review Project Definition Plans Project Control Audits Project Meetings TQM Techniques Risk Management Plan vs Actual Project management Two of the major elements of project management are planning and controlling. It is important to have a plan for the project and the development of that plan will incorporate a number of tools and techniques. Project managers need to define the work and the products that are to be delivered. An appropriate organisation structure needs to be in place. Project managers also need to use an estimating technique (although the particular technique employed is relatively immaterial as each has its merits) and assess the project risks at the outset. A start-up meeting has to be held to assess these risks and define how they are to be managed throughout the project. Having planned the project, what actually happens has to be compared with the planned activities to identify variations from the plan, using regular project team meetings. The project manager has to above all manage change, particularly the changes to requirements as the project progresses. It is one of the most important activities of project management. Changes to requirements have repercussions throughout the project life cycle - design, coding, testing. Consequently, there must a formal change management system, that is, configuration management. System development All projects need to employ a life cycle approach. The projects that do not take their first step on the slippery slope towards failure. It is important that project managers choose the life cycle approach which suits the project. However, a valuable part of any life cycle approach is the ability to utilise prototyping in order to establish and maintain the involvement of users in the project. We have seen that prototyping may not be appropriate in all cases, after all every project is unique, but where the needs of the users and sponsors are important, the project team must consider prototyping.

Critical Success Criteria There are some development principles (such as data and process modelling) that are important in any project. The major techniques used to carry out this modelling exercise are standard in many Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodologies. These techniques need to be used in appropriate circumstances during the execution phase of the project life cycle. In addition, the project needs to produce a quality product. If a system is poor in terms of quality, does not meet user requirements and contains numerous errors, the user will be dissatisfied, with the associated implications for the supplier. The technique best suited to this process is QA. Most methodologies advocate this approach and have QA review products as major deliverables in the development process. Software products need to be error-free, reliable, maintainable, flexible and efficient. QA techniques are the best method of delivering a product which meets these qualities. Having completed the design of the system, the project team needs to program the solution and implement the system by thoroughly testing it (using different levels of testing - unit/module, integration, system and user acceptance) and training the users of the system. The cost of failure can be very damaging for organisations and the implementation process needs to be planned carefully and carried out effectively. Any changes made to any facet of the project (the requirements, design, code) must be controlled by the configuration management system. Trying to control the software and documentation changes and managing the deliverables, in a very volatile situation, is recognised as a particular problem for many project managers. Tools have been developed over the years by manufacturers to help with program debugging and code generation. However, these tools have not helped the project manager have control over the deliverables and enhance the quality of the product. Project managers have tended to concentrate their attention on the tasks and activities that need to be undertaken and completed rather than the deliverables that make up the final product. To this end, project managers have to look at implementing configuration management which is the link between project management and system development. All of these three areas (project management, system development and configuration management) are complementary and tools and techniques are required in each area in the quest to develop and implement successful projects. A core set of tools and techniques have been proposed. In recent years, this core set has been translated from a paper-based into a computer-based activity. Now all the project data can be held on a small micro-computer and interrogated using computer-based project management software. However, the increased automation has not substantially helped the success of projects. Therefore, what functionality should an automated tool give a project manager? Many project managers appear to be concentrating too much on the computer tools and not on other areas of project management (leadership, communication, consultation). Many automated tools concentrate on the planning aspects of the project and neglect configuration management, risk management and the controlling and reporting aspects. Project managers need more comprehensive mechanisms for resource allocation, project reporting and to ability to import/export data from other applications. This becomes more pronounced when managers are working in a multi-project environment. Experienced project managers in particular will find themselves managing several projects at the same time, this is referred to as Program Management and even in the wider field where you can have multiple programs, it is referred to as Portfolio management. Projects need not only to share managers but also to share resources. There is the problem here of setting priorities for each of the projects and allocating resources based on those priorities.

Critical Success Criteria Most computer-based project management tools do not have the facility for effectively allocating resources under these conditions. They usually allocate resources to the highest priority project and then the next and so on. The lower priority projects are starved of resources or receive ineffective and unsatisfactory resources. To overcome this problem there needs to be a more complex system such as a master project schedule where a high-level plan is drawn up and project managers are required to negotiate resources required. Additionally, the software needs to provide comprehensive reporting to ensure that project plans are being controlled effectively and the current project status is being communicated. With the belief that there should be a move to smaller projects and the need for these projects to share resources, there needs to be the emphasis on providing 'what if analysis in order that project managers can see the impact across multiple projects and weigh up the trade-offs between cost, time and resources. Very few packages provide risk analysis as a feature of the system. Consequently, risk analysis needs to be a standard feature of all project management automated tools.

Define your project goals and success criteria, often referred to as: Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) As a project manager, you may think that delivering business results isn't your concern — that it's the customer's problem to solve. A standout project manager, however, is one that takes the time to partner with the customer, understand the business drivers, and care enough to ensure that the project they lead delivers the business results for which it was designed. After all we already discussed that it’s the WHOLE TEAM that is involved in the success of a project and your customer is stakeholder as well. They are often the one that is referred to as a Project Sponsor or the one that is writing the cheques. Hence identifiable Business Results are part of your Success Criteria, so it more important that the project deliver tangible business results. This is where it is now often referred to as KPI. In delivering a successful project, one of the early steps for a Project Manager is to understand business drivers: this might be the competitive market or the problem or opportunity that precipitated the project. Key performance indicators (KPIs) (sometimes called key success indicators, or KSIs) is a common term for criteria used to measure the benefits of a project. These “benefits are often key to obtaining funding for the project in the first place. So in many instances, the KPIs are the reason that the project was launched, and they should be foremost in your mind when you are scoping the project and setting project goals. These project management indicators are:

Created by your customer at the pre-planning of the project and usually are listed in order of priority.

Are derived from a set of stated business goals.

Can be and should be used to provide the basis for critical decision-making throughout the project.

The basis on which the product will be accepted by the customer at the end of the project.

Measurable as in value

Critical Success Criteria If a KPI is going to be of any value, there must be a target and a way to accurately quantify it. "Increase sales" is useless as a KPI without some way to distinguish between today's sales figures and the target figures. A more effective KPI would be "Increase same-store year-over-year sales by 15%." It would be optimal if the customer handed you a list of project goals and success criteria when you were brought on board as the project manager. But more often than not, it falls to you to work with the customer to define them. You may need to push and prod a bit to get the information you need, but without it, you're operating in the dark. Key Performance Indicators: The first project success criterion is to deliver projects bearing in mind the business drivers. Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) is a method used to measure the benefits gained from undertaking the project. These provide an insight to the scope of the project. The performance indicators are:

Established by the clients at the start of the project and are listed on a priority basis.

Aligned with the business objectives.

Able to make critical decisions based on KPI's for the project.

Prove to be a stance for products to be accepted by the clients.

It's a quantitative method and it's measurable.

Other Success Factors Success Factors Success factors are contributions made by the management towards a successful project. These can be classified broadly into five groups as follows:

The project manager: The person needs to have an array of skills under his arm to use during the project.

Project team: The team needs to consist of variety of skills and experience. Collectively as a team, success is easy to achieve with proper guidance.

Project: The scope and timeline of the project is crucial.

Organisation: The organisation needs to provide support to both the project manager and the project team.

External environment: External constraints should not affect the project. Back up plans need to be in place in case daily tasks cannot be carried by the team.

The project's quality should not be compromised under any circumstances as this will drive away potential customers. As discussed in a previous review paper, Quality IS A key to success in its own right.

A final component in the overall defining of the Success Criteria of a project is the actual “Acceptance Criteria” This is a set of standards and requirements that the project must meet before the customer will accept delivery of what the project has developed or implemented. This criterion is usually

Critical Success Criteria documented in an Acceptance Criteria Document, the contents will be similar if not the same as the set of KPI’s the customer provided and or agreed to at the pre-planning stage of the project. The diagram below refers to the traditional method of defining project success criteria. If you are on time, within budget and deliver a quality product or service you get a gold start.

However as we have already discussed there are other Critical Success Factors (CSF) you need to consider The diagram below is a “generic” example of your standard project management process or methodology phases and stages, used to deliver your project. It is also an important contributing tool to the success of your project and the overall Acceptance Criteria of the project

Finally I would like to provide some historical information on the various views we have looked at in regards to Project success criteria

Project success criteria Project success criteria were first mentioned in relation to the concept of ‘the iron triangle’. This triple success criterion was used by such authors as Oisen (1971, cited in Atkinson, 1999, p. 338). As follows from its name, according to this approach, judgment regarding project success is based on an assessment of three project objectives: delivery on time, within budget and corresponding to the level of quality, as stated in a project plan. However, this approach for project success measurement

Critical Success Criteria was criticised as being too general and was expanded by adding additional dimensions. Atkinson (1999) and Wateridge (1998) were those who argued about the necessity to add to the concept of the iron triangle such aspects as the level of stakeholders’ satisfaction with the project. Some authors such as Gardinera and Stewart (2000) even tried to abandon using of the ‘on time, to budget’ concept of project delivery and replace it with accessing of best achievable net profit value (NPV). It was Baccarini (1999, p. 25) who proposed separating the concept of project success into product success and project management success (see Figure below). According to the author, reaching the time, cost and quality objectives as well as overall project management process should be related to project management success, while product success relates to the project’s final product from a long-term prospective. The author also related product success to achievement of the project owner’s organisational goals and meeting the real project purpose which is expressed in the satisfaction of the end-user’s needs. Project management success represents the delivery of a tangible project result or output which was specified in the project plan within allocated resources or inputs. The author claimed that altogether the product and project management success compose overall project success.