Five Levels of Your
Business Success
Hi friends,
You can see five levels of your business success. This approach enables success to be determined and periodically re-determined as benefits accrue from the project over time. It also enables stakeholders to progressively map success to perceptions of higher derived value from the project as benefits accrue. Based on this framework, project success is defined by the highest level of benefit achieved by the project at any point of reflection.
This makes it possible, even non-controversial, for a project to fail at a lower level of assessment but still succeed at a higher level of perceived return from the project. Each level is briefly described, following, and detailed in Table
⏩ Process success
Every project discipline has generic and project-specific best practices that are critical to successfully completing a project. Even generic processes such as project management and risk management have discipline- and domain-specific best practices. Others will be exclusive to the discipline. Determination of success at this level considers the appropriateness of the processes used, their alignment with the project’s purpose, and their integration and effectiveness in contributing to the project outcomes. As with the other levels, analysis here provides feedback to the project team and organization for learning and improvement for subsequent projects.
⏩ Project management success
This is the traditional criterion of project success, determined on closeout against key project design parameters such as the project schedule, budget and some performance expectations such as completing all planned stages and activities. Note that scope at this level refers to project scope, not product scope (the latter is a coent of the next level).
⏩ Product success.
This level considers the success of the major deliverable from the project. Clearly, what this is will vary with the project discipline and the specific project (e.g., an information system, building, submarine, road, or some form of service deliverable). It includes measures relating to the deliverable itself (such as its match to specifications, requirements, and quality expectations) and to client/user satisfaction (such as product acceptance, use, and effectiveness).
⏩ Business success
Success at this level is accounted as accrual of positive net benefits to the organization from the project. It may also include an assessment of the organizational contribution to the project’s outcome. Consequently, measures will typically include the degree to which the project met the goals and objectives that motivated the investment approval (which are usually specified in the business plan), and whether the expected benefits were realized. They may also include consideration of the effectiveness and contribution of corporate governance to the project. Finally, assessing net benefits will also include any unintended benefits and negative impacts that arose from the investment.
⏩ Strategic success
At this level, organizational benefits are assessed by external stakeholders such as investors, competitors, industry analysts, or regulators, rather than company insiders. Success at this level derives from net improvements in industry position, business growth and development, competitive advantage, and/or other strategic gain. Strategic success may be planned or emergent.