The document summarizes the results of a survey about factors that contribute to successful projects. The key findings are:
1) The survey found that delivering expected benefits and objectives were the top criteria for defining a successful project. However, benefits management was not commonly practiced on projects.
2) Having strong stakeholder management and project planning were seen as the most crucial technical factors for success. However, benefits management was not identified as a top technical factor despite its importance in defining success.
3) There were some differences in perspectives across project roles - benefits management was more important higher in the organization, while risk management was prioritized more lower down. This suggests a need for better communication and alignment of priorities.
UX STRAT Online 2020: Dr. Martin Tingley, NetflixUX STRAT
Over the years, the Netflix UI has evolved from a sparse and static webpage into an immersive, video-centric experience tailored to a variety of platforms. In this talk, I’ll describe the simple but powerful framework that Netflix uses to evolve the product experience: we ask our members, through online A/B tests, which of several possible experiences resonate with them. I’ll also describe the steps we are taking to democratize access to experimentation across the company so that we can explore more ideas and identify those that deliver more value to our members.
- The interview discusses planning techniques for agile projects with Eduardo Miranda, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
- Miranda explains that while daily stand-ups and iterations replace some planning needs, plans are still useful for thinking through the work approach, communicating expectations to stakeholders, and coordinating team members.
- He provides examples of planning techniques including milestone planning to communicate goals and timelines to stakeholders, and paired comparison estimation which forces comparisons between stories to improve consistency compared to planning poker.
Slides from a product management training workshop with our partners at the Department of the Interior's Office of Natural Resources Revenue as a part of work together on revenuedata.doi.gov
Why So Many ML Models Don't Make It To Production?UXDXConf
This document discusses why many machine learning models do not make it into production. It identifies several key reasons:
1. ML quality and performance concerns - Models may not meet necessary standards for accuracy, reliability, etc.
2. Simple alternative solutions - A simpler, non-ML solution may adequately address the problem.
3. Lack of management support - Projects may not receive the funding or resources needed to fully develop models.
It then provides recommendations in several areas to help more models make it into production, including investing in labeled data, defining MLOps processes, bringing together interdisciplinary teams, and facilitating learning across roles.
This document discusses evaluation post-mortems, which are formal analyses of the successes and failures of an evaluation project. They involve bringing all stakeholders together to discuss lessons learned from the evaluation process. The discussion includes general questions about what went well and what could be improved, as well as evaluation-specific questions about the design, methods, stakeholder participation, and use of findings. Conducting post-mortems is seen as a way to add to the knowledge base for improving future evaluations.
UX STRAT USA 2019: Richard Baker, GE TransportationUX STRAT
Many engineering-focused enterprises have become solution driven—it's in the very nature of their work. Oftentimes it can be tricky to convince your stakeholders to use valuable time and resources on user experience.
Over the past two years, the innovation and design teams at GE Transportation have been refining their processes to enable engineering-heavy teams to capitalize on long-term strategy and short-term design-led execution through four key principles:
Simplify the complex
Work in bite-size chunks to make things manageable
Built-in exit ramps to ensure relevancy and quality
Work in full transparency
In this presentation, Richard will walk through how user-centric design was scaled in an engineer-led enterprise of thousands mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers.
Slides from a product management training workshop with our partners at the Department of the Interior's Office of Natural Resources Revenue as a part of work together on revenuedata.doi.gov.
UX STRAT Online 2020: Dr. Martin Tingley, NetflixUX STRAT
Over the years, the Netflix UI has evolved from a sparse and static webpage into an immersive, video-centric experience tailored to a variety of platforms. In this talk, I’ll describe the simple but powerful framework that Netflix uses to evolve the product experience: we ask our members, through online A/B tests, which of several possible experiences resonate with them. I’ll also describe the steps we are taking to democratize access to experimentation across the company so that we can explore more ideas and identify those that deliver more value to our members.
- The interview discusses planning techniques for agile projects with Eduardo Miranda, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
- Miranda explains that while daily stand-ups and iterations replace some planning needs, plans are still useful for thinking through the work approach, communicating expectations to stakeholders, and coordinating team members.
- He provides examples of planning techniques including milestone planning to communicate goals and timelines to stakeholders, and paired comparison estimation which forces comparisons between stories to improve consistency compared to planning poker.
Slides from a product management training workshop with our partners at the Department of the Interior's Office of Natural Resources Revenue as a part of work together on revenuedata.doi.gov
Why So Many ML Models Don't Make It To Production?UXDXConf
This document discusses why many machine learning models do not make it into production. It identifies several key reasons:
1. ML quality and performance concerns - Models may not meet necessary standards for accuracy, reliability, etc.
2. Simple alternative solutions - A simpler, non-ML solution may adequately address the problem.
3. Lack of management support - Projects may not receive the funding or resources needed to fully develop models.
It then provides recommendations in several areas to help more models make it into production, including investing in labeled data, defining MLOps processes, bringing together interdisciplinary teams, and facilitating learning across roles.
This document discusses evaluation post-mortems, which are formal analyses of the successes and failures of an evaluation project. They involve bringing all stakeholders together to discuss lessons learned from the evaluation process. The discussion includes general questions about what went well and what could be improved, as well as evaluation-specific questions about the design, methods, stakeholder participation, and use of findings. Conducting post-mortems is seen as a way to add to the knowledge base for improving future evaluations.
UX STRAT USA 2019: Richard Baker, GE TransportationUX STRAT
Many engineering-focused enterprises have become solution driven—it's in the very nature of their work. Oftentimes it can be tricky to convince your stakeholders to use valuable time and resources on user experience.
Over the past two years, the innovation and design teams at GE Transportation have been refining their processes to enable engineering-heavy teams to capitalize on long-term strategy and short-term design-led execution through four key principles:
Simplify the complex
Work in bite-size chunks to make things manageable
Built-in exit ramps to ensure relevancy and quality
Work in full transparency
In this presentation, Richard will walk through how user-centric design was scaled in an engineer-led enterprise of thousands mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers.
Slides from a product management training workshop with our partners at the Department of the Interior's Office of Natural Resources Revenue as a part of work together on revenuedata.doi.gov.
Much of the time, we view innovation through a lens of total newness, but teachings from a variety of industries and professions might hold the key to defining successful strategies, and positively influence the way innovation is executed in the enterprise space.
The document discusses the issues that arise from a lack of capacity planning and the benefits of implementing a capacity planning system. Some of the typical pain points without capacity planning are overstretched resources, projects not being completed on time, difficulty prioritizing tasks, and internal conflicts over assigning resources to projects. A capacity planning system provides total visibility of projects, resources, and priorities so that better decisions can be made. It leads to improved forecasting, more efficient workflow, fewer lost opportunities, and reduced staff turnover.
The current COVID-19 climate has affected UX research in many ways, including changes to process, methods, and tools. As a field, we've had to adapt to doing fully remote collaboration and research.
In this talk, I will be walking through why now is a great time to conduct strategic research, how research has changed because of COVID, and best practices for conducting remote strategic research during this time.
I hope you will walk away from this talk feeling empowered to continue on your innovation journey!
This document provides an overview of framing in decision making. It discusses how a frame acts as a limited description that filters what is relevant to a problem. Inappropriate frames can lead to poor decisions. The document then discusses different patterns and tools that can be used to properly frame a decision problem, such as establishing what is at stake, selecting the right size process, communicating the strategy arc, using issue raising as an icebreaker, employing the whine bottle technique, identifying hidden assumptions, and using a decision hierarchy. The overall intent is to provide a catalog of patterns and tools to help structure the framing phase of a decision process.
A Practical Guide To Mixed Methodologies For UX ResearchUXDXConf
We've all heard it. The best UX research method is the mixed-method. By combining both qualitative and quantitative data the better you can understand your users. Is there such thing as too much data?
In this session, Alina will talk through how to manage your user insights to tangible actions and plan for your team. She will talk through:
- How in Allegro user insights is collated through research, big data and behavioural sciences but what happens next;
- How to prioritise your data/insights;
- What challenges can you encounter and how to solve them; and
- What best practices she uses to ensure the team is aligned in understanding these insights.
The document discusses intelligent project prioritization. It notes that the UK wastes billions each year on IT projects that go over budget or fail. Proper prioritization is needed to select the projects that offer the highest benefits, lowest costs, and lowest risks. However, many organizations struggle with prioritization for reasons such as too many proposed projects, lack of consistent evaluation processes, and business cases being developed with unrealistic assumptions about costs and benefits. The document argues that implementing a consistent, objective process for developing credible business cases and evaluating costs, benefits, and risks is key to intelligent prioritization and avoiding wasted spending on failed projects.
Quantifying and Forecasting Uncertainty in Innovation Project Management - Dr...Jose Briones
Product innovation has been described as the way out of today’s difficult business environment. The rate of success of development projects, in particular disruptive innovation projects remains too low.
We believe that a reason for the low success rate is the erroneous application of analysis methods designed for incremental innovation like NPV and DCF to projects with high levels of uncertainty
In this presentation we will discuss the use of @RISK and Probabilistic Decision Analysis in the management of innovation projects with high levels of uncertainty. The launch of the iPad is used as a case study
OpsStars 2019 - Using Customer Journeys to Supercharge your Revenue Engine R...Christine Crandell
The key to optimizing revenue is to keep sales, marketing and customer success teams aligned to customer journeys. And yet, journeys are not static. Keeping all teams aligned to revenue cycles means staying on top of constantly shifting customer expectations and behaviors. And CX expectations begin well before - and continue long after - the point of purchase!
In this session, join award-winning CX strategy expert and author Christine Crandell to learn how to spot and use key customer micro-moments to keep your Revenue Ops model always at peak performance. And how to use journey maps to optimize your go-to-market model for truly differentiated customer experiences that result in faster revenue cycles.
Why projects fail avoiding the classic pitfallsTa Ngoc
This document discusses common reasons why projects fail and how to avoid failures. It identifies six major pitfalls: lack of constituent alignment, inadequate risk management, poor performance measurement, unclear project scope, insufficient communication, and failure to follow a project methodology. To improve success rates, the document recommends clearly defining objectives and goals, proactively managing risks, establishing baselines and metrics to track progress, gaining full agreement on scope, creating detailed communication plans, and strictly adhering to a project management methodology. Automation and project management tools can also help by providing oversight and reporting to catch issues early.
SpigitEngage is a Crowd innovation Software as a Service technology platform used by large organizations including many of the Fortune 100 to tap into their "crowd" of employees, customers and partners to generate a pipeline of innovation for the business. Predictions is a new module that allows you to use the crowd to predict the value of ideas - how much revenue will it generate, how much will it cost, what's the likely time to market. Using a diverse crowd of people in your business typically yields better results than asking just the business analysts or project managers in your business. This slideshare discusses the Predictions functionality and the science behind it.
The document presents the top 10 obstacles to project success as identified by over 1,000 project managers. They are described in descending order from #10 to #1, with explanations of how each obstacle can negatively impact a project if not mitigated properly. Effective communication, motivating teams, and holding team members accountable are identified as key skills that can help address many of these common challenges faced on projects.
Communicating the ROI of UX from The Enterprise to The Streets (JD Buckley at...Rosenfeld Media
JD Buckley: "Communicating the ROI of UX from The Enterprise to The Streets"
Enterprise UX 2018 • June 14-15, 2018 • San Francisco, CA, USA
http://enterpriseux.net
UX STRAT USA 2019: Rina Tambo Jensen, Mozilla UX STRAT
Mozilla has seen declining contributions from non-employees over time. A mixed-methods study found that contribution is growing for some projects like Rust but mailing lists are less used as platforms divide. Contributors feel things change without input. Diversity also impacts contribution. To address this, Mozilla formulated a strategy of "Open By Design" to bring staff and contributors together, focus on diversity and inclusion, advocate for projects, and improve contributor experiences. This led to over 30 new projects and initiatives to revitalize open contribution to Mozilla.
UX STRAT Asia 2020: Kévin Boezennec, Bank of SingaporeUX STRAT
“Data is the new oil”, Clive Humby said in 2006, and now, in 2020, it goes without saying that being able to use data to drive informed business decision in real-time is the new goal of each and every bank.
Now, how to think strategically about how best to manage data across the organisation? How best to generate insights from data and use them in a meaningful way for our clients and for the organisation?
This is the project we started working on with our Chief Data and Innovation Officer looking at first, how our colleagues use data across the functions of the organisation to take business decisions. This presentation shares the research learnings as well as our strategic vision regarding the data platform and data-informed client experience.
An Overview of Scenario Planning - Introduction, Overview and ExamplesAxiom EPM
An Overview of Scenario Planning. Topics include: Scenario Planning and Uncertainty, Scenario Planning Prerequisites, Key Benefits of Scenario Planning, Types of Scenario Planning, Overcoming Hurdles to Scenario Planning and Five Required Structural Elements
UX STRAT Europe 2019: Tom Ablewhite, Jamie Horne, FoolproofUX STRAT
The document summarizes a workshop on measuring UX improvements with metrics driven by business objectives. The agenda includes introductions, discussing challenges of measuring objectives and solutions, tips and advice, and putting the concepts into practice. Participants engage in a Lightning Decision Jam exercise to identify challenges of using metrics for objectives and generate solutions. Main challenges identified include shifting goals, disconnect between teams, difficulty measuring some things, and lack of understanding of data analysis. Solutions focus on co-designing metrics, choosing baselines, using qualitative data, and involving stakeholders.
This document discusses lean product development and innovation. It notes that traditional product development often results in 50% of product features not being used, 60-80% of development effort being rework, and changes to code being 200 times more costly than prototypes. Lean product development employs approaches like agile development, design thinking, and the lean startup method. This involves understanding customer needs through early and frequent prototyping and testing to pivot the product based on learnings. It advocates for cross-functional "pods" or goal-oriented teams with embedded UX designers, and emphasizes the importance of culture and becoming a learning organization.
Present a comprehensive report in order to achieve your long term flexible plans by using our Scenario Planning PowerPoint Presentation Slides. With the help of scenario analysis PPT template, you can analyze your future events by focusing on your target, formulate the issues rendering your path, develop a strong working relationship, etc. The scenario thinking PowerPoint presentation deck comprises of a total of 64 slides determining the roles and responsibilities, time management, communication plan, identifying risks, track the improvement level, etc. which are helpful in attaining the present and future developments. Use professional designs, graphs, reports, charts, and sheets to prepare your report in minutes. This strategic planning presentation slide helps you to present your strategic goals which help in the execution of actions or objectives. Outline all the important aspects like strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities using the scenario planning framework PPT template. Therefore, download this ready to use scenario analysis in strategic management PowerPoint slideshow and meet your goals.
UX STRAT Online 2020: Victoria Sosik, VerizonUX STRAT
The document discusses democratizing user research at Verizon. It considers the pros and cons of democratizing research insights, experiences, tools, skills, usability research, and generative research. It outlines that democratization is not a binary decision and organizations must consider their specific context. The document then proposes a "Spot Testing" program at Verizon to start democratizing usability research in a limited, structured way by providing research tools and training designers to conduct small, defined tests under the guidance of user researchers. The program would aim to increase bandwidth for research while maintaining rigor and oversight.
10 critical factors for success of a projectZilicus
The document outlines 10 critical factors for project success: 1) Keeping projects simple through clear objectives and communication. 2) The project manager is ultimately responsible for delivery. 3) Reinforcing focus through organizational prioritization and strong support. 4) Setting specific and quantifiable objectives. 5) Developing a clear and detailed project plan. 6) Maintaining the project scope. 7) Building an inspired project team. 8) Effective issue management. 9) Risk planning and mitigation. 10) Agreeing on a point of closure for the project. The key is transparent communication with all stakeholders.
How do you define a successful project? Primarily a project needs to deliver on few basic parameters that can be used to validate if the project really provided the value it intended!
Much of the time, we view innovation through a lens of total newness, but teachings from a variety of industries and professions might hold the key to defining successful strategies, and positively influence the way innovation is executed in the enterprise space.
The document discusses the issues that arise from a lack of capacity planning and the benefits of implementing a capacity planning system. Some of the typical pain points without capacity planning are overstretched resources, projects not being completed on time, difficulty prioritizing tasks, and internal conflicts over assigning resources to projects. A capacity planning system provides total visibility of projects, resources, and priorities so that better decisions can be made. It leads to improved forecasting, more efficient workflow, fewer lost opportunities, and reduced staff turnover.
The current COVID-19 climate has affected UX research in many ways, including changes to process, methods, and tools. As a field, we've had to adapt to doing fully remote collaboration and research.
In this talk, I will be walking through why now is a great time to conduct strategic research, how research has changed because of COVID, and best practices for conducting remote strategic research during this time.
I hope you will walk away from this talk feeling empowered to continue on your innovation journey!
This document provides an overview of framing in decision making. It discusses how a frame acts as a limited description that filters what is relevant to a problem. Inappropriate frames can lead to poor decisions. The document then discusses different patterns and tools that can be used to properly frame a decision problem, such as establishing what is at stake, selecting the right size process, communicating the strategy arc, using issue raising as an icebreaker, employing the whine bottle technique, identifying hidden assumptions, and using a decision hierarchy. The overall intent is to provide a catalog of patterns and tools to help structure the framing phase of a decision process.
A Practical Guide To Mixed Methodologies For UX ResearchUXDXConf
We've all heard it. The best UX research method is the mixed-method. By combining both qualitative and quantitative data the better you can understand your users. Is there such thing as too much data?
In this session, Alina will talk through how to manage your user insights to tangible actions and plan for your team. She will talk through:
- How in Allegro user insights is collated through research, big data and behavioural sciences but what happens next;
- How to prioritise your data/insights;
- What challenges can you encounter and how to solve them; and
- What best practices she uses to ensure the team is aligned in understanding these insights.
The document discusses intelligent project prioritization. It notes that the UK wastes billions each year on IT projects that go over budget or fail. Proper prioritization is needed to select the projects that offer the highest benefits, lowest costs, and lowest risks. However, many organizations struggle with prioritization for reasons such as too many proposed projects, lack of consistent evaluation processes, and business cases being developed with unrealistic assumptions about costs and benefits. The document argues that implementing a consistent, objective process for developing credible business cases and evaluating costs, benefits, and risks is key to intelligent prioritization and avoiding wasted spending on failed projects.
Quantifying and Forecasting Uncertainty in Innovation Project Management - Dr...Jose Briones
Product innovation has been described as the way out of today’s difficult business environment. The rate of success of development projects, in particular disruptive innovation projects remains too low.
We believe that a reason for the low success rate is the erroneous application of analysis methods designed for incremental innovation like NPV and DCF to projects with high levels of uncertainty
In this presentation we will discuss the use of @RISK and Probabilistic Decision Analysis in the management of innovation projects with high levels of uncertainty. The launch of the iPad is used as a case study
OpsStars 2019 - Using Customer Journeys to Supercharge your Revenue Engine R...Christine Crandell
The key to optimizing revenue is to keep sales, marketing and customer success teams aligned to customer journeys. And yet, journeys are not static. Keeping all teams aligned to revenue cycles means staying on top of constantly shifting customer expectations and behaviors. And CX expectations begin well before - and continue long after - the point of purchase!
In this session, join award-winning CX strategy expert and author Christine Crandell to learn how to spot and use key customer micro-moments to keep your Revenue Ops model always at peak performance. And how to use journey maps to optimize your go-to-market model for truly differentiated customer experiences that result in faster revenue cycles.
Why projects fail avoiding the classic pitfallsTa Ngoc
This document discusses common reasons why projects fail and how to avoid failures. It identifies six major pitfalls: lack of constituent alignment, inadequate risk management, poor performance measurement, unclear project scope, insufficient communication, and failure to follow a project methodology. To improve success rates, the document recommends clearly defining objectives and goals, proactively managing risks, establishing baselines and metrics to track progress, gaining full agreement on scope, creating detailed communication plans, and strictly adhering to a project management methodology. Automation and project management tools can also help by providing oversight and reporting to catch issues early.
SpigitEngage is a Crowd innovation Software as a Service technology platform used by large organizations including many of the Fortune 100 to tap into their "crowd" of employees, customers and partners to generate a pipeline of innovation for the business. Predictions is a new module that allows you to use the crowd to predict the value of ideas - how much revenue will it generate, how much will it cost, what's the likely time to market. Using a diverse crowd of people in your business typically yields better results than asking just the business analysts or project managers in your business. This slideshare discusses the Predictions functionality and the science behind it.
The document presents the top 10 obstacles to project success as identified by over 1,000 project managers. They are described in descending order from #10 to #1, with explanations of how each obstacle can negatively impact a project if not mitigated properly. Effective communication, motivating teams, and holding team members accountable are identified as key skills that can help address many of these common challenges faced on projects.
Communicating the ROI of UX from The Enterprise to The Streets (JD Buckley at...Rosenfeld Media
JD Buckley: "Communicating the ROI of UX from The Enterprise to The Streets"
Enterprise UX 2018 • June 14-15, 2018 • San Francisco, CA, USA
http://enterpriseux.net
UX STRAT USA 2019: Rina Tambo Jensen, Mozilla UX STRAT
Mozilla has seen declining contributions from non-employees over time. A mixed-methods study found that contribution is growing for some projects like Rust but mailing lists are less used as platforms divide. Contributors feel things change without input. Diversity also impacts contribution. To address this, Mozilla formulated a strategy of "Open By Design" to bring staff and contributors together, focus on diversity and inclusion, advocate for projects, and improve contributor experiences. This led to over 30 new projects and initiatives to revitalize open contribution to Mozilla.
UX STRAT Asia 2020: Kévin Boezennec, Bank of SingaporeUX STRAT
“Data is the new oil”, Clive Humby said in 2006, and now, in 2020, it goes without saying that being able to use data to drive informed business decision in real-time is the new goal of each and every bank.
Now, how to think strategically about how best to manage data across the organisation? How best to generate insights from data and use them in a meaningful way for our clients and for the organisation?
This is the project we started working on with our Chief Data and Innovation Officer looking at first, how our colleagues use data across the functions of the organisation to take business decisions. This presentation shares the research learnings as well as our strategic vision regarding the data platform and data-informed client experience.
An Overview of Scenario Planning - Introduction, Overview and ExamplesAxiom EPM
An Overview of Scenario Planning. Topics include: Scenario Planning and Uncertainty, Scenario Planning Prerequisites, Key Benefits of Scenario Planning, Types of Scenario Planning, Overcoming Hurdles to Scenario Planning and Five Required Structural Elements
UX STRAT Europe 2019: Tom Ablewhite, Jamie Horne, FoolproofUX STRAT
The document summarizes a workshop on measuring UX improvements with metrics driven by business objectives. The agenda includes introductions, discussing challenges of measuring objectives and solutions, tips and advice, and putting the concepts into practice. Participants engage in a Lightning Decision Jam exercise to identify challenges of using metrics for objectives and generate solutions. Main challenges identified include shifting goals, disconnect between teams, difficulty measuring some things, and lack of understanding of data analysis. Solutions focus on co-designing metrics, choosing baselines, using qualitative data, and involving stakeholders.
This document discusses lean product development and innovation. It notes that traditional product development often results in 50% of product features not being used, 60-80% of development effort being rework, and changes to code being 200 times more costly than prototypes. Lean product development employs approaches like agile development, design thinking, and the lean startup method. This involves understanding customer needs through early and frequent prototyping and testing to pivot the product based on learnings. It advocates for cross-functional "pods" or goal-oriented teams with embedded UX designers, and emphasizes the importance of culture and becoming a learning organization.
Present a comprehensive report in order to achieve your long term flexible plans by using our Scenario Planning PowerPoint Presentation Slides. With the help of scenario analysis PPT template, you can analyze your future events by focusing on your target, formulate the issues rendering your path, develop a strong working relationship, etc. The scenario thinking PowerPoint presentation deck comprises of a total of 64 slides determining the roles and responsibilities, time management, communication plan, identifying risks, track the improvement level, etc. which are helpful in attaining the present and future developments. Use professional designs, graphs, reports, charts, and sheets to prepare your report in minutes. This strategic planning presentation slide helps you to present your strategic goals which help in the execution of actions or objectives. Outline all the important aspects like strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities using the scenario planning framework PPT template. Therefore, download this ready to use scenario analysis in strategic management PowerPoint slideshow and meet your goals.
UX STRAT Online 2020: Victoria Sosik, VerizonUX STRAT
The document discusses democratizing user research at Verizon. It considers the pros and cons of democratizing research insights, experiences, tools, skills, usability research, and generative research. It outlines that democratization is not a binary decision and organizations must consider their specific context. The document then proposes a "Spot Testing" program at Verizon to start democratizing usability research in a limited, structured way by providing research tools and training designers to conduct small, defined tests under the guidance of user researchers. The program would aim to increase bandwidth for research while maintaining rigor and oversight.
10 critical factors for success of a projectZilicus
The document outlines 10 critical factors for project success: 1) Keeping projects simple through clear objectives and communication. 2) The project manager is ultimately responsible for delivery. 3) Reinforcing focus through organizational prioritization and strong support. 4) Setting specific and quantifiable objectives. 5) Developing a clear and detailed project plan. 6) Maintaining the project scope. 7) Building an inspired project team. 8) Effective issue management. 9) Risk planning and mitigation. 10) Agreeing on a point of closure for the project. The key is transparent communication with all stakeholders.
How do you define a successful project? Primarily a project needs to deliver on few basic parameters that can be used to validate if the project really provided the value it intended!
ACHIEVING PROJECT SUCCESS THROUGH EFFECTIVE PROJECT REQUIREMENTS ELICITATIONWILLIAM YAMOAH
This document discusses achieving project success through effective project requirements elicitation. It outlines techniques for requirements elicitation such as interviews and collaborative elaboration. The importance of effective elicitation is that it avoids confusion, ensures stakeholder needs are understood, and can guarantee success. Challenges to elicitation include scope problems, understanding problems, and volatile requirements. Effective elicitation is key to meeting stakeholder needs and project success.
The Sydney Opera House project failed due to a lack of clear goals and project planning. There was no written implementation plan, and the design continued to change even after construction began. This led to cost overruns and delays. Proper management of stakeholders and identification of risks early on could have minimized issues.
The document discusses factors that contribute to project success and failure. It summarizes research from the Standish Group that found only 16.2% of projects in 1994 were completed on time and on budget, with 84.8% failing. More recent data from 2000 showed improvement to a 28% success rate. The top 10 factors identified by the Standish Group that cause project failure are listed, including incomplete requirements, lack of user involvement, and unrealistic expectations. The document concludes with areas that affect project success, such as clearly defined goals, top management support, and user involvement.
Increasing project success rates using project behavioral coachingWGroup
This strategy brief discusses the use of project behavioral coaching, which is a technique based on the science of human behavior that can be used with any methodology to drive up success. Covers the high level steps used in performing the project behavioral coaching™ (PBC) technique as a guide for project professionals that desire an introduction to learning the basics.
Effecive Project Management Leadership as a Project SuccessSam muwanei
This document summarizes a research study on the relationship between project management leadership and successful project completion in Botswana. The study used a quantitative descriptive approach and surveyed individuals in the construction, engineering, and real estate industries who have been involved in project management. The results indicated that transformational leadership applied by project managers is a critical success factor for projects. Effective project leadership is needed to motivate teams and ensure projects are completed on time, on budget, and within scope.
Each month, join us as we highlight and discuss hot topics ranging from the future of higher education to wearable technology, best productivity hacks and secrets to hiring top talent. Upload your SlideShares, and share your expertise with the world!
Not sure what to share on SlideShare?
SlideShares that inform, inspire and educate attract the most views. Beyond that, ideas for what you can upload are limitless. We’ve selected a few popular examples to get your creative juices flowing.
SlideShare is a global platform for sharing presentations, infographics, videos and documents. It has over 18 million pieces of professional content uploaded by experts like Eric Schmidt and Guy Kawasaki. The document provides tips for setting up an account on SlideShare, uploading content, optimizing it for searchability, and sharing it on social media to build an audience and reputation as a subject matter expert.
This document provides questions and documents to consider when determining the actual status of a project, program, or portfolio. It advises sponsors to ignore reported colors and percentages and look for real, tangible information. Key things to look for include clearly defined success criteria, an honest finish date, evidence that status reports reflect reality, and documentation of budgets, resources, risks, and responsibilities. Examining critical paths, integration plans, and meeting notes can also help determine if a project is where it claims to be. The goal is to have a true understanding of status rather than just pretty colors or estimates.
The third way running effective projectsRune Aresvik
An article outlining how "anyone" can manage complex projects successfully by using the tools and methodologies developed by leading management consultants
Visual project management simplifying project execution to deliver on time an...ssuser52fa40
This document discusses why projects are often late and over budget, despite best efforts. It finds that while training improves control factors like scope and quality, there is an inverse relationship between training and schedule/budget performance. This is because training focuses on planning and control, not execution. Execution accounts for under 5% of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guide content. The document argues successful project execution is an art, not a science, and that improving execution can boost financial returns by 65% for "best executors." Focusing on on-time and on-budget performance yields more financial gains than other initiatives.
1) The document discusses identifying project benefits and realizing those benefits through effective benefits management practices. It reports that organizations with strong benefits management maturity waste 67% less on projects than those with low maturity.
2) Benefits identification, which determines what value a project will deliver, is found to be most effective when it is a shared responsibility between project managers and executives. However, many organizations still lack mature benefits management processes.
3) Organizations are advised to formalize their benefits identification approach, involving stakeholders early to fully understand a project's strategic impact and ensure benefits are aligned with organizational strategy and goals. When done effectively, benefits identification leads to better decision-making about project prioritization and investment.
The document provides guidance on writing a successful project proposal in 3 steps:
1. Plan the project by collaborating with stakeholders, developing a work plan and timeline, and drafting a concept paper and proposal.
2. Design the project using a conceptual model to identify problems, objectives, and interventions, and develop goals, objectives, activities, and indicators.
3. Write the proposal including an introduction, methodology, budget, monitoring and evaluation plan, sustainability discussion, checklist, and conclusion. Templates are provided for each section.
The document discusses factors that contribute to project success and failure. It summarizes research from the Standish Group that found only 16.2% of projects in 1994 were completed on time and on budget, with 84.8% failing. More recent data from 2000 showed improvement to a 28% success rate. The top 10 factors identified by the Standish Group that cause project failure are listed, including incomplete requirements, lack of user involvement, and unrealistic expectations. The document concludes with areas that affect project success, such as clearly defined goals, top management support, and user involvement.
Project Management Overview by Darryl VleemingDarryl Vleeming
The document discusses key differences between projects and operations, and how project management principles can be applied to various initiatives that may not be considered formal projects. It notes that projects are temporary in nature with a defined start and end, while creating a unique product or service, whereas operations are ongoing and repetitive. The document then provides examples of common activities that could benefit from project management approaches.
In this webinar, you will be provided a model for explaining how the current world of work is shifting with models for managing team conflict and dealing with the emotions of project team members and stakeholders.
Most traditional methodologies hold that a business case is something that a project manager inherits and that its responsibility sits with a sponsor, project executive or even a governance board of some sort. However the project manager can, and should, play a critical role in assessing and critiquing the business case to guard against project failure..
This presentation was given by Donnie MacNicol and Guy Giffin at the joint APM / RICS conference on project leadership held in London on 25th February 2014.
The document discusses the project preparation phase, which aims to identify the project work, establish goals and objectives, and set up efficient decision-making. It involves conceptualizing the project, establishing goals and objectives, issuing a project charter, outlining an implementation strategy, developing cost estimates, identifying risks, defining roles and responsibilities, and holding a kickoff meeting. The preparation phase comes after identifying solutions and allows checking preconditions before moving to the planning stage.
Only in fairytales are emperors told they are naked3gamma
The document discusses project governance and why it often fails. It provides two approaches to implementing effective project governance - a top-down approach where a small senior board makes decisions, and a bottom-up approach that focuses on common metrics, maturity, and early intervention. Both approaches aim to identify and stop failing projects early. Effective governance requires frank discussion and honest assessment of a project's likelihood of success.
Managing stakeholder expectations is one of the most important tasks for a project manager. It involves identifying all stakeholders, understanding their interests and level of influence, and communicating with them throughout the project. Key tools for managing stakeholders include stakeholder analysis grids to categorize them, expectation management matrices to clarify priorities, and issue logs to track concerns. Project managers must also decentralize decision-making, be transparent with information, and treat all stakeholders equitably regardless of their level of power or interest. While technology can aid communication, the most important skills are listening to understand stakeholders and building trust through clear, concise dialogue.
Managing stakeholder expectations is one of the most important tasks for a project manager. It involves identifying all stakeholders, understanding their interests and level of influence, and communicating with them throughout the project. Key tools for managing stakeholders include stakeholder analysis grids to categorize them, expectation management matrices to clarify priorities, and issue logs to track concerns. Project managers must treat all stakeholders equally, share information transparently, and encourage their participation to build commitment and ensure project success. Above all, clear and frequent communication between the project manager and stakeholders through various means is essential for meeting expectations.
The document summarizes key findings from a nationwide survey of media agency employees conducted by Prosperio. It found that 58% of media investment professionals plan and buy digital media and at least one traditional medium. The top three challenges reported were client management, time management, and measurement. Respondents described challenges with client communication and direction, tight deadlines, and measuring effectiveness and justifying digital media investment. The document also discusses the time it takes to compile and send RFPs, and that tools could help streamline the RFP process. It introduces Prosperio's Smart RFP tool as a centralized, insightful, and predictive solution.
This document summarizes the key findings from the 2017 Pulse of the Profession report by the Project Management Institute (PMI).
The summary finds that for the first time in 5 years, more projects are meeting their original goals and budgets. Organizations are also wasting less money on failed projects. PMI identifies "champions" that have high rates of project success and benefits realization maturity, and "underperformers". The report examines factors that distinguish more successful organizations, such as investments in benefits management, PMOs, talent development, and executive sponsorship of projects. Overall, the research finds organizations are making progress in applying proven project management practices to successfully implement strategic initiatives.
The document provides information about conducting a feasibility study for a proposed project or business venture. It defines what a feasibility study is, distinguishes it from a business plan, and outlines the typical steps involved in conducting one. These include assessing the technical, financial, market, and organizational feasibility of the project. Key parts of a feasibility study involve analyzing strengths/weaknesses, conducting market research, planning operations, and preparing projected financial statements like an income statement and opening day balance sheet. The overall goal is to objectively determine whether the project is viable and feasible to implement.
The document discusses the planning fallacy and why projects are often late. It describes several cognitive biases that contribute to underestimating timelines and costs, including optimism bias, overconfidence, and coordination neglect. These biases can lead to unrealistic project expectations and under-estimated scopes and schedules. As deadlines slip, it can result in job losses, damaged credibility for companies, and increased stress levels. The document recommends strategies to mitigate the planning fallacy, such as using reference class forecasting based on past similar projects and incentivizing targets being met rather than missed.
Carswell Gould is a marketing agency that has been in business for over 20 years. They have worked with organizations of all sizes on creative projects that increase sales and improve customer experiences. Creativity is valued at Carswell Gould as it makes them unique and the key to their success. The document discusses the importance of creativity and provides tips for organizations to foster innovation, such as hiring chief innovation officers, holding brainstorming workshops, and collaborating with young people and universities.
Mix Agile with Prince 2 for rewarding resultsEdward Gould
Acando helped Aimia, a global loyalty management company, deliver a project for the Nectar brand using a hybrid Agile and PRINCE2 methodology. Tony Davis from Acando worked with the Aimia team to navigate how Agile could fit with their typical use of PRINCE2. He emphasized communication to help the team understand both methodologies. This hybrid approach allowed for flexibility and quick delivery of results through an iterative process, while maintaining structure from PRINCE2. The project was delivered on time and on budget and helped Aimia explore new ways of working.
HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS ENHANCES PROJECT PROVISION Acando Case StudyEdward Gould
Wayne Philpott knows more than a thing or two about successful project management. He has seen pretty much all there is to see during his 28 year long career at Hitachi Data Systems. As a manager in the Programme Management Office, Wayne is responsible for ensuring all project activity is delivered successfully, on-time, every time. When Wayne started at HDS almost three decades ago, the project management landscape was a very different industry from what it is today. “ In the beginning, project management as a discipline was solely defined by the individual project managers. We had to conceive and develop to ensure success for Hitachi Data Systems as an organisation and fundamentally for our customers.” Wayne continually looked for new ways to enhance project provision at HDS and developed initiatives ranging from the ordinary to the radical in his quest to ensure project success rates stood at 100 per cent, delivering on even the most demanding customer requirements. In 2001 he created the Programme Office within the company, an industry-leading move at the time. Wayne and his team worked tirelessly to develop the Programme Office, its staff and their capabilities including adding PRINCE2® as a basic requirement. Everything Wayne and Hitachi Data Systems have done has been focused on improving project success. So, what exactly does their project expert mean when he says… “In 28 years I’ve never seen a company like Acando.” Prior to Acando partnering with Hitachi Data Systems, the company worked with a range of suppliers to help them find the best project managers to work on the projects they deliver. “ WITH ACANDO, I HAVE ONE POINT OF CONTACT WHO CAN TALK AT BOARD LEVEL, REPRESENT LARGE PROGRAMMES PERFECTLY AND UNDERSTAND EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED. HE HAS MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE.”
That's not what I wanted, An Acando master class in business analysis.Edward Gould
In this master class we look out how to undertake effective business analysis from inception through to implementation to ensure successful project delivery.
20 years of CG and the Marine IndustryEdward Gould
Carswell Gould has been working with the marine and maritime industries for over 30 years. This presentation explores some key areas of experience and our approach.
Social Media for The Creative Industries Edward Gould
Exploratory talk created for A Creative Industries group. FActs figures and stats around the Creative industries market , the social media state of play in 2013 and my take on the correct way to mix social media into business activities.
“What a waste of money”
IT Project Failure and how to avoid it
This white paper examines the reasons why IT projects fail. The results of several studies are presented, and the trends for failure rates
examined. A number of reasons for project failure are considered, and recommendations are made as to how project failure may be
avoided.
It’s almost an unwritten rule that IT projects fail - or at least a significant number of them do! IT Projects do not need to fail,
but it seems to have become an acceptable norm. The reasons why they fail have not changed much over the past 15 years,
and neither have the rates of failure. Although there have been many attempts to propose simple guidelines, which, it has
been argued, can change IT project success rates significantly, projects continue to fail.
In the following sections we will consider what is meant by project failure, and then look at the results of studies that provide
figures for IT project failure rates. We will examine the reasons why they fail, and consider ways to avoid project failure.
Only in Fairy Tales are Emperors Told that they are Naked - Orange PaperEdward Gould
Most organisations don’t do
project governance. Instead
conversations like this are
heard up and down the
corridors of our businesses:
“I don’t care what the report says. I don’t care you’re going
to deliver late with less functionality. Because that’s not
going to happen. You will be on time, and it will work. Now
stop wasting time in my o ce and go make it happen.”
12 months later the project is canned after being £45m
over budget, £165m spent and delivering zero benefi ts.
The implementation partner is kicked out and the senior
executives keep their jobs. No questions asked.
Of course it’s not always as harsh and bullish as the last
conversation. Equally harmful is the ‘nice’ conversation
that still pays total disregard to project governance:
“This project is pushed for time. The deadline is
very tight. The team is a little smaller than ideal, so
we’re going to have to work e ciently and hard.
But if we can pull together we can deliver this.”
The project delivers 35% late and the attrition rate of team
members in the project is 25%. And there are 101 other
examples - from a business case that doesn’t add up, to
an incapable delivery team, or huge risks not mitigated
or understood prior to project kick off . Up and down the
country projects are not governed, billions are wasted and
we’re all guilty of standing by and letting it happen.
Those organisations that think they do governance - don’t.
There’s a great quote by Warren Buff et which pinpoints what’s
really happening.
“In some mergers there are truly synergies – even though
often times the acquirer pays too much for them – but at
other times the cost and revenue bene ts that are projected
prove illusionary. Of one thing, however, be certain. If a
CEO is enthused about a particularly foolish acquisition,
both his internal sta and his outside advisors will come up
with whatever projections are needed to justify his stance.
Only in fairy tales are emperors told that they are naked.”
The APM advocate 11 facets
of project governance, but
Human Systems only 8.
Totally Optimised Projects
rack the number up to 26
whilst ITGovernance.co.uk
scale it down to only 6 and
the HM Treasury have one
more at 7. This di erence in
opinion only reverts us back
to the title of our section -
So what is governance?
Carswell Gould worked with PSP to deliver an integrated marketing campaign to position PSP as a leading freight and boat transportation company in the UK. This included a PR campaign to generate coverage of PSP's sponsorship of the Southampton Boat Show. A total of 35 press hits were generated with an estimated value of £98,345. Design work was also done to redevelop PSP's branding. Additionally, an email marketing system was implemented to allow PSP to directly communicate with customers.
Navigating the world of forex trading can be challenging, especially for beginners. To help you make an informed decision, we have comprehensively compared the best forex brokers in India for 2024. This article, reviewed by Top Forex Brokers Review, will cover featured award winners, the best forex brokers, featured offers, the best copy trading platforms, the best forex brokers for beginners, the best MetaTrader brokers, and recently updated reviews. We will focus on FP Markets, Black Bull, EightCap, IC Markets, and Octa.
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Best practices for project execution and deliveryCLIVE MINCHIN
A select set of project management best practices to keep your project on-track, on-cost and aligned to scope. Many firms have don't have the necessary skills, diligence, methods and oversight of their projects; this leads to slippage, higher costs and longer timeframes. Often firms have a history of projects that simply failed to move the needle. These best practices will help your firm avoid these pitfalls but they require fortitude to apply.
Company Valuation webinar series - Tuesday, 4 June 2024FelixPerez547899
This session provided an update as to the latest valuation data in the UK and then delved into a discussion on the upcoming election and the impacts on valuation. We finished, as always with a Q&A
Top mailing list providers in the USA.pptxJeremyPeirce1
Discover the top mailing list providers in the USA, offering targeted lists, segmentation, and analytics to optimize your marketing campaigns and drive engagement.
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Part 2 Deep Dive: Navigating the 2024 Slowdownjeffkluth1
Introduction
The global retail industry has weathered numerous storms, with the financial crisis of 2008 serving as a poignant reminder of the sector's resilience and adaptability. However, as we navigate the complex landscape of 2024, retailers face a unique set of challenges that demand innovative strategies and a fundamental shift in mindset. This white paper contrasts the impact of the 2008 recession on the retail sector with the current headwinds retailers are grappling with, while offering a comprehensive roadmap for success in this new paradigm.
Building Your Employer Brand with Social MediaLuanWise
Presented at The Global HR Summit, 6th June 2024
In this keynote, Luan Wise will provide invaluable insights to elevate your employer brand on social media platforms including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. You'll learn how compelling content can authentically showcase your company culture, values, and employee experiences to support your talent acquisition and retention objectives. Additionally, you'll understand the power of employee advocacy to amplify reach and engagement – helping to position your organization as an employer of choice in today's competitive talent landscape.
Tata Group Dials Taiwan for Its Chipmaking Ambition in Gujarat’s DholeraAvirahi City Dholera
The Tata Group, a titan of Indian industry, is making waves with its advanced talks with Taiwanese chipmakers Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) and UMC Group. The goal? Establishing a cutting-edge semiconductor fabrication unit (fab) in Dholera, Gujarat. This isn’t just any project; it’s a potential game changer for India’s chipmaking aspirations and a boon for investors seeking promising residential projects in dholera sir.
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Project Success 'Orange Paper'
1. Acando White Paper
“Project Success”
Insight
www.acando.co.uk
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2. Acando White Paper
“Project Success”
Insight
This research paper looks at
what the key contributing
factors to a successful
project are and whether
there are lessons we can
learn from this to make our
projects more successful.
successful projects and trends that are exhibited more
commonly across successful projects.
Without any further ado – let’s dive straight in.
What is a successful project?
Before we can understand what contributes to a successful
project, it’s first interesting to see what definitions there are of
successful projects. The survey presented a list of 10 criteria that
are often seen as definitions of a successful project. These criteria
were taken from other existing surveys on project success (The
Standish Group, IT Toolkit, Project Smart, The Chaos Group and
Modern Analyst). Respondents were asked to rank the 10 criteria
1 through to 10 where 1 is, in their view, the most important
definition of a successful project, 2 the next, and so on.
The research was in the form of a questionnaire sent out to
over 43,000 people involved in delivering projects. There
were 4,451 respondents and it is these responses that make
up the material presented in this paper. There are two
appendices to this paper which explain in some more detail:
1. The demographics of questionnaire respondents.
2. Statistical significance testing and how it was applied to the
questionnaire results.
For those who are just interested in the survey results – one
important piece of advice before we dive straight in. A survey is
an inexact science to understand exactly what is contributing to
project success. It can give trends rather than absolute definition
and is comparative in its nature not absolute. This piece of
research does not purport to have the answers to what creates a
successful project. But it does highlight common factors amongst
The graph below shows the aggregated number one choices
from all respondents. There are several interesting observations
in this analysis.
• Only 5% of respondents thought a successful project was one
which delivers in the agreed timescales.
• Only 5% of respondents thought a successful project was one
which delivers within the agreed budget.
Together these are interesting. The amount of effort we put in
to measuring time and cost on projects is huge. But they are
perceived to be poor measures of project success.
What defines Project Success?
...Wouldn’t have had a better outcome if we did the project again
...Was enjoyed by everyone who was on the project
...Delivers more benefit than cost
...Delivers the expected benefits
...Delivers all of the objectives
...The project sponsor thought it was a success
...Delivers within agreed timescales
...Delivers within budget
...Delivers most of the objectives
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Percentage of respondents
Acando - White Paper
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3. • The number one measure of project success is that the project
delivers the expected benefits.
• The number two measure of project success is that the project
achieves all of the objectives.
These are also interesting when one considers how little time is
spent on projects measuring benefits and ensuring the project
delivers objectives. Perhaps we should take a long hard look at
whether the objectives are ones stated in order to ensure the
funding for the project, or whether the objectives are actually
delivered. Almost 60% of respondents had benefits or objectives
in their number one definition of a successful project.
• 18% of respondents thought the number one measure of a
successful project was that the project sponsor thought the
project was successful.
I question whether this is people not wanting to confront the
reality of whether their projects did deliver, or whether the
benefits are not measured (or not capable of being measured) in
which case a benefit-based analysis of success just isn’t possible.
It is interesting that such a subjective measure is the third
most popular number one definition of a successful project.
What defines Project Success?
...Wouldn’t have had a better outcome if we did the project again
...Was enjoyed by everyone who was on the project
...Delivers more benefit than cost
...Delivers the expected benefits
...Delivers all of the objectives
...The project sponsor thought it was a success
...Delivers within agreed timescales
...Delivers within budget
...Delivers most of the objectives
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Percentage of respondents
When we expand the data (chart above) to look at each
respondent’s top two factors that define project success, little
changes. Benefits are still the run-away leaders, the subjective
view of the project sponsor is still in third place and time and
budget are still poor cousins to any of the top three.
We should carefully consider how we measure our projects.
The analysis is suggesting that benefits and project objectives
should be carefully measured and reported on as these are the
most significant definitions of a successful project.
www.acando.co.uk
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4. Acando White Paper
“Project Success”
Insight
Delivers the Expected Benefits
Support
Deliver
Manage
Pay For
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Percentage of respondents
The chart above shows the percentage of respondents that
marked “delivers the expected benefits” as their number
one definition of a successful project and compares that
data to the different level the respondent has in the project
hierarchy. It is statistically significant that the higher you are
up the project hierarchy, the more convinced you are that
the definition of whether a project was successful or not
is whether or not it delivered the expected benefits.
Interestingly, for those tasked with delivering our projects,
less than 40% of them have the same number one definition
of a successful project.
There are two hypotheses here.
1. We are poor at communicating that the most important
thing to focus on in delivering any project, is that it delivers the
benefits that are expected. This poor communication creates
a different focus as you move down the project hierarchy
which is going to contribute to projects ‘missing the mark’
as the ‘mark’ that is being focused on is different from the
‘mark’ that those are paying for the project are focusing on.
2. As you move down the project hierarchy, you become more
task focused and less benefits focused and this is expected
and acceptable. As you move down the hierarchy, you are
tasked with delivering a set of actions, not a set of benefits and
therefore you are going to have more task and less benefit
focus. This is natural and it’s the responsibility of the top of the
project hierarchy to ensure the tasks deliver the benefits.
Personally, I prefer the first hypothesis. The second one
sounds too much like an excuse for me. And the second
one breaks down still further when you consider that less
than 50% of those managing our project delivery functions
have benefits as their number one definition of success.
In order to have more successful projects, everyone
has to focus more on whether the project is delivering
the benefits that it was expected to deliver.
Acando - White Paper
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5. There are some other interesting demographic variations, of which
the data below is one. The chart shows the number one definition
of a successful project from those respondents who have
delivered projects for 15 years or more. In this group of people
– and only in this group of people, this phenomenon is not seen
in any other group – the project sponsor’s view of the project
is the most important definition of whether the project was
successful or not. When tested, this result is statistically significant.
We can draw some interesting inferences from this.
• The more experienced project managers take care of the
project sponsor’s view more so than others.
• The only way to survive in project management for 15 years or
more is to make project sponsors happy and therefore it’s not
unexpected that those with significant experience have this
bias to their definition of a successful project. Politics is at play.
• Those who have been managing projects for a long time have
come to the realisation that benefits are rarely measured and
therefore have elected for a definition that they can measure in
preference to what they know is the ‘better’ measure but too
infrequently applied.
We can’t be sure which of these inferences is
true. The data doesn’t show us that.
What is project success – 15+ years of experience
Other (please add any other success criteria in to this box)
...Wouldn’t have had a better outcome if we did the project...
...Was enjoyed by everyone who was on the project
...Delivers more benefit than cost
...Delivers the expected benefits
...Delivers all of the objectives
...The project sponsor thought it was a success
...Delivers within agreed timescales
...Delivers within budget
...Delivers most of the objectives
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Percentage of respondents
www.acando.co.uk
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6. Acando White Paper
“Project Success”
Insight
The final demographic difference is shown in the graph below.
This data shows the top two responses from respondents
managing large projects. In this group, and only in this group,
there is more of a focus on delivering all the objectives rather
than delivering expected benefits. Again, we can only guess
as to the reasons why but candidates such as; it’s almost
impossible to measure benefits on large projects; I’m too
far removed from benefits realisation to be able to judge
whether this project has been a success; the project is too
complicated to evaluate benefits objectively so objectives
is a better measure of success; are all likely explanations.
universal. This focus dissipates the further we go down the
project hierarchy. There are also some demographic groups
who have a preferential focus on the project sponsor (those
delivering projects for 15 years or more) or a significant objectives
bias as opposed to benefits bias (those delivering our largest
projects). We could all have a chance of delivering more successful
projects if we kept a constant eye on making sure what we were
doing was delivering the expected benefits and measured the
benefits frequently and fairly throughout our project lifecycles.
In summary, delivering benefits/objectives are the runaway
winners in the definition of a successful project, but this is not
What is project success - respondents from large projects
Other (please add any other success criteria in to this box)
...Wouldn’t have had a better outcome if we did the project...
...Was enjoyed by everyone who was on the project
...Delivers more benefit than cost
...Delivers the expected benefits
...Delivers all of the objectives
...The project sponsor thought it was a success
...Delivers within agreed timescales
...Delivers within budget
...Delivers most of the objectives
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Percentage of respondents
Acando - White Paper
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7. Top 10 Technical competences crucial to ensuring a successful project
Definition
Handover and closeout
Issue management
Change control
Scope management
Requirements management
Business case
Risk management
Project planning
Stakeholder management
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Percentage of respondents
Technical Factors
We now move on from a definition of project success to
a view of the technical factors that have a positive impact
on creating a successful project. For this part of the survey,
respondents were presented with a list of technical factors
and asked to rate how important they were in contributing
to a successful project. They could rate them as ‘crucial’,
‘very important’, ‘important’, ‘has little influence’, ‘somewhat
unimportant’ or ‘irrelevant’. The factors available were the
technical factors listed in the APM competence framework.
In the chart above we show the top ten factors
(out of 24 examined) that were rated as ‘crucial’
to ensuring a successful project.
Stakeholder management is the runaway winner and is
according to our survey the most important factor to ensure
the delivery of a successful project. Interestingly project
planning is second in the list and this is despite the prevalence
to action rather than thought that typifies many projects
in these austere times. But this is a view of what people
thought the success contributors were, not how prevalent
these were used on their projects – that comes later!
It’s as interesting as to what doesn’t appear in the top ten list as
to what does appear. Budgeting and cost management isn’t in
the top ten list – which goes hand in hand with its low showing
in the definition of a successful project as well. But is counter to
the import it plays in the actual delivery of many projects. It’s also
interesting to see the omission of benefits management. This
was universally recognised as the most important definition of a
successful project, but does not appear in the top ten technical
activities that should be carried out to ensure a successful
project. This further supports the hypothesis we made earlier
that although benefits management is recognised as a good
definition of a successful project, the majority of us pay lip
service to it when it comes to actually delivering our projects.
www.acando.co.uk
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8. Acando White Paper
“Project Success”
Insight
Support
Deliver
Manage
Pay for
Project Planning
Project Planning
Change Control
Project Planning
Business Case
Risk Management
Project Planning
Stakeholder Mngt
Risk Management
Scope Management
Stakeholder Mngt
Scope Management
Stakeholder Mngt
Stakeholder Mngt
Requirements Mngt
Definition
Requirements Mngt
Requirements Mngt
Scope Management
Benefits Management
Again there are some interesting variations across
some of the demographics that we measured.
The table above has columns representing a respondent’s
position in the project hierarchy (see Appendix B for
further definition). The cells in the table show the top five
technical tasks that each of these groups consider as the
most important to delivering a successful project.
Every one of the groups had project planning and
stakeholder management in their top five (marked
dark green). The only demographic group who did not
have stakeholder management in their top five were
those involved in managing the smallest projects.
Three out of four of the groups had scope management
and/or requirements management in their top five (marked
light green). This reinforces the importance of these
activities in ensuring the successful delivery of a project.
But it is the differences again that give us cause
for most commentary.
• Those lower down the project hierarchy have risk management
in their top five technical factors but they do not appear in the
top five of those higher up the hierarchy. Are we delegating risk
management too low down? Or is this a consequence of those
lower in the hierarchy being task focused and therefore risk
management is naturally appearing higher on their agendas?
• Those responsible for managing project teams have change
control in their top five which is not repeated anywhere else. It
is however closely allied to definition which is in the top
5 of those paying for the projects. But it does seem like
those paying for the projects think we should spend more
effort accurately defining what we’re doing and those
responsible for managing interpret that, or implement that,
by having strict change control requirements. It seems
those managing have a cure (change control) rather than a
prevention (better project definition).
• And then we come back to benefits. Not only was this
recognised as the most prevalent definition of a successful
project (and more prevalent the higher up the hierarchy one
goes), but it’s reinforced by those who pay for projects marking
it as one of the five most important technical tasks to ensure a
successful project. But it doesn’t appear in any of the other
groups’ top five at all. This is only adding weight to the premise
that benefits management is important and we just don’t do it.
The other important trend across the hierarchy demographic
is the percentage of dispersion amongst the top five technical
factors that contribute to project success. At the ‘project
support’ level, 65% of respondents have the same top five
criteria. At the ‘pay for’ level 93% of respondents have the
same top five criteria. This statistically significant observation
shows that as you move up the hierarchy, one is more certain
of what contributes to project success but as you move down
the hierarchy there is less agreement on what contributes
to project success. It seems again that communication
is not all it could be in our project environments.
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9. Behavioural Factors
This raises an interesting question for those tasked with managing
project functions in their companies – how many of your project
managers have been on a formal conflict management training
course versus those that have been on a formal technical
training course (e.g. PRINCE2)? I’m guessing most people have a
prevalence to training on the technical – despite our respondent
group being massively in agreement that behavioural factors
contribute to project success significantly more so than technical.
When we amalgamate technical and behavioural factors, the top
three factors are all from the behavioural stable – communication,
teamwork and leadership.
We repeated the technical factors exercise with behavioural
factors. Respondents were given the same 6 options and had
to rate how important these behavioural competences were in
contributing to a successful project. The factors available were the
behavioural factors listed in the APM competence framework.
The chart below shows the top ten factors rated as ‘crucial’
by the survey respondents. The top ten behavioural factors
are universally rated as higher than all of the top ten
technical factors demonstrating an appreciation that the
behavioural aspects of project management are more likely
to contribute to a successful project than the technical.
They were no statistically significant variations across any
of the demographic groups on behavioural factors.
Project Success Criteria - Behavioural Competences
Organisational structure
Organisational roles
Professionalism and ethics
Negotiation
Conflict management
Project governanace
Project sponsorship
Leadership
Teamwork
Communication
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Percentage of respondents
What’s missing?
It’s interesting what’s missing from any of these analyses. In
none of the top ten have we seen project methodology or
standardised tools and systems. A lot of organisations invest
heavily in these two areas but they are not seen in our survey as
important or contributing factors to a successful project. Why?
One hypothesis is that there is observational bias creeping in to
the results here. And we built additional questions in to the survey
to highlight obvious areas where we thought the bias may be.
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10. Acando White Paper
“Project Success”
Insight
Tools, Methodologies and Governance
contribute to making projects more successful
To finish off the analysis, here is a collection of other
interesting observations that didn’t nicely fit into any
of the categories at which we’ve looked so far.
70%
Percentage of respondents
Parting Thoughts
60%
50%
40%
Yes
30%
20%
Percentage of respondents rating benefits
management as crucial to project success
No
10%
60%
There was a very specific question asked later about
whether tools, methodologies and governance were
contributing to making projects more successful,
where two thirds of respondents agreed they did.
Percentage of respondents
0%
50%
40%
30%
Crucial and
very important
20%
10%
Crucial
0%
My projects use strong project tools
and methodologies
90%
Percentage of respondents
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
No
30%
20%
10%
We’ve focused a lot throughout on benefits management. It’s
crucial to the number one and number two definitions as to
what a successful project is. It’s more accepted as important the
higher up the project hierarchy we go. And it’s in the top five
technical competences for those paying for the projects. But
as a whole it rated ‘crucial’ with only 20% of respondents and
was 17th out of all 24 attributes examined. There seems to be
a big mismatch between what we know defines a successful
project and what we’re actually doing on our projects.
Yes
0%
There is too much emphasis placed
on whether a project is successful
Another hypothesis is that tools and methodologies are
considered a prerequisite today and therefore the survey results
focus on less obvious aspects. Unfortunately the data doesn’t
validate this hypothesis (only 25% of respondents projects had
good methodologies and tools) so it’s more likely to be the
former hypothesis. The survey doesn’t give us a definitive answer
one way or the other, but it does raise the interesting question.
70%
Percentage of respondents
But only one quarter of respondents actually recognised that
their projects used strong tools and methodologies. One
hypothesis for why tools and methodologies were not rated
higher as a contributing factor to success when presented
with a long list is that people recognise their own projects
don’t have them so they tend to automatically rate them lower
(we’re very bad at admitting what we know we’re bad at).
60%
50%
40%
Yes
30%
20%
No
10%
0%
Over 60% of respondents thought there was too much
emphasis placed on whether a project is successful or not.
I found this result shocking and disturbing. It may be an
acknowledgement that we don’t do benefits management well
so we can’t easily answer the question whether a project was
successful or not. Or it may simply be that those of us tasked
with managing change in our organisations have lost our way
and our raison d’être. This for me is an area that is worthy of
further analysis but our study didn’t go further in to this topic.
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11. All my projects will be successful
because I will make sure they are
My projects will be successful
because I will make sure they are
60%
Percentage of respondents
Percentage of respondents
60%
50%
40%
30%
No
Yes
20%
10%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
0%
There is little confidence in the individual’s own ability
to influence the project to a successful outcome. Most
respondents thought they were not able to influence the
project in this way. Thankfully, the more experienced you
are in projects, the less you agree with this statement.
New
Experienced
Professional
Even so, there is a distinct lack of either personal
responsibility or a distinct lack of confidence in ability
to influence a project to a successful outcome.
My successful projects had the following
Effective communication
Well defined requirements
Realism around objectives and timescales
A strong executive sponsor
A project team with authority to make decisions
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Percentage of respondents
Respondents were asked to rate what their successful projects
had which they thought had contributed to them being
successful. The top five reasons are shown in the chart above.
Communication is number one and this is also the number
one behavioural competence believed to contribute to project
success. A good level of alignment there. But interestingly ‘a strong
executive sponsor’, ‘realism around objectives and timescales’ and
‘a project team with authority to make decisions’ didn’t appear in
any of the other top ten lists we’ve looked at but are numbers 3,
4 and 5 in projects that have been successful. This too is worthy
of further analysis but beyond the scope of the current study.
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12. Acando White Paper
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Projects are getting easier to deliver the
more experience I get of managing projects
Percentage of respondents
100%
80%
60%
Yes
40%
20%
No
0%
And finally, in a nod to the wise (I couldn’t bring myself
to write ‘older’), we recognise that as we gain more and
more experience in delivering projects, they become
easier to manage through to a successful conclusion.
Projects are becoming easier
as I gain more experience
Percentage of respondents
95%
To Summarise
I’m not sure if the survey has produced more questions than
answers, but there are some interesting observations:
90%
85%
80%
75%
70%
New
Experienced
Professional
And this is supported across the experience demographic
with those who have more experience being even
more in agreement with this statement. This is either
self-gratification, or a reality that experience truly does
lend itself to improved chances of project success.
• The number one definition of a successful project is one which
delivers the expected benefits / objectives. But too few of us
measure benefits or objectives. There is a dissipation of this
belief the further down the project hierarchy you transcend.
• Of all the factors that contribute to a successful project, the
behavioural factors are significantly more important than the
technical factors.
• Delivering a project on time and to budget were not seen as
key to defining project success.
• Project practitioners are not confident of their ability to
influence a project to a successful outcome.
• Experience counts for a lot.
• There were no significant variations across industries in our
respondent data. All industries showed the same trends as the
aggregated trends presented in this paper (or where those
trends were different, they were not significantly different).
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13. 1. The industry into which the project is delivered.
The hypothesis being that different industries have different
success rates and different criteria that contribute to success.
2. Respondent’s position in the project hierarchy.
The hypothesis being that people at different levels in
the hierarchy have different definitions of project success
and different ‘thresholds’ for a successful project.
3. The number of years the respondent has been a
project manager. The hypothesis being that experience
is an important contributor to project success.
4. The ‘size’ of projects managed. The hypothesis
being that larger projects are less successful than smaller
projects – as a project grows in size (and assumed
growth in complexity), it becomes less successful.
For each of these demographics, the responses were
‘grouped’ to create 3 or 4 demographic groups that
made analysis more manageable. The full demographic
data and groupings are presented below.
Industry
Industry into which respondents deliver projects
Percentage of respondents
14%
Industries respondents deliver projects in to
Percentage of respondents
We looked for 4 different demographic groupings in the
respondents and have analysed the data by these groupings
searching for hypotheses that responses are somehow different
across different groupings. The groupings we looked for were:
There were respondents in every industry we measured. 40% of
respondents were in the top four industries of Public Sector (1st),
Software and Computer Services (2nd), Financial Services (3rd)
and Telecommunications (4th). These industries where then
grouped in to service industries, production industries,
sales industries, third sector and ‘others’.
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
les
Sa
s
ice
rv
Se
n
tio
uc
od
Pr
r
he
Ot
fit
ro
rP
fo
ot
N
The distribution across these 5 groupings shows no one
grouping being over-represented in our respondents.
Hierarchy
Respondents position in project hierarchy
Percentage of respondents
Appendix A –
Respondent Demographics
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
ct
oje
Pr
ct
oje
Pr
...
t
en
em
ag
an
M
e
m
m
ra
og
Pr
t/
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pp
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ce
Offi
r
...
...
er
er
er
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ag
ag
ag
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ire
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tM
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eD
jec
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Pr
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am
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gr
og
Ex
nio
ro
Pr
ss
Se
/P
ine
ct
s
Bu
oje
Pr
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
r
r
r
s
s
s
s
s
s rs
il
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n
g n ia ing ate ter co re er
ls
u
h
c
ice ta Ga ce to to nc ar ge ca io tie on e pe in io d
rv Re il & cien Sec Sec efe & P era emi ruct Utili cati duc Pa eer rtat Me Min l Est mpu oba Leis Ot
Se
a o
T l&
O e S blic ird & D ile Bev Ch nst & uni Pro ry & gin spo
Re d C
ial
t
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e
Lif Pu Th ace mob
Co ergy mm ood res al E Tran
nc
n
av
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n co
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ea
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sp uto
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ftw
Ind
So
The majority of our respondents were Project
Managers. There were very few respondents who were
responsible for commissioning projects (budget holding
business executives or Board Members) but there
were some people in both of these categories.
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14. Acando White Paper
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Insight
These were further grouped in to 4 distinct
hierarchy levels shown below.
Respondents position in project hierarchy
45%
Those ‘new’ to managing projects have less than five years
experience. The experienced grouping includes everyone
between five and twenty years experience and the professional
grouping includes those with more than twenty years experience.
Again the peak in the experienced column is expected.
Number of years experience managing projects
35%
30%
Percentage of respondents
Percentage of respondents
40%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Support
Deliver
Manage
Pay for
The only group under-represented in our responses were
those who ‘pay for’ projects. It would be interesting to
conduct further research in this demographic group to
validate the responses we have received so far – but as always,
getting data from this group is harder and more costly.
Experience
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
New
Size was defined as budget, team size and project duration
in recognition that a low budget project can have 1000s of
team members and therefore be ‘bigger’ than the budget
itself shows. There is an expected ‘tailing off’ of responses
as project sizes grow and an unexpected peak at the end.
The data has a large number of very large projects.
Typical size of project managed
Percentage of respondents
Percentage of respondents
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
ss
Le
3
an
th
s
ar
ye
n
ee
tw
Be
5
nd
3a
s
ar
ye
n5
ee
tw
Be
rs
ea
0y
d1
an
0
n1
ee
tw
Be
rs
ea
5y
d1
an
5
n1
ee
tw
Be
rs
ea
0y
d2
an
0
n2
ee
tw
Be
rs
ea
0y
d3
an
s
ar
ye
30
er
Ov
Professional
Size
Number of years experience managing projects
30%
Experienced
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
; ..
; ..
; ..
; ..
; ..
; ..
; ..
; ..
0m
5m
5m
0m
0m
0m
0m
1m
25
25
10
an
an
n1
n2
n5
er
th
th
an
an
ha
ha
ha
ov
ss
ss
th
th
st
st
st
s
s
le
le
et
les
les
les
les
les
et
et
dg
et
et
et
et
et
dg
dg
Bu
dg
dg
dg
dg
dg
Bu
Bu
Bu
Bu
Bu
Bu
Bu
The data had good representation across the full length of
experiences and approximately follows a normal distribution
curve which is as expected. This data was further grouped
as shown above.
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15. This data was further categorised as below.
Number of years experience managing projects
50%
Percentage of respondents
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
t-tests. In layman’s terms, it is testing whether the differences
shown in the same data are statistically significant or not.
Because of the distribution of responses data can appear to have
valid differences, but when compared to the whole sample,
those differences can prove to be not statistically significant.
This is what we have tested for in the data presented here.
We compared all significance testing at the 99%, 95%
and 90% confidence levels and anything that proved to
be statistically significant at the 95% confidence level has
been marked as statistically significant in our research
body. Test results not passing the 95% confidence test
have not been marked as statistically significant.
5%
0%
Small
Medium
Large
Appendix B –
Statistical Significance Testing
Again for the layman, if we have marked a result as statistically
significant in our research body, what we’re saying is
that we have tested the differences in responses and the
difference is not down to subtle differences in the entire
population, the differences are statistically significant.
The results from the data have been analysed to identify
whether they are statistically significant. This appendix does
not intend to give a thorough treatment of statistical testing
and the interested reader is encouraged to research further.
All conclusions that have been marked as ‘statistically significant’
in the body of the research report have been tested using
About the Author
Phil Jacklin is the Managing Director of Acando UK, a global consultancy providing project management services. He has managed
consultancy firms for over 15 years, all providing project management services to blue chip clients across the globe. In this capacity
Phil has provided governance across numerous projects, employed and recruited hundreds of project managers and advised many
of his clients on how to improve their project management capabilities.
For more insight, comments
and opinion visit our website
www.acando.co.uk
www.acando.co.uk
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16. www.acando.co.uk
United Kingdom Head Office
Oak House
Ground Floor, Sutton Quays Business Park
Clifton Road
Sutton Weaver
WA7 3EH
Tel: +44 (0) 1928 796800
Email: projectsuccess@acando.com
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