Kill the Baby!

How to define project success?!

A subjective argument that will never ever end!

Experts tend to define a successful project as: a project delivered on or ahead of schedule, on or below budget and within scope!

But is it really the case all the time? I doubt!

There are many projects meeting such criteria but a true failure in terms of value-addition, quality, benefits, etc…

On the other hand, there are successful projects where time is not even a factor to determine neither success nor failure.  

Well, I reached to a conclusion that could be summarized as follows: Nothing is perfect, likewise no project or rather project environment is perfect. As a project manager you need to embrace many imperfections while you’re managing a project, you also need to draw many scenarios and tackle many challenges.

The project is your BABY, if you want it to succeed, you shall know how to take care of it and feed it until it blossoms.  

However, is it always wise to carry this baby?

One of the principles I really adore in PRINCE2 (Project Management Methodology) is Principle 1: Continued Business Justification.

Simple & straightforward; if you are not able to justify WHY your project exists, then you simply don’t need to take it forward, so go ahead and Kill the Baby! 

What I have noticed throughout my years of experience that most organizations at the end of their projects (baby delivery time), they realize that this project was a waste of time, effort and resources with no measurable returns. This could be due to many reasons (e.g. the project is not serving the strategic vision, decreasing ROI, lack of corporate or IT governance, emerging PESTEL considerations, etc...).

The principle reflects the importance of justifying the existence of your project; draining 10K out of the budget is better than draining 20K with no added value in both cases.

So if it cannot be justified, call it off and send your consultants back home!   

Having said that doesn't mean you through the baby with the bath water (this is a different metaphorical baby); the lesson learned out of a failure project shall remain in your records to remind you of what went well to capitalize on, and what went off-track to mitigate next time you manage similar projects. 

This reminds me of an old lady story (60+ years old), when she decided to divorce her husband after years of unsuccessful marriage and misery.

Her family and friends advised her to finish her life with him instead of being alone, especially that she is already 60, and so what left is a small chunk!

She insisted and she got divorced!

Today she is 86 years old and she is enjoying every single bit of her life; 26 years is not really a small chunk!