Criteria for the success of a trip project. What is a successful project? What is a project

Project Success Criteria- a set of indicators that make it possible to judge the degree of success of the project.

Project Management Success Criteria— performance indicators of project management.

project success, as a rule, means obtaining by all interested parties the results that justify their expectations, traditionally formulated in the form of goals and requirements. If such goals and requirements are formulated, the criteria for the success of the project can be quantitative indicators that reflect the degree to which the goals of the project or certain requirements are met.

A clear and unambiguous definition of these criteria is a mandatory task at the initial stage of project launch. The project manager must define and agree on indicators of success and how to measure them with all project stakeholders.

The overall criterion for the success of a project is the achievement of the project objectives at the planned time and within the planned resources.

The main requirement for the criteria is their unambiguous and clear definition. For each project and each customer, success criteria must be defined, evaluated and analyzed.

The fact of failure to achieve the goals set at the beginning of the project does not always mean failure in the implementation of the project. However, if the views of the parties on the goals and objectives of the project change during the execution of the project, these changes should be reflected in the appropriate success criteria.

The concept of project management success is related to the success of the project, but they are not the same thing. It is possible to successfully manage a project that will later be abandoned due to the loss of relevance, for example, due to a change in the company's strategy. If the success of a project is usually associated with the achievement of the expected business result, then the success of project management is usually associated with such criteria as compliance with project time and cost constraints, timeliness of deliveries, quality of communications, response time to emerging risks and problems, etc.

If, due to ongoing changes, the project loses its relevance, it is necessary to consider options for making changes to the plan or make a decision to close this project.

defining success criterion project is relevance of the result at the time of its achievement.

At the very beginning of the project, it is highly advisable to analyze the causes of possible project failures (potential risk areas).

The main reasons for project failures can be:

Unclear goals;

Insufficient funding;

Changing business priorities;

Insufficient support from top management;

Inefficient team (qualification of the project staff);

Insufficiently effective interaction in the project;

Lack of self-government;

Insufficiently effective communications;

Lack of motivation (refers to internal risks);

It is necessary to test the project for “causes of possible failure”: are the objectives of the project clear enough? The degree of reliability of investors? Is the project team qualified enough? Is she motivated enough?

Criteria for success and criteria for failure are interconnected. But over time, they may change, in particular, as the market situation changes.

Many organizations are project-oriented. Companies exist by obtaining new projects and their successful implementation. Successfully completed projects are the foundation upon which an organization builds its future. Whether they are related to the creation of new products, the construction of buildings, the expansion of production capacity or the introduction of a new computer system.

Project management is necessary to effectively coordinate and manage an organization, ensuring that the right action is taken at the right time with a full understanding of the implications. The art of project management includes the ability to achieve goals within the established limits on financial, material, human, time and other resources.

However, in most companies, projects are not always implemented “smoothly”. They do not fit into the routine of daily work. Gartner, the world-famous analytics firm, estimates that 66% of large-scale projects fail to achieve their stated business goals, are completed late, or are grossly over budget. Standish's group, which exclusively tracks the successes and failures of IT projects, defines failed projects as projects thrown in the middle and estimates failure rates at 15%. At the same time, "defective" projects (defined as projects with cost overruns, missed deadlines, and projects with unsatisfactory results) account for 51% of all IT projects.

Why so many projects keep failing even with an increasing focus on project management quality and an increasing number of experienced and competent project managers?

The St. Gallen Institute and the International Institute for Learning Organizations and Innovation in Munich conducted research into the causes of successful and unsuccessful projects. They came to the conclusion that causes failures are to a lesser extent of an industrial-economic or technical nature, and largely related to the culture of entrepreneurship, communication and information processes on the project .

According to A. Golovin, the project will fail in three cases :

when unrealistic plans are developed or they are not revised if necessary. This means that they will be thwarted;
when the project developer is not familiar with project management and manages the project as a normal activity. Then the heads of departments do not know what to do: the main work or tasks for the project;
when a project developer, when creating a project team, focuses not on personal qualities, but on positions. Then the members of the project team are unable to complete the project tasks.

Inaccurate deliverables and scope, lack of organizational commitment, poor allocation of resources and risk control, poor project management with components not fit for purpose, etc. Any of these reasons can cause the project to fail.

The main cause of project problems is the ability of the project manager to work with problems, reducing risks. He must be a strong leader, able to communicate with company management and meet expectations in resource management.

Poor project definition is also the main reason for project failure from the approval stage. Insufficient level of accountability and responsibility at the appropriate higher level negatively affects the success of the project throughout its life cycle. If the customer does not manage the project or is not particularly interested in it, there is a possibility that the project will fail.

In general, it should be noted that main reasons for project failures are:

Requirements: Unclear, lack of understanding, lack of priorities, contradictory, ambiguous, imprecise.
Resources: Lack of resources, resource conflicts, turnover of key resources, poor planning.
Deadlines: Too compressed, unrealistic, too optimistic.
Planning: based on insufficient data, not all taken into account, insufficient details, erroneous calculations.
Risks: Unidentified or fictional, lack of control.

The Standish group is sure that With The most important factors in the success or failure of a project are, in order of importance:

The degree of customer involvement.
Top management support.
Experienced project leader.

According to studies of both foreign and domestic experts, most of the obstacles to fixing a failing project, it :

Persuade owners of the need to accept the changes necessary to bring the project to successful completion, regardless of changes in scope, budget, resources, etc.;
poor communication and ownership involvement, lack of clarity and trust;
conflicting policies and priorities;
the problem of finding enough qualified resources to complete the project;
lack of methodology or processes to get the project back on track.

In the process of research, many factors have been identified that affect the success in correcting the situation with the project, but the most important is the project manager, who is the most important member of the team, able to influence the result, reducing risks or even getting rid of them. It is usually the project manager who is responsible for rescuing a problematic project.

Other factors in successfully completing a problematic project were: having a standard methodology for managing or rescuing a problematic project, the size of the firm, and the industry in which it does business.

The key to saving a troubled project is effort. Once a firm decides to direct its energies toward solving the problems that endangered the project, the chances of its successful completion increase.

The decision to save the project is made by: top management (in 50% of companies), sponsor (16%), department head (16%) or project manager (13%). In smaller firms, the sponsor (24%) or the project manager (24%) have much more power in terms of voting to save the project. Less often, this decision is made by the head of the department (5%).

Summarizing the practical experience of project management shows that most often steps to save the project , it :

modernization of communication and management (62%);
revision of the project objectives - reduction of its scale, revision of financing (60%);
adding or removing resources (58%);
solving technical problems (49%);
replacement of the project manager or engagement of a consultant (36%).

Firms that do not have a methodology are more likely to replace the project manager than those that have mastered the methodology (22% and 9%, respectively). They are also more likely to bring in outside consultants to save a project (26% vs. 11%).

Usually, rescue operations of a problematic project are quite successful. Almost three-quarters of problematic projects (74%) are eventually successfully completed, 18% are still in progress, so the final results are not known. Only 4% really failed, and 3% closed for business reasons.

There are two essential factors for the successful implementation of the project. First of them is more technical side of project management. It is mainly concerned with planning and cost estimation, project management and control, risk management, quality management, project documentation and results evaluation. The second factor is an managerial competence of the project manager.

Companies that do not have a standard project methodology do not always value these skills than those that have such a methodology (78% of the former spoke about the importance of project manager qualifications and 96% of the latter).

Almost all respondent organizations (92%) noted that The skills and abilities of a project manager are very important(64%) or simply important (28%) for the success of a troubled project rescue operation.

It is important that the responsibility for the implementation of the project at all stages of management (planning, implementation, control, analysis, changes) is carried by one person - project manager. This will focus the area of responsibility and improve the efficiency of the decision-making process.

Successful project implementation depends not only from project leaders and superiors, but also from many other members of the project team. Their actions should also be regulated, motivated and aimed at obtaining not only timely, but also high-quality results.

An important component is a holistic role-based management concept for each individual project and the entire portfolio. Roles, their place in the organizational structure, rights and obligations, qualification requirements should be defined. Examples of project roles could be: Project Manager, Project Assistant, Development Specialist, Construction Manager, Construction Specialist, Construction Coordinator, Design Specialist, Quantity Specialist, etc.

More one criterion for success on the project- this is the ability to choose the "main point of application of efforts", the ability to focus on priority tasks, the solution of which leads to a significant progress towards the goal.

The goals of the project are achieved by action. The project manager must constantly monitor the implementation of project milestones on time and the use of resources. Lost time cannot always be made up, even by increasing resources.

It is amazing that even the most skillfully planned project can reach a point where it is difficult to determine how things are going. But this is exactly what you need to know in order to direct efforts towards the goal. Without one or another monitoring system - tracking the progress of work - it is impossible to be sure that the manager "keeps abreast" of the project.

Timely and accurate action is the basis for the success of any project. , the foundation of which is organizational discipline - the ability to act "here and now". The experience of project activities shows that the observance of discipline and obligation of all project participants increases the chance of success by an order of magnitude.

Among the others project management success factors should be called:

introducing an experienced project manager and delegating enough rights to him to make the necessary changes;
attracting additional, qualified resources;
budget increase;
open communication, definition of expectations and distribution of responsibilities among responsible persons;
project redesign.

Interviewing experienced project managers to find out if what is the most important component of project success, showed that it its implementation. More often than not, projects stall from non-compliance than from any errors in scheduling or resource allocation.

Everything starts at the top. Management must be aware of the cost and scope of the project. Approving the project budget is not enough. For a project to be successful, everyone involved must know that management is fully committed to the activity, that the project has the highest priority, and that its success is directly linked to the future of the enterprise.

Management, due to their position, can have an important positive influence on the process of thinking about the use of resources in a project. It can help make sure before the project starts how smart resource planning is. May insist on developing additional scenarios to catch up on what is possible and what is not.

Without the formation of a certain culture of project implementation, the project manager is powerless to influence its progress towards the goal. Target dates are set, then missed—the project schedule becomes more of a wish than a plan of action. In this case, everyone loses, but most of all - the company. The obligations of the performers should be consistent with the corresponding obligations of the management.

The manager cannot move forward without real concerted action by the project team. Depending on the scope of the project, this approval may be replaced by the assignment of work to project participants. In many cases, the project team consists of employees from all departments of the company. If team members do not pay enough attention to the work on the project, considering this work less important than their daily duties, the project will drift, and imperceptibly, but inevitably, will lead to disaster.

If commitments are met, then the project moves forward. But, in order for everything to happen on time, it is necessary to prepare a project schedule. A workplan is a timetable that serves as a realistic model of the project's expected behavior. .

For project managers, the term "schedule" has a very specific meaning. From their point of view, a project schedule is not one unless it contains a detailed analysis of all the activities required to complete the project; realistic estimates of the time required for each activity; and, finally, thoughtful relationships between different types of work.

Although project management uses terms such as start-end, the terminology is nowhere near as important as the content: how the work is related to each other (what is the technology).

Clearly, researching the time/cost curve prior to the start of a project allows a company to make the right decision when scheduling a project.

Taken together, these elements provide an answer to the question: what needs to be done and by what date? Equally important is the question - how, what resources - people, equipment, facilities, etc. - required for each job? Will they be available when needed? How can resource conflicts be resolved?
If the project manager knows the actual resource requirements of the plan, as well as how to deal with resource shortages, the planning part of the project is complete.

Project planning requires the ability to determine how long it will take to complete a given task, especially if it involves creative or intellectual activities, regardless of the amount of resources required for it. Unfortunately, the miscalculations of the duration of the project during the initial planning are often taken too lightly, mistakenly assuming that everything will be completed on time, and lost time can always be made up by reallocating resources.

Some projects are scheduled based on the theory that you can infinitely increase the number of people and reduce the time of work to achieve the desired results. In some situations, increasing the amount of resources helps. Sometimes not. Sometimes this does more harm than good.

Frederick P. Brooks, general project manager for the IBM 360 operating system, says that in most cases, "man-months" planning is a myth. If a development project is running out of time, increasing the amount of resources actually lengthens the duration of the project—due to training additional staff, tracking their work, and communication issues. This is tantamount, according to Brooks, to using gasoline to put out a fire.

When working on a behind schedule project, the best option is to change the timing or scope of the project. The worst thing is to insist on making up for lost time. It is easy to succumb to the persuasion that some work can be accelerated without compromising quality. On paper, the quality remains. In reality, the requirements are simply reduced.

A report by management consulting firm McKinsey published in Fortune magazine calculated that some projects completed on time but over budget are 140% more profitable than if they were on schedule but missed by six months .

As a conclusion summarizing the above, we should cite the data obtained by the St. project success criteria :

General willingness to change. In successful organizations, a philosophy reigns based on the following provisions: “live and learn”, “those who do nothing are not mistaken”, “there is no such problem that we could not cope with”.
Culture of conflict. Successful projects deal with conflict constructively and openly. There is a free exchange of information and opinions, as well as an openness to criticism.
Personal responsibility of the project staff. The success of projects is directly related to the degree of personal responsibility of the project staff and the possibility of self-organization. The more powers each individual has, the sooner he is ready to take responsibility, and the greater his personal initiative and motivation. Small powers, on the contrary, encourage passivity and even opposition.
A culture of trust. A humanly pleasant climate of openness, sincerity and honesty in communicating with each other increases the likelihood of project success. In a culture of trust, there is less acceptance of mistakes and decisions are made by everyone, and after decisions are implemented.
Lack of hierarchy. Projects then were especially successful when the work on the project took place in a team where the hierarchy does not play a role in the organization of the project, or at least is reduced to a minimum. A rigid hierarchy blocked the creativity and motivation of project employees in unsuccessful projects.
Communication and information culture. Projects were especially successful when there was an atmosphere of intensive exchange of information and open communication in the team, i.e. high degree of publicity. Good communication in this regard means good cooperation, and vice versa. Intensive communication between different functional areas leads to the fact that mutual understanding grows, and employees can look beyond the “edge of the plate” of their own area, which leads to more informed decisions.

Thus, the generalization of the experience of project management showed that the competitiveness of the project should be constantly increased, achieving the maximum compliance of its consumer and cost characteristics with existing and potential customer requests. The implementation of competitive advantage is based on the essence of value, which is the source of obtaining an advantage (material, intangible, monetary, social and other values), and depends on its content, source of origin, dynamics of manifestation, scale of distribution and other conditions.

What is a project? Organization of the enterprise from scratch? Or, perhaps, only its separate division? Building a brand or a single product? Holding a celebration for commercial gain or just organizing a party with friends? And how many of us know how to measure the success of a project? Criteria for success, how many and how they are defined - for many, these concepts are also an unsolved mystery. Lots of questions, right? To get answers to them, read the article.

Classics of the genre

In managerial management, it has a completely logical and understandable definition. This is any time-limited undertaking that has the goal of creating a product, service, or other clear result. That is, the project will not be the entrepreneurial activity itself, but only its start or reorganization. Not creating an idea, but bringing it to life.

If everything is clear with this, then the question of how the criteria for project success are determined is not so unambiguous. To begin with, it is not always clear what is generally meant by success. Management specialists believe that a business can be considered successful when its initiators meet the deadline and budget allotted for its implementation, while the quality of the created good corresponds to that stated in the plan. However, there are several parameters that also conditionally indicate the positive implementation of the project or its failure.

Unspoken Criteria for Project Success

To begin with, everyone sees the very definition of success in their own way. According to statistics, far from all enterprises reach their logical conclusion from the first time, but only a third of them. In all other cases, it is necessary to make some adjustments to the work in the course of the order. But again, if you believe the numbers, then the profit of businessmen who sacrificed an increase in expenses for the sake of accelerating the pace of work increases by almost one and a half times (by 140%) compared to those who decided not to inflate the budget, but extended the period for achieving their goals.

Therefore, in addition to the above measures in the form of money, time and quality, two more parameters must be taken into account:

A new positive experience gained as a result of the team's work.
Satisfaction with the results of the task of all participants in the enterprise.

It cannot be said that these are the fundamental criteria for the success of the project, but they are important and they must be taken into account by those leaders who seek to develop their offspring, and not to stagnate in one place all their lives.

That which cannot be touched

The difficulty in determining the two parameters presented above is that they cannot be calculated. Their results are quite subjective. The experience gained primarily concerns the executor of the order, and with the solution of each new task, the company becomes stronger and more successful. This is important for the future activities of the business, because rich experience helps in attracting customers and makes it possible to successfully implement new projects.

But to achieve comprehensive satisfaction with the results of the work is almost unrealistic. There will always be someone who will not like a business partner. This happens especially often in cases where the goals and criteria for the success of the project are not defined initially. Project management is a separate area in the science of enterprise management, and it should be given special attention. As practice shows, a business ends with success, which is favored by the following factors:

the project manager and his team are ready for changes, have flexibility and the ability to quickly redirect the vector of their activities;
each of the participants in the enterprise has its own share of responsibility;
there is no hierarchy in the team or it is minimized;
the company implementing the project promotes the principles of a culture of trust between employees, it is also important to respond to conflict situations in a timely manner and avoid a tense situation in the team and between the contractor and the customer;
the last factor is the development of information and communication culture.

Now let's discuss in more detail the main criteria for success and failure of projects.

Time and planning

Anyone who has ever been involved in the implementation of a project knows how important it is to draw up a preliminary plan for the future enterprise. However, not everyone knows how to do it right. When planning activities, it is necessary to describe each step in great detail, allocating a realistic amount of time for its implementation. It is time management that is of fundamental importance in the implementation of the project. The criteria for the success of any business include this parameter as a mandatory one for a reason.

If the contractor cannot complete the work on time, and the deadline is constantly delayed, there is very little chance of a successful completion of the project. However, you should not work quickly, but at the expense of quality. Often, even those projects in which all deadlines were missed, in the end show good results and bring solid profits.

Price and reallocation of resources

Often in business there are situations when a project is in jeopardy due to insufficient funding. There may not be enough money for various reasons - a change in the regulatory framework, miscalculations in the preparation of the plan, a change in supplier or contractor, etc. The decision to overcome the crisis falls on the shoulders of investors, the head of the company or the project manager.

In the case when additional financing of the enterprise is not predicted, the project manager must decide on cost optimization. This is a completely logical and reasonable step, but, as practice shows, a case in which personnel fell under the distribution (reduction of people, refusal to train newcomers, decrease in the general level of competence of employees) is unlikely to achieve great success. Therefore, it is better to go over budget than to pay even more later to correct your own mistakes.

Quality and Demand Reduction

Time and budget are the criteria for the success of the project, which allow for corrections and deviations from the original plan. Most customers agree to pay extra and give more time to complete the case, but no one, we repeat - no one, will agree to receive a low-quality product as a result of work. It is impossible to save neither on raw materials nor on human resources. Such "optimization" rarely leads to success. Exceptions can only be really worthwhile changes that allow you to simultaneously reduce the cost of implementing the project, but do not detract from its prospects.

Is the project manager the criterion for his success?

No, rather it is a factor in the success of the enterprise. The proof of this is not one life example. The criteria for the success of a project do not refer to a specific person, but to his organizational performance and his leadership qualities. However, even an extremely experienced and in all respects good project manager will not be able to achieve his goals if he does not cope with a lot of red tape and the incompetence of subordinates.

Any specialist can easily prove his professional suitability in the field with which he is familiar, but as soon as he finds himself in an environment unknown to him, he is likely to fail. But, as they say, the one who does nothing is not mistaken, so go for it and succeed!

First of all, it is necessary to formulate the goals of the project as clearly as possible. It is desirable that they be formulated according to the SMART criterion 1 . From experience, it's far from easy. I remember how, at my master class, 2 teams from a very large energy company formulated the goals of their projects, which at that time were already in full swing. After an hour and a half of arguing, they finally managed to more or less clearly define the goals - before that, the company had a very vague understanding of what exactly needed to be done.

But often this is not enough. Therefore, a description of the criteria by which the project will be evaluated at the end is added to the goal. They are called criteria for project success and failure. It is very important to determine them at the initial stage (“agree on the shore”), because this will help to avoid many conflicts related to the evaluation of its results in the future.

Basic criteria are applicable to any projects, additional ones should always be identified separately.

If you do not set the criteria, incidents often occur. So with the illiterate introduction of a new motivation system, employees not only do not start better

1 See paragraph 2.4 “Objectives”

work, but they quit. At the beginning of the project, they forgot an important criterion: to retain key personnel.

It is good if the goal of the project is formulated in one phrase and specified next to it.

criteria.

EXAMPLE 58. Fedor Khaliulin, head of the design and construction company "GLASARD":“In commercial organizations, most of the projects are commercial. That is, one of the first criteria for success - profit. This is so clear to everyone that sometimes this criterion is not even formally included in the list. If you make such a mistake in a project with a large number of project team members, then it may turn out that since the profit is not formalized, then there is no formal procedure for monitoring the profitability of the project either. In this case, the project manager will be left without prompt access to important information.”

Example.By February 1, 2011, open and run at full capacity a shopping and entertainment complex with the following parameters:

- total investment:... euro;

- location: at the intersection of major highways within the Moscow Ring Road;

- the availability of convenient access roads and parking for ... car spaces;

- total area: from ... sq. m;

-100% leasing of retail space at a price.../sq. miles above;

- operating costs no more than .. ./sq. m;

- the number of staff in the state - no more ... people, etc.

PRACTICE 43

Select the project on which you will study the material

This chapter.

The project can be both real and fictional. It is important that it is interesting for you and your team members. You should also understand its subject area: either you are a professional in it, or on the basis of common sense.

From experience, it's good if it istypical project which you perform for your external clients (of course, if your business consists of projects, for example, creating websites). Or could it beinvestment project to create a new asset for your business. Or -organizational, such as the implementation of an information system. How you use this chapter to work through the material will determine how much you benefit from it.Formulate the goals of the selected project according to the SMART criterion and describe the criteria for success and failure.

PROJECT SELECTION

The resources of any organization are limited, and there is always a choice where to send them: to which of the current or new projects, to which department, etc. In a large company, it is desirable that a formal project selection procedure be applied, passing for example, once a year at the Project Committee with adjustments every six months or quarterly. In a small firm, everything can be simpler, but it is advisable to hold meetings on current and promising projects several times a year.

The selection of projects takes into account a variety of factorsFor example:

Strategic importance of the project for the company;

Financial indicators of the project (profitability, payback period, etc.) 1 ;

Restrictions:

~ temporary;

~ need for resources (financial, human, technical, etc.);

~ technological;

~ administrative;

Risk level;

Project stakeholders and their interests. It is critical for the project to make such an analysis. For example, the interest in the project of the owners or top managers of the company may outweigh all other factors. In this case, alas, the decision to launch a project is often taken voluntarily, without justification and calculations;

assumptions and assumptions. We often do something based on assumptions, sometimes not realized. For a long time, most companies planned for the future on the assumption that the wealth of their customers would steadily increase. The crisis crept up unnoticed...

When selecting projects, it's a good idea to write down the key assumptions that make you think it will be successful.

EXAMPLE 59. Grigory Odulov, Deputy General Director of a trading company:“Unfortunately, many projects are launched only on the basis of assumptions and assumptions. And it's not the fault, but the misfortune of the leaders and owners of companies that project management turns into risk management. Often one can only guess how this or that “interested” department (in the person of a particular official) will interpret, depending on the situation, a certain law; how long the current “rules of the game”, tax policy, etc. will last.”

It is desirable that ready-made presentations of current and possible projects, prepared in a single convenient form, be brought to the Project Committee,

1 See paragraph 4.3.4 “Project financial management”.

which allows the company's management to make an informed decision in the shortest possible time. The project office can provide methodological assistance to project managers and initiative groups in preparing projects for their presentation to senior management.

PRACTICE 44

Describe how projects are selected in your company today. To what extent is this optimal, based on the interests of the business? Propose an optimal procedure, as well as criteria for evaluating and selecting projects.

PROJECT CHARTER

It is very convenient when all the key parameters of the project are brought together in a document called charter (passport, declaration, card) of the project. Then, anyone who needs to familiarize themselves with the draft will only need a few minutes: a good charter is 1-2 pages long.

My client- director of a large online store - shuddered when he heard the "Project Charter". At his previous company in France, it was a hefty 100-page volume. When introducing KSUP, he set a strict requirement for us: “A minimum of documents! And then there will be no time to work. We didn't mind.

The charter of the project is approved by the top management of the company. It is the “tip of the iceberg”: a lot of preparatory work needs to be done to prepare a high-quality charter. By the way, the presentation of a new project to management can be prepared on the basis of its charter.

Each company decides for itself what information should be included in the model charter of their project. For instance:

PRACTICE 45

Review the project charter form above for your company.Make changes to it if necessary.Draw up a charter for your previously selected project based on the form you created. This is one of the key tasks of this chapter. If you don't have enough information to complete some sections of the bylaws yet, come back to this task later.

Economic calculations can be submitted in "Business plan" and/or "Feasibility Study"(feasibility study).

In a medium and large company, it is desirable to conclude with a project manager agreement (contract) specifically for this project, even if he works for the company. To fix in writing his responsibility, the criteria for evaluating the results, "carrots and sticks."

MILESTONE PLAN

Another document that can be helpful during the initiation phase is a milestone plan. A milestone is a key event in a project. Milestone plan - a sequence of project milestones with their expected dates. It helps top management to decide on the launch of the project, on its basis, control is exercised.

Often, executives are so excited when they create a milestone plan that they jump right into the project. Although this is still only preliminary planning: the list of works, their interrelations, etc. is not completely clear 1

There should not be too many milestones: preferably no more than 12. It is also useful to plan what document will confirm the passage of a particular milestone. Since a milestone is an event, it is desirable to formulate the names of milestones in perfective verbs: "Terms of Reference Signed" etc.

PRACTICE 46

Develop a plan for the milestones of your project, from launch to completion.

OTHER DOCUMENTS

Each company decides for itself what other documents are needed at the stage of project initiation.

For instance, at the very beginning, you can ask the project proponents for a brief "Project Concept" before moving on: after all, the collection of detailed information, its analysis, calculations, various approvals require the expenditure of working time. And the management may decide that it makes sense to do all this work only after the preliminary approval of the project.

Experience shows that not everyone can express their thoughts clearly and distinctly on 1 page or 2-3 slides. Here you have the first filter for selecting projects - and it works automatically, without additional managerial efforts. And at the same time - a means of educating employees.

PRACTICE 47

Decide what documents your company needs at the project initiation stage.Include everything you need, but don't create unnecessary bureaucracy.

£42. LAUNCH MEETING

When the decision to launch the project has already been made and the team has been approved, it is advisable to hold a meeting at which to give the participants the go-ahead: “Start!” Quite accurately, the essence of this event is conveyed by the English term “kick-off meeting” (“start-up meeting”), which means something like “kick meeting”.

The meeting is held to:

Publicly approve the start of the project;

Announce a single agreed point of view on the project;

Gain the consent of all stakeholders, motivate participants.
It is desirable that the project manager, the project team,

senior management of the organization, other key participants,

At the meeting, the project manager usually gives a brief presentation of the project, after which he answers questions from the participants.

At the exit, each participant must clearly understand:

What tasks does the project solve;

Who is in charge of the project;

Key clients and stakeholders;

Benefits of these parties from the implementation of the project;

Internal organization of the project, distribution of roles;

Project parameters: goals, scope of work, terms, budget;

Main difficulties and methods of their overcoming.

PRACTICE 48

The project manager always strives to bring his project to a successful conclusion, to avoid failure. Successful implementation of projects is an important condition for a successful career as a professional project manager, as well as almost any manager responsible for certain projects in an organization.

Project success means that all stakeholders of the project receive results that justify their expectations, formulated in the form of goals and requirements.

At the beginning of the project, the project manager must clearly understand the expectations of key participants and the indicators by which the conclusion about the success of the project will be formed, and during the implementation of the project, monitor and predict the state of these indicators.

The task of determining these indicators should be addressed at the stage of project initiation. At the same time, each of the interested parties must determine their understanding of the success of the project and agree with the project manager on the appropriate indicators and how to evaluate them.

Project Success Criteria- a set of qualitative and / or quantitative indicators that make it possible to judge the degree of success of the project.

That is, they reflect the degree of achievement of certain project goals or the fulfillment of certain requirements.

Main types of project success criteria:

Traditional: "on time", "within the budget", "in accordance with the specification";

Compliance with the requirements (expectations) of the customer and users;

Meeting the expectations of other project participants.

For example, the success criteria for a new film project might be:

Delivery of the finished film on time, within the allocated budget;

Getting a certain profit based on the results of rental;

Realization of a certain circulation on DVD (or Blu-ray) discs;

Receiving positive reviews from film critics and a high rating of audience ratings;

Nomination for one of the prestigious awards.

Note that the concepts of “project success” and “project management success” should not be confused. Successful project management is determined by project management efficiency indicators (quality and timeliness of managerial decision-making, risk management efficiency, optimal plans and load of performers, etc.). Effective project management is an important condition for project success, but not the only one. Even a project that is superbly managed can fail.

Consider several versions of project success factors.

Project success factors- external and internal conditions on which the successful implementation of the project depends.

For example, Peter Morris divides project success factors into technical and human factors. As a result, conclusions are drawn about the importance of taking into account factors related to people, with the organization of their interaction in the project.

Another study was conducted and described by J. Pinto, during which a survey was conducted of 400 project managers from various fields (scientific research, construction, information technology, etc.). They were asked to name the factors that ultimately determine whether a project can be successfully completed.

As a result of the survey, Top 10 Project Success Factors:

1) mission of the project (strategic importance and achievability of the project goals);

2) management support;

3) the quality of the development of the project plan;

4) consultations with the client (customer);

5) availability of qualified personnel;

6) technical support of the project;

7) customer approval;

8) monitoring and feedback;

9) communications;

10) problem management.

Alexey Polkovnikov and Mikhail Dubovik, based on surveys of managers and project participants (on the topic of project success factors), made the following conclusions:

1) Critical success factors for projects include both common factors for all projects, and specific ones, characteristic only for certain types of projects. Therefore, the project manager must take into account the specifics of the project and identify the success factors characteristic of his project;

2) different project participants (project manager, project curator, customer, performer) assess the importance and state of success factors in different ways;

3) for the successful implementation of the project, it is necessary to achieve the presence of several complementary success factors.

Summarizing and ordering the results of the studies, we can conclude that the success factors of the project relate to the three main elements of the project (see Figure 1):

1) correct and clear definition of the goals and results of the project;

2) effective project management;

Figure 1 - Factors that determine the success of the project

Correct and clear definition of the goals and results of the project.

Even a well-planned, organized and implemented project can be considered a failure if the wrong goals were originally set. For example, an organization may make mistakes in selecting and launching projects (projects that do not match the organization's strategy, projects with opposite or inconsistent goals, as a rule, cannot be recognized as completely successful).

Project goals are in most cases defined outside the project. They are formed by the top management of the company (customer), and the influence of the project manager on the initial formulation of goals is limited. The project manager has the opportunity to participate in the refinement of the project objectives, especially in preparation for the launch of the project and in the early stages of planning.

Critical Success Factors, connected with goals may include the following:

1) the mission of the project - the strategic importance of the project for the organization (the prerequisites for initiating the project and its significance for the organization should be logical and clear to all the main participants);

2) goals are clearly defined and equally understood by all project participants;

3) goals are adequate and achievable;

4) the support of the project is provided at the level of the top management of the organization;

5) the expectations of the customer, consumers and other key stakeholders are taken into account.

Effective project management

Building an effective project management system largely depends on the project manager. And it is the lack of an effective project management system that is often cited as the main cause of problems with project implementation.

Even for projects provided with experienced specialists and all the necessary resources, delays and budget overruns are typical due to the lack of timely coordination of the work of the performers, delays in the supply of equipment and many other problems arising from the lack of adequate plans, organization of execution and control of work.

Critical Success Factors, connected with management may include the following:

1) the availability and quality of the development of plans;

2) the adequacy of the organizational structure (clear distribution of responsibilities and authorities, effective interaction with departments of the organization implementing the project);

3) the effectiveness of procedures for interaction, decision-making and control;

4) the effectiveness of the motivation of project participants.

Adequate provision of the project with resources and appropriate technologies

Providing the project with resources, unfortunately, only partly depends on the project manager. But the factors associated with the technological and resource support of the project should be assessed and carefully analyzed even before the launch of the project. It is better to abandon the project than to take on a project that is not provided with resources and is technologically unrealizable.

Problems with the technological support of projects can be associated both with the use of outdated technologies and equipment that are no longer able to provide the necessary competitiveness, or with the use of new technologies that are not yet sufficiently mastered and debugged.

Critical Success Factors, connected with resource and technological support project may include the following:

1) the quality of the development of project documentation (literacy of technological solutions laid down at the design stage);

2) technological security and feasibility of the project (use of reliable and modern technologies and equipment);

3) the availability of qualified performers (including adequate qualifications of technical specialists and the possibility of their timely involvement);

4) adequate legal support of the project (including support for contract management processes and other legal issues).

Consider goals and content of the project.

The most common reasons for project failures include:

The goals and boundaries of the project are not clearly defined;

Insufficiently elaborated strategy and plan for the implementation of the project;

Inadequate provision of the project with resources;

Unrealistic deadlines, etc.

All the above reasons are related to insufficient understanding and fuzzy description of the project as a control object. The manager and other project participants may understand the goals and content of the project in different ways, not representing its real scale and complexity. And without this, it will not be possible to build an adequate organizational structure for project management and ensure the involvement of executors for the implementation of the project.

Thus, the project manager must understand as clearly as possible the features of both the project itself and the limitations and characteristics of the environment in which the project will be implemented.

Consider the main elements of the project, which must be defined.

In Figure 2, the project is presented in the form of a pyramid, in which three main parts can be distinguished:

1) the top of the pyramid - project goals(they determine what the project is being implemented for);

2) the middle part of the pyramid - project product(this is what should be created during the implementation of the project);

3) the base of the pyramid - tasks and work(which must be completed to create a project product).

Project Goals

The concept of a goal is one of the key ones in project management, since any projects are initiated and implemented to achieve certain goals.

Figure 2 - Pyramid of goals and objectives of the project

Project/program goals- the desired results (effects, benefits) achieved with the successful implementation of the project / program under the specified requirements and conditions for their implementation (in accordance with NTC)

Project goals primarily answer the question “why?” (Why is this project being implemented? What is the first thing the customer (project owner) wants to achieve as a result of this project?) However, the goals can reflect the expectations of other key stakeholders and project participants.

For instance,

If the expectations of the company's shareholders from the implementation of the project for the implementation of a new information system can be associated with obtaining additional transparency and manageability of the company, then the expectations of the head of the unit that will operate the system are associated with the ease of operation and reliability of the new system. Users of the future system expect that the system will be easy to use and will simplify (or not overly complicate) the implementation of their production processes.

The objectives of the project must be formulated by the customer. The project manager should clarify and, if necessary, refine the project objectives.

A set of interrelated goals can be defined for a project. Goals can be structured by levels (hierarchy of goals: from general to more specific). Several complementary goals may reflect the different interests of project participants.

Project mission (or strategic goals of the project) - these are goals achieved in the long term, aimed at fulfilling the mission and achieving the strategic goals of the organization.

Project goals (operational, short-term goals) – the desired result of the activity achieved upon successful completion of the project, aimed at obtaining specific short-term effects, meeting needs or effectively using the existing (opening) market opportunities in the short term, indicating the general ways, methods and technologies to achieve them.

The development of a hierarchical structure of the project goals will allow you to determine more precise requirements for the project product, formulate requirements for the organizational structure of project management and allocate responsibility for achieving the goals.

Project strategy– a common vision of the way to achieve the project goal; defines directions and basic principles of project implementation; characterized by a system (set) of qualitative and quantitative indicators ( in accordance with NTC).

Sometimes the same goals can be achieved in different ways. Accordingly, the choice of the main way to achieve the project goal is also an integral part of the process of defining and clarifying goals.

For instance,

Increasing the accuracy of accounting for the working time of employees can be achieved as a result of both the introduction of an information system and the creation of a special control service.

An increase in the volume of product deliveries can be achieved both by building a new plant and by acquiring a finished asset from competitors.

Different project goals can be achieved at different times. Understanding the sequence of achieving the goals of the project will allow developing a strategy for the implementation of the project, will make visible rather long and complex processes for achieving strategic, long-term goals.

The objectives of the project are defined by a set of indicators (success criteria) that the project manager must achieve in order for the stakeholders to receive the expected benefits.

Project product

It is not enough for the project manager to clearly understand the goals of the project. It is important to determine and agree with the customer project product(that is, what exactly should be created and handed over to the customer as a result of the project).

Project product- a material or other entity produced during the project, the creation and use of which will ultimately achieve the goals of the project.

The product of the project can be created tangible and intangible assets, such as new products and services, new technologies, buildings and structures, production facilities, trained personnel, organizational changes carried out in the company, etc. Often the project product is complex and includes both tangible and intangible components.

The customer may accept acceptance of the end product as a whole or accept separately each component of the project product (ie, ancillary products created during the implementation of the project to provide the end product).

For example, the concept and prototype of the system, project documentation, marketing research report are also products of the project and are transferred to the customer, but they are developed to ensure the creation of the final product of the project.

The initial requirements for the product are determined in the design assignment (specification, technical assignment). In the future, the requirements for the product can be refined and detailed during the development of project documentation.

Because goals are driven by the expectations and requirements of key project stakeholders, one of the initial processes for setting goals can be a requirement gathering and analysis process.

Project Requirements- clearly articulated wishes of customers, sponsors and other project participants to the characteristics that the goals, products, services, short-term and long-term results of the project must correspond to, as well as to restrictions and other conditions for the implementation of the project / program (according to NTK).

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