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Success critera vs. success factors

To have knowledge about and understand these concepts, as a basis for understanding different aspects of project success/failure.
Four people standing by a whiteboard as a woman is drawing something.
It is the steering committee that has to establish the project success criteria, together with the project manager and other important stakeholders, for example the customer.

Examples of success criteria can be:

  • Delivering on time (Before and on time = Success, 10% deviation = acceptable, More than 10 % deviation = failure).
  • Obtaining the impact goal, for example to increase revenue in a specific amount of time, can use a similar scale of criteria.

Project success criteria usually differs to some extent between projects, due to for example the project’s complexity, scope, context and time span.

A carefully developed project plan, well managed (i.e. project planning), is generally known as a key success factor in every kind of project. Some other general success factors are: Teamwork, Knowledge and Skills in the subject area, and in project management.

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Plan for Project Success: Project Planning and Management:

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