ASSESSMENT OF PROJECT SUCCESS AS A MEASURE OF ACHIEVEMENT OF RESULTS AND POTENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES

Abstract

Here, we are talking about issue of conditions and criteria for the success of project implementation. First, the author considered classical evaluation approaches focused on measuring the achievement of initially defined goals within the "project management triangle", i.e. from the point of view of time, quality and budget. Further, developing an opinion about the criteria for the success of projects, we analyzed the works of scientists who substantiated the expansion of assessment conditions by: consideration of stakeholders' expectations; distinguishing the criteria for evaluating the project as a process and the criteria for evaluating the product of the project as a result; taking into account the context; changes in success criteria over time, etc.

As a result, the author draws attention to the debatable understanding of the conditions for determining the success, imperfection, or failure of a project, considering that project success is a multidimensional and dynamic concept. A significant degree of project uncertainty (in terms of cost, time, quality, and operational results) at the initial stages makes it impossible to adopt evaluation criteria based on the fact of achieving primary goals, plans, and formal processes. And the need to take into account the goals of stakeholders, which often change over time, confirms the flexibility and complexity of the process for objective measurement of project success. Additionally, project management has a limited number of success parameters that key stakeholders, both internal and external to the core project implementation team, would agree on. Thus, studies have shown that imperfection is the norm of innovative projects, and taking into account the theory of the Phoenix phenomenon proves the importance of the influence of the time dimension on the evaluation of the project as successful or unsuccessful.