Success Factors in Projects

Abstract

The literature of project success is very wide one. Various articles focus on the evolution of the understanding of project success. Most of the projects we hear of in media are either over budget, late or are simply not good enough and still different lobbies of people claim that those projects have been successful. Neither the practitioners nor the academicians seem to agree on what constitutes project success. It seems to be a rather elusive concept. This paper attempts to put forth the points of views of different researchers in this field and focuses primarily on the factors that affect the project outcome regardless of the type of project. Two sets of factors contributed to successful outcome of a project: the macro and micro factors. A set of macro includes the realm of the owner, while micro factors fall in construction domain. Other factors were grouped into four areas: factors related to: project, project manager and team, organization, and the external environment. More factors were investigated by other researchers, factors including applied methods, individuals in projects, and organizational context. Therefore, every party in the project has its own perception thus forming different criteria of project success. These differences of perception explain the reason why the same project could be considered a success by one and unsuccessful by another.