Project strategy: Success themes for strategic projects

The success rate of projects is low. Adopting a measurement regime and consistently applying it has a strong positive impact on project success. However, there is no accepted methodology for measuring project success. Key issues that impact project success are: (1) Untested claims exist about success dimensions, measures and critical variables. (2) Existing models ignore interdependency among success dimensions and management variables. (3) Existing techniques fail to measure the effects of management variables and success measures on overall project success. Project success assessment is integral to top management's decision-making process. Measures should be set prior to project initiation. A new approach is taken in developing a decision-making model to assess and forecast project success qualitatively and quantitatively. This paper deals with the multidimensional nature of project success measurement. Success dimensions and success factors are explored to determine their impact on measuring project success. Using these results, a project success scheme is created using ANP. This success scheme is used to design a decision-making model. The proposed framework provides project stakeholders with a forecasting and diagnostic tool to evaluate progressively and objectively the project's chances of success to assist in improving overall project performance.