The notion that 90% of success is ‘turning up’ prevails with many steering committee members .
True, consistency of attendance is a critical success factor for steering committees, but it is not a measure of success. It’s an input, not an output.
The ultimate measure of success is the seamless implementation and adoption of the project changes so as to deliver the expected business outcomes in full, their associated benefits and the maximum value available.
Simple really.
But, as we have seen in previous articles, few projects actually focus on achieving this definition of success.
The Wrong Measures of Success
This lack of focus on success is caused by
- a lack of understanding of the true measures of project success
- a lack of processes to move from project definitions of success to business measures
- a lack of understanding by steering committee members of their true roles and accountabilities
- the adoption by the governance team of the project’s measures of success as their own
- the lack of measurement systems in place to track and measure the achievement of business outcomes and benefits beyond the duration of the project (and, often, within the project itself)
In addition, there are a number of ‘cultural’ aspects at play, including:
- Sponsors being unwilling to commit to outcomes and benefits that may not be achieved (based on their previous (failed) experiences to deliver all of the benefits with other projects)
- simplistic ‘building into future budgets regardless of their true value’ approach to benefits achievement that discourages projects from identifying ALL of the benefits available, leaving some ‘on the table’ in the hope that they will compensate for any uncontrollable declines in the project’s value.
Partial Processes
Then there are the actual project delivery processes, which are set up to deliver projects, not business outcomes.
This deficiency of the project delivery processes is one reason why ‘building the organization’s project delivery capability’ is one of the executive team’s primary responsibilities — for without changing the project delivery processes the project results will not improve.
So, What Should You Do?
Decide what your measures of success are - CLICK HERE
Then ensure you have the tools, techniques and processes to fully deliver all of the success measures. If not, adopt and implement business strategy tools, techniques and processes.
It really is that simple.
