5 Characteristics for Successful Project Delivery
There is no shortage of guidance and recommendations to help project managers successfully deliver their projects. And, while most are completely valid, my experience has led me to believe five characteristics carry the day when it comes to delivering projects that meet stakeholder needs.
First, successful projects start with a focused, understood business need. As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. Many projects are launched that benefit a small part of the business, sometimes to the detriment of other areas. In other cases, stakeholders have mixed feelings about the project's objectives, or the approach to achieving those goals. Successful projects don’t have these issues. Stakeholders are universally excited about achieving the project’s outcomes and are supportive of the approach being used to achieve them.
Second, a positive and supportive relationship exists between the project manager and the sponsor. A project manager working in harmony with the sponsor makes a huge difference in how the project unfolds. Both deal with the realities of the business, understanding that day-to-day operational concerns can interrupt the project. Risks are identified and discussed constructively. Any issues are dealt with proactively and realistically. Stakeholders know their priorities relative to getting the project accomplished. Both the project manager and sponsor work with the team to learn from setbacks, and not engage in a blame culture. Truths, both positive and negative, are shared readily and discussed with maturity.?
Third, whenever possible, dedicated team members are allocated to the project. This provides continuity and reduces interruptions so time and productivity are maximized. More importantly, focus is maintained as the project progresses, and the usefulness of each task deliverable is fully understood or addressed when that isn’t the case. A sense of ownership for project outcomes is much more likely to be shared, adding to the desire to complete the project.
Fourth a universally understood project management methodology, including a sound and truthful status-tracking approach, is utilized. By truthful status tracking, I mean that unfounded optimism, nor the fear of sharing that things aren’t going perfectly. Also, the universally understood methodology means that team members, management, and other stakeholders know what to expect from management and understand their role in project planning and delivery. With a sound methodology, variances from the plan are surfaced, remedies are discussed, and are efficiently implemented.
Finally, speaking of variances, successful stakeholders, at all levels, understand there will be variances in the plan. They don’t get hung up on questioning early estimates, or wondering why a plan wasn’t perfect. They understand that the plan won’t be perfect and that risk management isn’t a perfect predictor of what may occur. They do seek to learn and improve, but not at the expense of dragging down the project or the people who are working to deliver it.
Now, you may be thinking that other elements are required to deliver a project successfully. I won’t argue with you, as individual project instances will require different elements to succeed. In my experience, these 5 things mean the project has a lot going for it and will likely succeed. I’m happy to hear other views, add them in the comments!
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Coming Up
LinkedIn Live Common and Uncommon Risk Management
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This Office Hours discussion will examine the usual and not-as-usual approaches to risk management that all project managers should be embracing. Despite being a vital part of project management, risk rarely gets the attention it deserves. Join me and my fellow grizzled PM veteran Ian Sharpe as we talk about how risk management saves us, fails us, and how, sometimes we totally misunderstand the concept! Come join us , and bring your risk management questions, as we’ll answer your questions live!
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Additional thoughts can be found in my project management and outsourcing classes on LinkedIn Learning, including:
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This article is part of Bob’s Reflections newsletter series , which discusses project management, outsourcing, and “intelligent disobedience”, a leadership approach. If you want more of this content, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article is posted.
Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library or check out https://intelligentdisobedience.com/
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