How to Define Project Success: A guide to Project Success Criteria in Project Management

Defining thoughtful project success criteria is a critical step in the project management process. This comprehensive guide will explain what success criteria are, why they are important, and how to effectively define and actively track criteria throughout your project lifecycle. With clear, well-defined success metrics tied to business goals, you can ensure your project delivers measurable results and achieves real success.

What Exactly are Project Success Criteria in Project Management?

Project success criteria refer to a predefined set of factors that determine whether a project has achieved its business, technical, and stakeholder objectives. The criteria provide a way to empirically assess the overall success or failure of a project.

Success criteria serve as a guide for the project manager and team throughout the project lifecycle. They clearly define what “success” actually looks like for that particular project. Examples of common project success criteria include:

• Completing the project on time according to the schedule and plan

• Completing the project within the approved budget and resource allocation

• Achieving the desired quality standards, requirements, and acceptance criteria

• Meeting the complete project scope and product specifications

• Satisfying stakeholders’ expectations and gaining their sign-off

• Achieving user and client adoption, usage, and satisfaction after implementation

• Meeting targeted return on investment (ROI) goals

• Having seamless integration of project deliverables into ongoing operations

• Realizing the expected business benefits and value

The specific criteria will depend on the unique strategic objectives, requirements, and project context. While core measures of time, budget, quality and scope are nearly universal, additional indicators of success vary based on project goals and product details.

Defining the right success criteria early when developing the project management plan is an essential initial step. These criteria then help guide decisions and tradeoffs over the course of the project lifecycle. The metrics also provide a way to empirically measure and track success during project execution and after project completion.

Why Invest Time Defining Project Success Criteria?

Taking the time upfront to define thoughtful, thorough success criteria brings many benefits:

• Increased focus - Well-defined success criteria align the project manager, project team members, and stakeholders on what must be achieved. This helps coordinate efforts and priorities toward the same end goal.

• Improved decision making - When tough decisions arise, the success criteria provide focus for determining the right path forward. They offer perspective when compromises must be made.

• Better measurement - With concrete, quantitative metrics, you can measure progress empirically throughout the project lifecycle. This allows for data-driven course correction as needed.

• More accurate assessment - During project closure, you can definitively state whether the project met its original goals based on the defined, objective criteria. This informs future work.

• Enhanced accountability - Documented success criteria make it clear what project team members, sponsors, and stakeholders are accountable for delivering. This drives ownership and commitment.

• Smoother approval - Solid criteria demonstrate to stakeholders that the project is viable, measurable, and aligned to strategic goals. This increases project funding approval odds.

In essence, well-defined success criteria set your project up for, well... success! They transform an abstract vision into concrete objectives that can be planned for, executed efficiently, and evaluated definitively.

How to Develop Strong Project Success Criteria

Follow this robust 10-step process to establish effective, high-impact success criteria for your project:

Step 1: Understand Project Objectives, Requirements and Context

First, thoroughly review the foundational project definition documentation, including:

• Business case or project charter

• Project statement of work

• Requirements documentation

• Process maps

• Budget and resource allocation

• Constraints, assumptions, and risks

Fully understand the strategic business drivers prompting the project. Identify the key goals, functional requirements, technical specifications, and stakeholder expectations set for the project outcomes.

Also assess the broader context including available resources, budgets, deadlines, policies, competitors, and anything that may impact the path to success. Clarifying the project purpose and environment upfront ensures criteria alignment.

Step 2: Identify and Analyze Key Stakeholders

Determine all the project stakeholders who may influence, impact, or have a vested interest in the project. Identifying diverse perspectives will help shape inclusive, balanced criteria.

Stakeholder analysis helps segment stakeholders into groups such as:

• Project team - Project manager, team members, contractors

• Clients - Those paying for or requesting the project

• Customers - Those who will use the project outputs and deliverables

• Sponsors - Providing funding and approval for the project

• Suppliers - Providing resources needed to complete the project

• Partners - Other groups dependent on the project outcomes

• External stakeholders - Regulators, lobby groups, general public

Consider stakeholder needs, concerns, priorities, and assessment criteria during analysis.

Step 3: Actively Engage Stakeholders for Input

Actively engage identified stakeholders early when determining success criteria. Different groups may have diverse perspectives on what project success looks like based on their goals. Managing these views is essential.

Conduct collaborative workshops with stakeholders to discuss potential criteria. Seek alignment on the outcomes that matter most while balancing different interests. Use facilitation techniques to capture all stakeholder perspectives and gain consensus.

Keep an open mind to all input, as every group offers a unique voice. Document the agreed upon factors for further refinement. Evaluate stakeholder concerns and assess feasibility, importance, and alignment to business goals.

Step 4: Define SMART Success Criteria

With broad stakeholder perspectives gathered, the project manager and team now refine the criteria. They must be:

• Specific - Well-defined metrics with no ambiguity

• Measurable - Quantifiable metrics that can be tracked and analyzed

• Achievable - Realistic criteria mapped to project objectives

• Relevant - Aligns to business goals and project purpose

• Time-bound - With specific deadlines or milestones

For example, “improved customer satisfaction” is vague. However, “85% customer satisfaction based on survey feedback within 3 months of product launch” is a concrete, measurable criterion.

Draft the criteria with precision to remove confusion and enable measurement. Define how each one will be assessed and validated.

Step 5: Include Criteria Covering Key Dimensions

Most projects include success criteria covering core dimensions like:

• Budget - Did the project come in within the approved budget?

• Time - Did the project finish according to the schedule in the project plan?

• Scope - Does the final product meet all documented requirements?

• Quality - Does the deliverable meet quality standards and pass testing?

Consider other measurable factors that indicate success for this specific project, such as:

• Adoption or usage after launch

• Achieving targeted return on investment (ROI)

• Meeting sustainability targets

• Easy integration with existing systems

• Compliance with regulations

• Improved customer retention

• Reduced operational costs

Step 6: Allow Some Flexibility in Criteria

The defined success criteria will guide project execution and decisions. However, remaining agile to changing circumstances is also key.

If business needs evolve or new constraints emerge, require the criteria be reviewed and adjusted if needed through change control processes. Maintain some flexibility while still providing focus.

Step 7: Document Criteria with Stakeholder Sign-Off

Formally document the final success criteria and gain sign-off from project sponsors and key stakeholders.

Add the criteria into foundational project documents such as:

• Project charter

• Project management plan

• Requirements documentation

• Quality management plan

• Change management plan

• Benefits realization plan

Ensure the success metrics are visible to the project team and stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle.

Step 8: Develop Mechanisms to Track and Measure Criteria

With criteria defined, put processes in place to actively track progress and measure results. This may involve:

• Building dashboards to monitor and report on key metrics

• Creating prototypes, demos, and validation tests to measure quality

• Conducting user surveys, focus groups, and soliciting feedback

• Implementing project assessments, control gates, and audits at milestones

• Performing quality assurance activities like reviews and inspections

• Using project management software to monitor budgets, schedules, risks

Be sure metrics tie into project communications so progress visibility.

Step 9: Use Criteria to Guide Project Decision Making

Actively use the success criteria to guide decisions over the course of the project.

When considering different options, change requests, or trade-offs, examine how each will impact the metrics. Will the decision help achieve criteria, or impede progress? Keep criteria top of mind.

Step 10: Re-Evaluate Criteria at Milestones

Revisit the success criteria at major project milestones, phases, and control gates. Evaluate whether the defined metrics still fully align to current business objectives. Adjust criteria if priorities have evolved.

Also perform a post-implementation review of the criteria once the project is complete. Determine what metrics were effective for future work.

Defining and managing success criteria requires diligence, but pays off over the long run. Following this 10-step process makes criteria more impactful. With clear, well-built metrics guiding your project team, you can maintain focus, measure progress empirically, and meet stakeholder expectations - delivering project success.

Real World Examples of Defining Project Success Criteria

To make success criteria development more tangible, consider these real-world examples:

Website Redesign Project

• Launch new website within 4 months

• Complete all site content and pages according to sitemap

• Reduce website loading time by 2 seconds

• Achieve user satisfaction rating of 90% in usability testing

• Increase organic site traffic by 25% within 6 months post-launch

New Product Launch

• Release new product by December 31st

• Generate $2M in sales in first year after launch

• Onboard 80% of current customers to new product within 5 months

• Achieve 75% customer retention rate after 12 months

• Keep return rate under 5%

Business Process Improvement Project

• Decrease application processing time by 50%

• Reduce cost to process application by 35% 

• Cut customer complaints by 80% within first month

• Improve employee satisfaction score by 25%

• Achieve ROI break even within 9 months

Internal IT Systems Upgrade

• Complete systems upgrade within budget of $1.5M

• Finish upgrade on schedule according to project plan

• Downtime less than 4 hours during cutover

• 0 security breaches or data issues post launch

• Gain user adoption with 80% utilizing new system features within first month

Key Takeaways on Defining Project Success Criteria

• Success criteria are predefined factors that determine whether a project met its goals. They help objectively evaluate success.

• Well-defined criteria provide sharp focus, enable progress measurement, increase accountability, and ease approval.

• Criteria should be developed early with extensive stakeholder input. Engage all groups in providing perspectives.

• Criteria must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

• Include criteria covering typical factors like budget, schedule, quality and scope. Consider other indicators of success as well.

• Document criteria, integrate them into plans, and actively use them to guide execution and decision making.

• Track progress on criteria continually through the project lifecycle. Re-evaluate at milestones to maintain alignment.

With a robust approach to planning and managing criteria, you can execute projects with focus - delivering measurable results and true success.