Success factors
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Success factors
A project is considered a success if the results agreed upon by the commissioning party and project management have been achieved.
This includes content / quality of the results, costs (personnel and material resources) and time, i.e. duration. These success parameters can also be adjusted during the course of the project. In order to deal with such changes, it’s useful to keep checking – both with the commissioning party and with the (future) users. After all, they are the ones who will have to deal with the results on a day-to-day basis. The project or rather its product / result should be a win or an improvement for them.
This is what we can do in project management to make a project a success:
Set clear goals and create a timetable – then follow these plans and adjust them as necessary.
That means that everyone involved should know at any given time “what the destination is”, i.e.who is delivering what results and when. This allows those involved to direct their contributions to the success of the project accordingly. When circumstances change unexpectedly, e.g. if a pandemic breaks out, it is important to respond flexibly but systematically. This means that project management adapts the previous plans in consultation with the commissioning party and others involved. “Muddling through” takes longer and is more demanding than changing course. Projects and major projects in central administration are therefore structured by the binding sub-processes in the administration portal.
It is useful to:
- produce a description and project proposal to refine the idea, and to answer the W-questions,
- use the objectives matrix and repeat it when changes become apparent,
- keep the project plan alive,
- enable healthy dialogue between the commissioning party and project management and within the project team,
- involve users early on and regularly.
Make time for projects and deliberately allocate resources to them.
This means we don’t undertake projects on the side or in a slapdash manner. In order to achieve defined objectives, we dedicate our valuable working time within a realistically defined time frame (see above). Projects only work well if the experts can provide the required skills, one person can concentrate on managing the project and the commissioning party is prepared to take time and make decisions. This may mean that other projects and activities have to be stopped or put on ice for urgent projects. Or that the projects are tailored in such a way that they can be accomplished using the available resources. In any case, it means that all parties involved provide the services they have promised.
It is useful to:
- establish clarity about roles and tasks,
- find a project manager who is not working on many or even any work packages of their own – especially for major projects,
- make specific agreements when planning resources.
Communicate clearly and continuously, both within and outside of the project.
Within the project team, this means that all members communicate with each other regarding tasks / content and collaboration. This includes reporting intermediate results, addressing opportunities for improvement and for the good of all team members, addressing and resolving conflicts early on.
For the commissioning party and steering committee, this means preparing changes to the project planning in such a way that those responsible can make informed decisions.
It is useful to:
- keep and update an activity list,
- organise and participate in a regular dialogue on fixed dates,
- share documents and data, e.g. via cloud storage
- continuously review and record lessons learnt.
In addition, it means that all those involved actively gather information that they need to work on their work packages, e.g. in conversation with users or other experts. And it is even more important that information and explanations are actively provided by the project group, for example about the timing of upcoming changes, in the Senate or Staff Council and among the university members.
It is useful to:
- complete and present an objectives matrix (together)
- carry out and update or supplement a stakeholder analysis, define and implement communication measures on this basis,
- prepare the project and its objectives in a clear and accessible way using the W-questions.
Clarify at an early stage how and where the results of the project are rooted in the existing line organisation and transfer them there in a structured manner upon completion.
This means determining in which department the results will be found in day-to-day work / regular operations as early as possible in the course of the project. This allows relevant people to participate and build up knowledge. Questions of responsibility, e.g. who is responsible for newly introduced processes, who maintains websites created in the project, who supports the users of the new platform, etc. must be agreed and documented. This ideally happens before the project has been completed.
It is useful to:
- hold discussions and make agreements between the commissioning party and the affected heads of department in advance,
- officially terminate the project and relieve the team of their duties,
- record remaining activities in the final project report and who will work on these after the project,
- arrange a separate handover date, possibly several,
- consider training requirements at an early stage so that the line can also cope with the new permanent tasks,
- if the relevant line organisation is represented in the project team,
- appoint a contact person from the project, who can still answer questions after the end of the project, acting as the “memory” of the project so to speak
- secure and share knowledge based on the final report and other key decisions,
- Record AS-IS processes and develop TO-BE processes – process management will be happy to help with this.