critical success factors in effective project implementation

Special Thanks ToJeffrey K. Pinto, Dennis P. Slevin

Critical Success Factors in Effective Project implementation

Ten empirically derived critical project implementation success factors.

A diagnostic instrument-the Project Implementation Profile (PIP)

for measuring the ten factors.Measures of the key elements of project Strategy-and Tactics.The effect of Strategy and Tactics on project implementation

success.The impact of the project life cycle on the relative importance

of the critical success factors.

We shall discuss about

A project is an organization of people dedicated to a specific purpose or objective.

A project involves: large, expensive, unique, or high risk undertakings

A project should Completed: by a certain date, for a certain amount of money, within some expected level of performance. At a minimum, all projects need to have well defined objectives and sufficient resources to carry out all the required tasks.

What is Project

A project is generally considered to be successfully implemented if it

Comes in on-schedule (time criterion).Comes in on-budget (monetary criterion).Achieves basically all the goals originally set for it (effectiveness)Is accepted and used by the clients (client satisfaction criterion).

What is Successful projects implementation

Conceptualization Preliminary goals and alternatives are specified and possible means to accomplish those goals

Planning Scheduling, budgeting, and the allocation of other specific tasks and resources.

Execution Materials and resources are procured, the project is produced, and performance capabilities are verified.

Termination the release of resources and transfer of the project to the clients.

Project life cycle

Organizational effort in life cycle

Project MissionTop Management SupportProject Schedule PlanClient ConsultationPersonnelTechnical TasksClient AcceptanceMonitoring and FeedbackCommunicationTroubleshooting

Ten successful critical success factor

The Factor Model

The factors appear to be both time sequenced and interdependent.

The factors for a project implementation can be laid out on a critical path.

The model allows the manager to actively interact with and systematically monitor his project.

Characteristics of the model

Experimented on 400 project and the over 61% of the causes of project implementation success can be explained by the ten critical success factors.

The importance value of critical Factors has been measured by regression beta weights showing the combined relationships between Critical Factors and project success over the four project life-cycle stages

Results of applying 10 critical factors

Strategic Tactical

• Mission • Top Management Support • Schedule/Plans

• Client Consultation• Personnel• Technical Tasks• Client Acceptance• Monitoring and Feedback• Communication• Troubleshooting

Strategic and Tactical factors

Issues Strategic Tactical

1. Level of Conduct Top Management Mid to lowerLevels of management

2. Subjective/Objective Assessment

Greater subjectivity used as strategic level

Less use of subjective values

3. Nature of problems Unstructured, one at a time More structured and repetitive

4. Information Needs Larger amount of Information needed

Need for internally generated, specific information

5. Time Horizons Long Term Short Term

6. Completeness Covers the entire scope of organization

Concerned only with the sub-organizational unit involved

7. Reference The source of all planning is original

Done in pursuit of strategic plans

Taxonomy of Strategic Vs Tactical issues

Issues Strategic Tactical

8. Details Broad & general Narrow & problem specific

9. Ease of Evaluation Difficult Easier

10. Point of View Corporate Functional

Taxonomy of Strategic Vs Tactical issues (Cont.)

Strategy/tactics effectiveness matrix

Cell 1 : High Strategy-High Tactics High probability of implementation success

Cell 2 : Low Strategy-High Tactics

Error 2: error would likely occur in a situation in which project strategy was ineffective, inaccurate, or poorly done. However, in spite of initial planning inadequacies, goals and schedules were operationalized during the tactical stage of the implementation.

Error 3: error has been defined as solving the wrong problem, or "effectively" taking the wrong action. In this scenario, a problem has been identified, or a project is desired, but due to a badly performed strategic sequence, the wrong problem has been isolated and the subsequently implemented project has little value in that it does not address the intended target.

Strategy/tactics effectiveness matrix

Cell 3 : Low Strategy-Low Tactics High probability of implementation failure

Cell 4 : High Strategy-Low Tactics

Error 1: It occurs when an action should have been taken and was not. It will occur when little action is subsequently taken and the tactical activities are inadequate to the degree that the project is not developed.

Error 4:

error can be defined as taking an action which solves the right problem but the solution is not used by the organization. one would expect projects classified in this quadrant to exhibit a strong tendency toward "errors of inaction" such as low acceptance and low use by

organization members or clients for whom the project was intended.

Strategy/tactics effectiveness matrix(Cont.)

A recent study of over 400 projects has demonstrated that strategic issues become less important and tactical issues become more impor-tant to project success over the life of a project.

Strategic and Tactics Over Time

Use a Multiple-Factor Model Think Strategically Early in the Project Life Cycle Think More Tactically as the Project Moves Forward in Time  Make Strategy and Tactics Work for You and Your Project

Team Consciously Plan for and Manage Your Project Team's

Transition from Strategy to Tactics

Implication for Managers

Define the process of project implementation through exposing the manager to a set of empirically derived factors found to be critical to project success.

These are some suggestions offered to project managers who are intent on better understanding their project during its implementation process, but are at a loss as to how to go about attempting to more adequately ensure project success

Conclusion

Thank You All