Case study this week saw a review of some factors that influence the success and failure of projects. Specifically, the myki project undertaken by the Victorian state Gov’t.
There were some Critical Success Factors:
- Top Level Management Support
- Appropriate Training
- Top Level Project Team
- Organizational Change Management
- Implementation team
- Steering Committee
I find it a bit leery to conclude from the point about that to make a project successful it simply must have all of those factors clearly defined. Obviously there have been countless projects succeed before a consulting firm decide to label the common phenomena of successes. With that in mind the causality of the point above on the outcome of the project come into question… are the point above something that can be put in place to help ensure Project success OR will a successful project foster the development of the points above. I imagine that the actual causality is not a one way street but the point is that having a consultant come into your company and pontificate the importance of those dot points is unlikely to provide significant improvements.
From my experience I would argue that critical success factors are:
- Accurate definition of the issue that needs to be solved
- Cohesion amongst all parties involved (achieved through specification document and a single final decision maker)
- Capable individuals
- Macro-management of capable team members
- The ability to remove non-functioning member from the team
The tutorial comprised of group work, meetings and presentations. The next submission is due this comming Thursday.