Innovation Project Management

11 Defining Innovation Success and Failure

• Learning Objectives for Project Managers and Innovation Personnel
• To understand that there are several different meanings for innovation success and failure and that the meanings can change in each life cycle or phase
• To be able to identify the attributes of innovation success
• To understand the difference between operational and strategic success
• To understand the importance of establishing success and failure criteria

INTRODUCTION

Project managers believe that they are being paid to produce deliverables and outcomes. This notion is correct and most likely will not change. But what is changing now is how we measure the success of the deliverable or outcome produced. There is more than one way to define innovation success.

Historically, project managers made primarily technical decisions related to project performance. Today, project managers are expected to make both project-related and business-related decisions. Business processes are now integrated into enterprise project management methodologies to assist the project managers with business-related decisions and to validate that strategic business objectives are being met.

Project managers are now being transformed into strategic leaders thanks to the growth in portfolio management practices and the establishment of a variety of business-related project/program management offices (PMOs). Companies are now asking project managers to establish business-related metrics ...