Strategic Project Management Made Simple, 2nd Edition

6Question #2—How Do We Measure Success?

You cannot manage what you cannot measure.

—Bill Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard

FIGURE 6.1 Success Measures Describe What Each Objective Means

Develop Success Measures and Verifications

Objectives by themselves remain vague until pinned down by valid Success Measures.

Success Measures describe the conditions expected to exist when Objectives are achieved. Clarifying these conditions early strengthens your design and reduces later disagreement over whether project Objectives have been met. At the same time that you set measures, identify the data sources needed to verify the status of each measure. Be thoughtful and selective when choosing these important guides, as they constitute items to monitor on your project dashboard.

The term Success Measures also goes by other names such as metrics, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and Key Results Areas (KRAs), among others.

This chapter includes a case study that illustrates how even the most complex Goals can be clearly measured.

Measure What Matters Most

Setting clear Success Measures at the project start does two things. First, it strengthens the project design. Second, it reduces after-the-fact doubts and finger-pointing as to whether a project reached its intended Objectives.

In the LogFrame construct, Success Measures appear in the second column (see Figure 6.1). As ...