Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 11
Project Wrap-Up, Delivery,
and Maintenance
11.1 Project Management and Success Criteria
''Project management'' is a composite of managing many other project elements:
people, communication, commitments, resources, requirements, changes, risks,
opportunities, expectations, technology, suppliers and conflicts. Nearly every
project includes aspects of all previously listed activities and the successful project
manager must keep an eye on them all. Activities for a successful project man-
agement are (Wiegers
2009
):
1. Define Project Success Criteria
2. Define Product Vision and Project Scope
3. Define Product Release Criteria
4. Negotiate Achievable Commitments
5. Study Previous Lessons Learned
6. Conduct Project Retrospectives
11.1.1 Define Project Success Criteria
Wiegers quotes Stephen Covey's words as ''Begin with the end in mind'' from The 7
Habits of Highly Effective People. Wiegers describes ''To begin with the end in
mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know
where you're going so that you better understand where you are now and so the steps
you take are always in the right direction.'' At the beginning of every software
project, the stakeholders need to reach a common understanding of how they will
determine whether this project is successful. If you don't know early on how you're
going to measure your project's success, you're headed for trouble. Defining explicit
success criteria during the project's inception keeps stakeholders focused on shared
objectives and aids in establishing targets for evaluating progress. For initiatives that
involve multiple subprojects, success criteria will help align all subprojects with the
big picture. Ill-defined, unrealistic or poorly communicated success criteria can lead
