A Perspective-Based Understanding of Project Success

TL;DR

This paper explores how different stakeholders subjectively perceive project success over time, emphasizing the influence of individual perspectives and informal criteria in project evaluations.

Contribution

It introduces a conceptual framework for understanding subjective and stakeholder-specific evaluations of project success in information systems development.

Findings

Stakeholders perceive project success differently based on their perspectives.

Project evaluations vary between stakeholders and evolve over time.

Informal criteria significantly influence subjective success assessments.

Abstract

Answering the call for alternative approaches to researching project management, we explore the evaluation of project success from a subjectivist perspective. An in-depth, longitudinal case study of information systems development in a large manufacturing company was used to investigate how various project stakeholders subjectively perceived the project outcome and what evaluation criteria they drew on in doing so. A conceptual framework is developed for understanding and analyzing evaluations of project success, both formal and informal. The framework highlights how different stakeholder perspectives influence the perceived outcome(s) of a project, and how project evaluations may differ between stakeholders and across time.