Editing Project management (section)

== Multilevel success framework and criteria - project success vs. project performance ==
There is a tendency to confuse the project success with project management success. They are two different things. "Project success" has 2 perspectives: 
* the perspective of the process, i.e. delivering efficient outputs; typically called project management performance or project efficiency.
* the perspective of the result, i.e. delivering beneficial outcomes; typically called project performance (sometimes just project success).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Daniel |first1=Pierre A. |last2=Daniel |first2=Carole |title=Complexity, uncertainty and mental models: From a paradigm of regulation to a paradigm of emergence in project management |journal=International Journal of Project Management |date=January 2018 |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=184–197 |doi=10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.07.004 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pinto |first1=Jeffrey K. |last2=Winch |first2=Graham |title=The unsettling of 'settled science:' The past and future of the management of projects |journal=International Journal of Project Management |date=1 February 2016 |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=237–245 |doi=10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.07.011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Morcov |first1=Stefan |title=Project success vs. project management performance |url=https://blog.stefanmorcov.com/2021/04/project-success-vs-project-performance.html |date=6 April 2021 }}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=November 2021}}

Project management success criteria are different from project success criteria. The project management is said to be successful if the given project is completed within the agreed upon time, met the agreed upon scope and within the agreed upon budget. Subsequent to the triple constraints, multiple constraints have been considered to ensure project success. However, the triple or multiple constraints indicate only the efficiency measures of the project, which are indeed the project management success criteria during the project lifecycle.

The priori criteria leave out the more important after-completion results of the project which comprise four levels i.e. the output (product) success, outcome (benefits) success and impact (strategic) success during the product lifecycle. These posterior success criteria indicate the effectiveness measures of the project product, service or result, after the project completion and handover. This overarching multilevel success framework of projects, programs and portfolios has been developed by Paul Bannerman in 2008.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bannerman|first=P. L.|year=2008|title=Defining project success: a multilevel framework|journal=Defining the Future of Project Management|location=Warsaw, Poland|publisher=Project Management Institute|url=https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/defining-project-success-multilevel-framework-7096}}</ref> In other words, a project is said to be successful, when it succeeds in achieving the expected business case which needs to be clearly identified and defined during the project inception and selection before starting the development phase. This multilevel success framework conforms to the theory of project as a transformation depicted as the input-process / activity-output-outcome-impact in order to generate whatever value intended. Emanuel Camilleri in 2011 classifies all the critical success and failure factors into groups and matches each of them with the multilevel success criteria in order to deliver business value.<ref>Camilleri, Emanuel (2011). ''Project Success: Critical Factors and Behaviours''. Gower Publishing, Ltd.</ref>

An example of a performance indicator used in relation to project management is the "backlog of commissioned projects" or "project backlog".<ref>The KPI Institute, [https://www.performancemagazine.org/kpi-consulting-backlog-commissioned-projects/ "KPI of the Day – Business Consulting (BC): $ Backlog of commissioned projects".] ''Performance Magazine'', 16 March 2021. Accessed 23 December 2022.</ref>