Question: Summarize this for me: This study considers success within projects. There has been research into the factors that contribute to success ( e . g
Summarize this for me: This study considers success within projects. There has been research
into the factors that contribute to success eg Belassi & Tukel,
The nature of success has been of interest for many years; indeed,
the Project Management Institute held a whole conference dedicated
to the topic see eg the paper by de Wit, looking at the multi
faceted nature of the idea of success particularly where success is defined
beyond the simple acceptance of a product. There has been little research,
however, into the causal chains by which success in terms of these different
facets emerges. This study therefore looks at these chains and their inter
connectedness leading to success. By looking at the interconnectedness, the
study outlines how to identify the root causes of success factors, particularly
where those root causes enable multiple success criteria simultaneously. In
order to look indepth at the complex structures of effects, a single detailed
case study was used, using a causal mapping method for analysis. This
article expands on the extension of the ideas of systemicity into the current
predominately linear dominant discourse of project management Cooke
Davies, ; Edkins, Kurul, MaytorenaSanchez, & Rintala, ; Williams,
by looking at a particular case of projects as practice Blomquist
Hallgren, Nilsson, & Soderholm,
An appropriate case study for this research arose in late when a UK
company was coming to the end of its involvement in two major construction
programs. The company had a reputation for considerable success with these
programs; and since the project teams would likely be disbanded with the end
of these programs, it seemed important to reflect on this success. Was it real?
What does success mean? And, where did this success come from? This
article reports the results, mainly drawing lessons about the nature of success
and the interrelatedness and complexity of success factors, and also identify
ing a number of key reasons for company successsome generic, and some
contextdependentbut potentially useful for other projects.
Both research and practice have been moving away from a simplistic defi
nition of project success as meeting cost, schedule, and performance targets,
to a more multidimensional definition, involving both objective and more
subjective criteria. However, the interrelationships between these criteria are
less well researched. Similarly, success factors are often theorized, but there
is little research into the causality; in other words, how these factors lead to
project success. This study therefore looks at the drivers for the various success
factors, to see where they interconnect, and what the key root causes of proj
ect success are. This is interesting from an academic perspective, but is par
ticularly important to help the practitioner understand how improving these
root causes will lead to increased performance in multiple project criteria.
The article considers the method and then the case; it looks at the literature
around the definition of project success and how this case compares; it looks
at the literature behind success factors; then at the analysis of this case to see
the interacting nature of the factors and the tracing of success outcomes back
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