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Key Factors to Ensuring Project Success

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Submitted By bilalanu
Words 873
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Eight Key Factors to Ensuring Project Success
Author: Duncan Haughey
Version 1.0

Introduction
As the project manager you are ultimately responsible for delivering a successful project. The buck stops with you, so it is in your interest to ensure relevant tools and techniques are deployed to make this happen. Some of the following may sound obvious, but I encounter these basic mistakes month in month out with project managers scratching their heads wondering where it all went wrong.

Business Case
Ensure that there is a strong business case, with high level support that everyone can buy into. The business case is the justification for the project and should list the expected benefits. This is something everyone involved in the project can focus on and the reason why the project is taking place. Projects move us from one state to another by deliver a change, product or other desired outcome, with the business case explaining why.

Critical Success Factors
Define with the customer the Critical Success Factors that will make the project a success. Ensure that you make them measurable, for example, a 20% reduction in the cost of raw materials by the end of the year. Use these factors at the end of the project to measure your success. This is all that counts and the must have items the project needs to achieve. All other issues are secondary to these as the Critical Success Factors effectively form your contract with the customer.

Planning
Time spent planning is time well spent. All projects must have a plan with sufficient detail so everyone involved knows where the project is going. A good plan provides the following benefits:

• Clearly documented project milestones and deliverables.
• A valid and realistic timescale.
• Allows accurate cost estimates to be produced.
• Details resource requirements.
• Acts as an early warning system, providing

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