Chapter 1
Foundations of Project Management
Course: Pmp Test Prep
Subject: Pmp
Chapter: A System For Value Delivery 5506 10730
This lesson provides an in-depth understanding of how project success is judged, and why success cannot be reduced to a single measure. The lesson highlights the two distinct dimensions of success — the success of project outcomes and the efficiency of project management processes — and explains how the two can diverge sharply in practice.
It emphasizes why an experienced practitioner must evaluate both dimensions together, using two well-known real-world projects to show how a project can be a process failure yet an outcome triumph, or a process success yet an outcome loss.
The goal is to equip the practitioner to assess success in a way that reflects genuine, lasting value to the organization rather than mere adherence to constraints.
Key Objectives:
- Distinguish the two dimensions of project success: outcome success and process efficiency.
- Understand how the timing of value realization affects the assessment of outcome success.
- Recognize the strategic objectives — financial and nonfinancial — that outcome success encompasses.
- Explain why both dimensions must be assessed together, and how they can diverge.
- Apply the two-dimension model to real project scenarios to reach a balanced judgment of success.