For over twenty years, BrightWork has worked with customers across various industries to identify the key drivers of successful project management. In that time, we’ve learned a few things about the critical success factors in project management!

In this blog post, I outline the seven critical success factors in project management that strengthen workflows, boost visibility, and foster lasting results.

To help you on your journey, I have included self-assessment questions to help you identify any gaps in your current approach.

CSFs vs KPIs in Project Management

Before we review the factors, we should clarify a common point of confusion. People frequently mistake project critical success factors (CSFs) for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

• Critical Success Factors (CSFs) are the causes of success. They are the essential areas of activity that must be performed well if you are to achieve your business objectives. A CSF is an element like “stakeholder engagement” or “clear project goals.”
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the measures of success. They are the metrics used to evaluate whether you are achieving your strategic goals. A KPI provides quantifiable, measurable outcomes, such as “achieve a 90% stakeholder satisfaction score” or “complete the project 10% under budget.”

 

In short, CSFs are what you must do to be successful, while KPIs tell you if you were successful.

1. Executive Sponsorship

Senior management recognizes Project Management as a strategic capability and necessity for the organization, and desires to improve this capability.

Executive sponsorship can mean one senior executive is supporting a company effort, or even better, the entire senior management team. The effort, in this case, is the improvement of project management across the company.

Oftentimes, when you picture an executive sponsor, you see someone who has a “seat at the table” but is disconnected from the day-to-day running of the business. They simply secure the funding and initial resources needed for a project and disappear until the project is completed.

This is not the type of executive sponsorship you want or need for successful project management improvement. An effective sponsor engages early, aligns initiatives with corporate strategy, and champions the effort among key decision makers.

How Sponsors Drive Project Success

The executive sponsor will help the project manager by providing direction and securing the company conditions needed to be successful.

For example, when team members need additional time or resources, the sponsor intervenes to remove obstacles. The executive sponsor should also have a good overview of how the project improvement effort is progressing, but does not need to know about day-to-day work.

Keep them informed of key issues and deadlines so they can filter this information out to others when appropriate. An effective executive sponsor trusts the project manager and project team to deliver on the goals of the project. They are approachable and involved when needed.

Self-Assessment

• Question 1 – Did senior leadership initiate the improvement effort based on business objectives?
• Question 2 – Does the executive sponsor(s) check in to see how the project is progressing, or have you set up a regular update or communication to inform them?
• Question 3 – Do you feel comfortable enough to engage your executive sponsor(s) for support or assistance when you see an issue that you may need their assistance with?

 

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, I suggest you take a look at ensuring you truly have executive sponsorship for project management improvement.

2. Project Management Champions

Influential individuals advocate for project management improvement and promote best practices throughout the organization.

They address concerns, suggest solutions, and build trust across all levels. The more project management champions you have and the more senior they are, the better! To clarify, a project management champion isn’t the project manager or project leader. The position isn’t a formal one.

What Makes a Great PM Champion?

In larger organizations, the champion can help you win executive sponsorship. In smaller organizations, the executive sponsor may also act as the project management champion.

In this case, it is advisable to appoint another champion who is not responsible for any monitoring of the project. Instead, they advocate for the project and gain the trust of those needed for it to be successful.

It helps to have a project management champion who is committed to this informal project role alone, as it means the project will have more support when combined with the project manager and the executive sponsor.

The organization respects them, has strong communication skills, and can navigate the sometimes choppy waters of company politics.

Self-Assessment

• Question 1 – Do you have a project management champion who holds a mid-senior level management role?
• Question 2 – Is your project management champion respected by others in the organization?
• Question 3 – Do you have project champions who are not your executive sponsor or not involved in any formal way with the project?

 

Did you answer “no” to any of these questions? I suggest you get to work on enlisting some advocates for your project!

3. Competent Team and Project Leadership

The project is guided by strong project leadership and executed by a skilled, motivated, and competent project team.

While high-level sponsorship is important, on-the-ground leadership determines the daily success of a project. Strong project success factors in project management include having both a capable leader and a skilled team.

Project leadership involves more than assigning tasks. A good project leader provides clear direction, removes obstacles, and encourages an environment of open communication. They are responsible for developing a clear communication plan to keep everyone aligned and informed.

The team must have the necessary skills, resources, and motivation to succeed. A leader who can inspire and support their team will see much better results than one who simply manages a list of deliverables. Investing in the right people and empowering them to succeed is a non-negotiable factor.

Self-Assessment

• Question 1 – Does your project manager provide clear direction and actively work to remove roadblocks for the team?
• Question 2 – Is your team equipped with the necessary skills and resources to complete the project successfully?
• Question 3 – Is there a high level of team motivation and a clear communication plan in place?

 

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, it may be time to assess your team composition and leadership approach.

4. Identifying Your Project Success Factors (Problem Definition)

The team identifies root causes of project management challenges and determines which issues to address first.

A project is a plan of work that ideally gets you to the desired outcome. Before a project takes place, you really have to think about and define why you are taking on the project.

This process should start with an analysis of the organization’s high-level strategic plan to identify business strategy and overall objectives. From there, you can perform a SWOT analysis or a similar exercise to determine main result areas (KRAs) before focusing on specific problems.

What are the issues and problems you are having that the project will address? In the case of improvement, what are the project management issues you face that you want to address – visibility, collaboration, technology, etc.?

Remember, most problems are hidden, and it is, in fact, the symptoms of the problem that you see. It is therefore important to do a proper root cause analysis.

Using Root Cause Analysis

Here at BrightWork, our CEO, Eamonn McGuinness, has a simple tip: Ask yourself the five whys. Keep asking repeatedly to identify underlying issues rather than treating symptoms.

In the 1950s, Toyota Motor Corporation’s pioneer of the Production System, Taiichi Ohno, implemented “kaizen” (a method of continuous improvement). He is said to have instructed his staff to “ask why five times about every matter” as “the root cause of any problem is the key to a lasting solution”.

Prioritizing Problems to Address

Once the root causes or problems are identified, a decision needs to be made about which problems to address first. This is a crucial step in defining the critical success factors for a project.

The decision-making approach may differ from one company to another, for example, simply using your gut, forming a holistic approach, or group consensus.

When final decisions are made, they should be documented and communicated to the entire team so that everyone is on the same page regarding the order of project work.

Self-Assessment

• Question 1 – Have you done a root cause analysis or asked the “five whys” of your current project management problems?
• Question 2 – Have you decided which project management problems to address first, and has this been clearly documented and communicated to the wider team?

 

Answered “no” to either of these questions? Better get cracking on changing that answer!

Common Types of Project Factors

It’s also helpful to recognize that not all CSFs are created equal. Knowing the different types of critical success factors can help you better identify what’s most important for your specific project. They often fall into several categories:

• Industry factors – These are specific to your industry. For a manufacturing project, this might be “supply chain efficiency.” For a software project, it could be “user interface intuitiveness.”
• Competitive factors – These are determined by your competitors’ performance. If your main competitor offers 24/7 customer support, then “providing responsive support” becomes a critical factor for your own success.
• Environmental factors – These are external elements outside your direct control, such as economic conditions, regulatory changes, or technological trends. Being able to adapt to these is a success factor in itself.
• Temporal factors – These relate to internal changes within the organization. For example, if your company is undergoing a merger, “integrating disparate teams” would be a temporary but critical factor for any ongoing projects. For example, primary marketing project success factors might shift dramatically during a rebranding initiative.

 

5. Solution Definition

The team develops and documents the work needed to resolve prioritized challenges.

After identifying key problems, design specific solutions. Consider project management factors such as time, budget, skills, technology, and project management maturity.

The chosen solutions inform the “project scope,” the plan of work needed to complete the project. Project scope management ensures the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.

Managing Project Scope Creep

If work outside of the project scope begins to get added, there is a danger of “Scope Creep” – when minor (or what appear to be minor) changes or improvements to a project build up and have a knock-on effect on the time or cost of a project.

For each solution, establish clear deliverables and set boundaries to prevent scope creep. Managing scope ensures that the project includes only the necessary work to achieve success.

Self-Assessment

• Question 1 – Do you have a clear understanding of what the project scope will be?
• Question 2 – Have you recognized that there may be scope creep and come up with a way to manage it?

 

Is it a “no” for either of these questions? Turn around and address them quickly!

6. Proactive Risk and Resource Management

The project team identifies potential risks upfront and plans for the proper allocation of resources throughout the project lifecycle.

Effective Risk Assessment and Planning

A reactive approach to problems is a recipe for failure. Good risk management involves identifying, assessing, and planning for potential threats before they derail your project.

This means conducting a formal risk assessment to see what could go wrong and developing a contingency plan to address those issues if they arise.

Strategic Resource Allocation

Alongside risk, proper resource planning is essential. This goes beyond just securing a budget; it involves strategic resource allocation to ensure you have the right people and tools available at the right time.

Proactive planning is one of the most important critical success factors project management professionals can master, as it prevents bottlenecks and keeps the project moving forward smoothly.

Self-Assessment

• Question 1 – Have you conducted a formal risk assessment and created a contingency plan for high-priority risks?
• Question 2 – Is there a clear plan for resource allocation that aligns with the project timeline and tasks?
• Question 3 – Do you regularly review both risks and resource availability as the project progresses?

 

If you’ve answered “no,” your project may be more vulnerable to unexpected issues than it needs to be.

7. Stakeholder Engagement and Adoption

The designed solution is vetted by a representative sample of the key stakeholders (e.g., project managers, team members, senior executives) before deployment.

Stakeholder engagement, also referred to as user adoption, is vital to project management improvement. The benefits and success factors of a project are often realized through this final, crucial step.

If, at the end of all your work, the people who are supposed to use the project management solution or follow the project management methodology aren’t happy and deviate from the solution, then there is not just a risk of project failure – it has failed!

Vetting Solutions with Key Stakeholders

It is important to introduce the solution to a small sample first to understand if there are any major issues that were missed or need to be addressed in the short term.

Oftentimes, stakeholder engagement is an afterthought, or the final step, not only for a project management improvement project but also for many projects introducing new technologies or user experiences. There is a risky misconception of “Build it, and they will come”.

Engage users from the start to build enthusiasm and trust. Explain the solution’s benefits, involve a pilot group for testing, and incorporate feedback before broader rollout.

Enlist your executive sponsors and champions to communicate the project’s importance and benefits. They can ensure training for new users and understanding of the new solution, creating a feedback loop for future improvements.

When rolling out any line of business software or method, it can be difficult to get all users comfortable and on board for a variety of reasons. The ultimate success factors of a project depend on their adoption.

Self-Assessment

• Question 1 – Have you been getting feedback from stakeholders and general users from the beginning of the project?
• Question 2 – Do your stakeholders trust and are they enthusiastic about the new solution?

 

Answered “no” to either of these questions? – Better get on it!

Measuring and Monitoring Your Improvement Efforts

Once you’ve identified and started acting on your CSFs, the job isn’t over. Tracking progress is essential to ensure your improvement efforts are actually working. This moves beyond the initial self-assessment to a more quantitative approach.

Use tools like dashboards, such as those offered by BrightWork 365, to get a real-time, visual overview of main metrics. Regularly monitor the project timeline and project budget against your initial plans to catch variances early.

Finally, conducting a formal post-project evaluation is important for capturing lessons learned.

This evaluation allows you to measure the impact of your focused efforts and provides valuable data for refining your success factors in project management for future initiatives.