Traditionally project success tends to focus on the successful delivery of a planned project by meeting deadlines/timelines, adhering to specifications/requirements and working within allocated budgets. Although from the project manager’s and team member’s perspective this is true, there are many high quality projects that have met all these requirements and ultimately failed. In fact, the technology sector has been infamous in delivering mediocre solutions that have quickly dominated their product categories.
You just have to dial back to the late 70s and when the Sony Betamax and the Apple computer dominated their product categories only for a short time. Both of these products did everything right in delivering superior quality products, being first to market and establish themselves as pioneers in their product categories. So what happened? Why did the PC and VHS succeed? I believe the answer lies in the fact that truly successful products and projects are based on the final adoption and reception of the final deliverable. In the case of the Betamax and Apple it came down to accessibility. The PC’s success resulted by offering a more open platform through Microsoft’s OS allowing for other manufacturers to deliver its PC technology and become the standard. Similarly, VHS delivered an inferior product to Betamax but open its platform as well to other manufacturers, quickly crushing Sony’s superior product. In both of these cases, their success was based on accessibility and adoption. As soon as these products were in the hands of consumers and industries were built on these platforms (e.g. in the case of the PC the enterprise software industry and for VHS the movie studios primary adoption of VHS and video camera manufacturers) Sony and Apple could not compete.
I wonder if cloud computing will have similar impact in the software industry? After all, the adoption and accessibility to the internet dwarfs all other technologies.
Tags: New Product Development Projects, Project Planning, Successful Project Management
I encourage people to differentiate between “project success” and “product success”. A product may be successful (or unsuccessful) for a whole range of factors outside the control of the project manager and project team. For example, maybe a competitor unexpectedly releases a better product, or the user/customer fails to promote the product properly. As a project manager I wouldn’t want my track record to be dependent on other people’s lack of effort!