Determining Project Success from the Perspective of Firm’s Management

The aim of the article is to provide a theoretical and methodological substantiation of the criterion «project success» from the perspective of the management of an information technology company. The objective of the article was to assess project success in terms of compliance with management methods, identification of situational variables, as well as determining the correctness of actions in project implementation; to summarize critical remarks from practitioners regarding the definition of project success; to determine the specific features of success evaluation for projects implemented using classical and agile management methodologies. As a result of the research, three main approaches to evaluating project success were identified: classical, which determines factors of the organizational environment that influence project success; situational (identification of situational variables or «dimensions» that indirectly or directly affect the outcomes of the project); as well as merit-based, which determines the correctness of managers' actions during project implementation. The results of unstructured interviews with practitioners regarding the criticism on the approaches to defining project success proposed by the Project Management Institute have been summarized. It has been noted that agile, as a management methodology in organizations, can be efficient for projects that require frequent changes and innovations; however, its significant drawbacks include the potential lack of clear documentation of technical and management actions and planning, which complicates project support and scaling during its implementation. The ideal approach to project management should combine the strengths of the process-oriented model of the classical approach with the principles of flexibility and sensitivity to changes inherent in the agile approach, and project success should be considered as a multifaceted conception that combines alignment of the outcomes with set goals, meeting the requirements of stakeholders, and providing ongoing value to customers.