Page 272 - Global Project Management Handbook

PROJECT CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS 13-9

Percentile rankings
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
1. Project mission

2. Top management
support
3. Project schedule

4. Client consultation
5. Personnel

6. Technical tasks
7. Client acceptance

8. Monitoring and
feedback
9. Communication

10. Troubleshooting
FIGURE 13.1 Sample completed PIP.

implementation process that are being exhibited at the present time. As a result, project
managers can turn their attention to other, more immediate problem areas.
The marginal factor is top-management support, with a percentile score hovering near
50 percent. This score would suggest the potential for future difficulties. In this case, a
signal should be sent to the project team that they may not have the backing of top man-

agement to the degree that is sufficient to implement the project successfully. It would be
advisable to look for possible causes or reasons for this potential lack of support because
it could be the likely source of future problems.
Finally, the three weak factors are those of personnel, technical tasks, and trou-
bleshooting. These three factors scored below the 50th percentile. While the marginal
score discussed earlier suggests future potential for trouble, weak factors such as these
indicate present difficulties. Left unattended or unresolved, these factors can have a seri-
ously debilitating effect on implementation of the project. In this case it seems apparent
that this project has suffered from a lack of trained personnel, supported by the adequate
technology, to successfully develop and install the monitoring and diagnostic system.
Further, perhaps as a result of the lack of adequate technology, the troubleshooting mech-
anisms needed to deal with deviations from plan and unexpected difficulties with devel-
oping and installing the system are inadequate. As a result of thorough analysis of the
profile shown in Fig. 13.1, action plans were developed by the project team that stressed
(1) the need to maintain better linkages with top management, (2) the recruitment of addi-
tional project team personnel to ensure greater technical expertise, and (3) the acquisi-
tion of state-of-the-art technical equipment to aid project team members in the system
development.