When is a project truly successful?

A project can be delivered perfectly from a technical perspective: on schedule, within budget and with all deliverables completed. But that does not automatically mean that the intended change has actually been achieved.

This is where project management and change management come together.

Project management provides the structure to deliver the required result. Change management focuses on ensuring that the organisation is ready, willing and able to adopt that result and make it part of everyday practice.

In complex projects, I still see these disciplines being managed too separately. Yet it is precisely their integration that makes the difference.

A new organisational structure, process or technology only creates value when people understand why change is necessary, know what is expected of them and take ownership.

Change management should therefore not start at the end of a project. It needs to be part of the approach from the beginning.

The relevant question for management is not only:

“Did we deliver the project successfully?”

But more importantly:

“Did we successfully realise the change?”

Because a project ends. The change needs to last.