Critical success factors for multidisciplinary engineering projects

Project success is an attractive idea but what factors lead to success remains an areaof conjecture. In the project management literature the success has often beendefined in terms of better control of timescales, budgets and resource planning. Yetthese are impoverished terms for conceptualising success, which is both multidimensionaland contextual. The study explores the perceptions of critical successfactors (CSFs) in a multi-disciplinary engineering practice. Project success is seen tobe related to five dimensions of work: individuals, teams, process, project andproduct. Understanding these elements and their interdependence may enablemanagers to identify strengths and weaknesses in current work practices. Animportant insight is that CSFs is a form of knowing, which needs to be articulatedand communicated more effectively within the project community, emphasising therole of social capital and social networks.