It is quite difficult to define if a project is partially successful or successful, or if it has failed, without any success criteria or measurable points. Thus, it is important that management defines the criteria upon which the project can be measured; successful delivery of those criteria defines the success of the project.

Because the nature of this information is critical, a consultant should try and get this information from management. If management has not defined this criteria, it is duty of the consultant to make them understand the importance of this information and get it defined by them.

The success criteria can be anything, like:

• The project should be delivered on time with the Must have requirements
• The project should not fail from the performance point of view and should provide good performance to business users
• The entire architecture of the project should be such that it can be scalable in future with more users and data coming in
• Training of business users, support, and maintenance can also be a success criteria

And so on.

Defining success criteria not only helps the consultant but also helps the management to keep an eye on the project and make sure that the project is going in right direction.