PurposeThe purpose of this research is to identify and accumulate knowledge on the existing developments on project success measures. The authors aim to contribute to this debate by providing both researchers and project management professionals with reliable contemporary project success criteria that permit generalization for a proper assessment regardless of the type and context of the project.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 264 Brazilian project managers from a range of industries, sectors of activities and business areas with different levels of experience. Data analysis was performed using the R software package.FindingsIn this research, the authors propose a general performance measure of project success where different projects can grade differently using the same scale. The data analysis validated five constructs of the developed model in the Brazilian setting.Originality/valueMost of the actual project success measures used in project management literature have been tested in a specific industry or sector. Combinations of the type of project, industry, sector, project nature, stakeholders and other variables make each project unique. Thus, any effort to find a context-specific tool of measure will be an endless endeavor. To fill this gap, more general project success criteria need to be explored to offer a common point of comparison between projects. This is the motivation of the present study.

Goal: The objective of this research is to provide researchers and project management professionals with a contemporary view of the measurement of project success. Design/Methodology/Approach: After a dense literature review, a research-based study analyzes the project success criteria perspectives of 264 Brazilian project managers and provides a ranking of the most widely used measures in practice in Brazilian organizations. Results: The study analyzes contemporary literature on project success criteria and discusses overlaps and trends. One of the important findings of this research is the identification of mismatches between academic perspectives and those of project managers in regard to project success as well as real success criteria used in organizations. Limitations of the investigation: As the sample covered was comprised exclusively of Brazilian project managers, cross-cultural success criteria research is, therefore, encouraged. Practical implications: The proposed performance criteria can be used in future research and for professional proposes in success criteria assessment. Originality/Value: Given the diversity of success criteria measures, authors can have difficulty in finding the one that better fits their needs; alternatively, they can create their own scale. The reliability of several studies can be questioned due to their subjectivity and, in some cases, weakly defined measures. The present study can therefore provide project professionals with guidelines for success assessment that make measuring and comparing different projects possible.

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Recent warnings have been raised about the project success rate in organizations. Among many reasons of disappointing results, research on project management reveals a gap in examining project success. Traditionally, project success has been widely studied from the rational view but rarely from the behavioral view. Today’s businesses are facing multiple challenges and opportunities in a volatile market environment that require constant changes within organizations and leaders’ behavior. The role of project managers is no longer the same. This study attempts to update the discussion of project managers soft skills by examining two major behavioral factors: project manager’s emotional intelligence and trustworthiness and their impact on job satisfaction and project success. This research compiles a quantitative survey. Data were collected from 101 project team professionals. The results reveal that project managers’ emotional intelligence and their team members’ trust in them impact project success significantly. The findings provide organizations with a necessary complementary behavioral view of project management. Organizations can take project manager trustworthiness and emotional intelligence into account when recruiting and training project managers and throughout the project planning and execution life span.

Project success is crucial for businesses, but the impact of virtual teams on it is still not fully understood. The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has led to the widespread adoption of virtual environment solutions to support geographically dispersed project teams. The growth in the use of virtual or hybrid teams in projects is expected to continue, as it presents an irreversible trend. Furthermore, there has been a significant increase in interest in sustainability in project management in recent years, emphasizing the long-term perspective for project success. To address this gap and contribute to the project success theory, a quantitative study was conducted to examine the impact of stakeholder engagement, knowledge management, and sustainable practices in project management on project success in virtual work environments using structural equation modeling. Experienced Portuguese-speaking project management professionals were surveyed. No evidence was found to support the moderating role of virtual teams, concluding that the virtual nature of a team does not diminish stakeholder engagement, knowledge-sharing, or sustainability in project management and its influence on project success. This study provides valuable insights for enhancing project success in virtual work environments, as it is the first of its kind to quantitatively address the sustainable long-term approach of project success in virtual environments.