Success management – From theory to practice

Success Management focuses on defining, leveraging, and securing the success of endeavours at maximum levels by gaining a comprehensive awareness of what is valued by stakeholders to reach success and managing accordingly to that understanding. Success Management has proven to be valuable in the context of project management; however, previous research does not provide a theoretical sound basis or detailed guidance for its practical implementation. This article contributes to filling this gap in the literature by providing the theoretical foundation of Success Management and describing in detail the implementation and key findings of a Success Management process carried out in the context of an IT/IS project by a large multinational company. The results show that Success Management can both raise a holistic awareness of the success contributors and promote success-focused planning and action. In this article, researchers and practitioners can find a full perspective on Success Management, from the theoretical principles to a step-by-step guide for practical implementation.We would like to thank all the project team members who participated in the Success Management process, particularly: Pedro Ribeiro, Flávio Vilarinho, António Silva, Marcos Andrade, and João Ramos. We would also like to thank the Editors and Reviewers: first, for their vision, initiative and hard work in organizing a special issue under the important subject of project success; second, for their valuable comments for improving the original manuscript and for all the support provided. This work has been supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020