Defining a successful project in sustainable project management through simulation—a case study

Abstract

Modern approaches to project management link project success both to sustainability and with the value delivered to project stakeholders. In the final analysis, it is the satisfaction of the identified stakeholders based on the sustainability principle which decides whether a project is successful or not. The value delivered to appropriate stakeholders has to be incorporated in the earliest phases of the project defining process. Otherwise, it may be too late to introduce changes which would allow the right value to be delivered to the right stakeholders. In this paper, we propose that a simulation is used in the phase of project definition to choose such implementation forms for individual project phases or tasks which would facilitate the delivery of the value expected by the stakeholders. Our approach also supports the process of agreeing (among the stakeholders) on the value expected from the project. We show, using a post-factum real-world project case, that the application of a simulation in the predictive project stage may considerably increase the probability of the project’s success.