Critical Success Factors Project Implementation

20. Critical Success Factors in Effective Project implementation*+
Jeffrey K. Pinto* Dennis P. Slevin**

INTRODUCTION

The process of project implementation, involving the successful development and introduction of projects in the organization, presents an ongoing challenge for managers. The project implementation process is complex, usually requiring simultaneous attention to a wide variety of human, budgetary, and technical variables. As a result, the organizational project manager is faced with a difficult job characterized by role overload, frenetic activity, fragmentation, and superficiality. Often the typical project
* Portions of this chapter were adapted from Dennis P. Slevin and Jeffrey K. Pinto, Balancing Strategy and Tactics in Project Implementation', Sloan Management Review, Fall, 1987, pp. 33-41, and Randall L. Schultz, Dennis P. Slevin, and Jeffrey K. Pinto, 'Strategy and Tactics in a Process Model of Project Implementation", Interfaces, 16:3, May-June, 1987, pp. 34-46. T Copyright O 1987 by Jeffrey K. Pinto and Dennis P. Slevin. ** Dennis P. Slevin is an Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of Pittsburgh's Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics from St. Vincent College, a B.S. in Physics from M.I.T., an M.S. in Industrial Administration from Carnegie-Mellon, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He has had extensive experience as a line manager, including service as the CEO of four different companies, which qualified him as a member of the Young Presidents' Organization. He presently serves as a director of several corporations, and consults widely. He publishes in numerous professional journals, and is co-editor of Implementing Operations Research Manageinent Science; The Management of Organizational Design, Volumes I and II; and Producing Useful Knowledge. He has written the