An empirical investigation of project evaluation criteria

In this article, ice report on an empirical study conducted in tlie USA to determine the performance measures project managers commonly use to evaluate the success of their projects. Specifically, tee identify project managers' orientations toward using internal and/or customer driven measures of performance. We also investigate the priority given to tliese measures at different stages of a project by identifying the primary objective at those stages. In general we find tliat project managers' primary success measure is quality and tlieir most important objective is meeting customer needs. The priority given to this objective does not change during various stages of a project regardless of the project type and industry classification. The choice of performance measures, however, is influenced by project type and industry classification.