Abstract:

The article is devoted to the current issue of project assessment, including in particular identification of factors having effect on successful project execution.

Project variability and complexity implies difficulties in effective project management. An important aspect is thus the selection of relevant assessment criteria for the undertaken project activities. Assuming that one of key determinants of project success is the way of its execution, the article focuses on the identification of success factors of different project types, significant from the perspective of different groups of their stakeholders, and on the determination of the degree in which particular project assessment criteria affect, in the opinion of stakeholders that are the most important for its course, namely managers and executors, success of activities undertaken in different project types. This subject matter is important both for cognitive and practical reasons. It provides knowledge related to management sciences and resource of information significant for project managers and executors.

The purpose of the article was an attempt to answer the following research questions:
• Which factors, from the perspective of the above indicated stakeholders, determine effective project execution?
• Do the project type and sources of its financing affect selection and assessment of project execution success factors?

The main purpose of the article is to identify factors affecting success of different project types in two groups of stakeholders: management and project executors. Among different groups of stakeholders, the indicated above groups were selected because of their crucial importance for successful project course. The research was conducted based on a survey questionnaire on the group of 90 respondents.

The research object covered projects of diverse type – projects financed from funds of the European Social Fund, research projects financed from EU funds and research projects financed from national funds distributed by the National Science Centre in Poland. Based on literature studies, success factors of different project types, available in the subject literature, were identified. Own classification of factors was suggested along with the methodology of their measurement, included in the following areas: factors directly related with the specific character of a project being executed; factors related to project management; factors related to characteristics of the project executing team and factors related to the specific character of the organization under which a project is executed. Each of the listed areas was operationalized and the obtained research findings revealed the meaning of each area along with their detailed characteristics for different types and different groups of stakeholders. As a result, it is assumed that the presented research findings may be helpful in the process of managing different types of projects at their different stage and contribute to improved processes and procedures conducted under their scope.

Keywords:

Project management, success factors.