My view is a project is only a success if all stakeholders are happy at the end. To succeed, you therefore need to:
1. Know who all the stakeholders are
2. Know what they expect
3. Come up with a plan to satisfy 2
4. As you go along, and you see reality differs from 3, you must either change 2 or change 3, or a bit of both.
A PM's job is expectation management. Delivering on expectation will most of the time include having to change the expectation to match the reality at the end of the project. It's usually easier to change expectations earlier rather than later, and also by not saying "no", but rather by saying "let's rather do this".
A PM's job is expectation management. Delivering on expectation will most of the time include having to change the expectation to match the reality at the end of the project. It's usually easier to change expectations earlier rather than later, and also by not saying "no", but rather by saying "let's rather do this".