Project success is a perennial topic in the project management (PM) literature, and the concept of project success has been evolving since the 80s. During the last two decades, researchers started calling to designate benefits realizations as one of the determinants of project success criteria. The initial PM literature focused on the triple constraints of cost, time, and specifications as project success criteria (Atkinson 1999, Jha 2011, Lim and Mohammed 1999, Meredith and Mantel 2008, Shenhar et al. (2001). However, during the late 1980s, PM researchers started looking at project success beyond the Iron Triangle. Pinto and Slevin (1987, 1988) published a list of 10 project success factors. Later works introduced the concept of benefits realisation as criteria for real project success (Bradley, 2010). During the last decade, benefits management has received increasing traction from the researchers, and Zwikael and Smyrk (2012, 2019) argued for making project outcomes rather than outputs criteria for project success. Mossalam and Arafa (2016) state that benefits realisation has now become a key factor in project success. There is evidence of growing awareness of benefits realisation among organizations globally, as APMSIG (2009) survey highlights that organizations are seeking to make benefits realisation a determinant of project success. This article discusses the following questions: • Can benefits be included as criteria for project success evaluation and what are the implications for practice? • What is the most appropriate phase/stage of the project life cycle for benefits evaluation and what are the current practices in the Australian Public Sector? • Who is accountable for benefits realisation and how benefits ownership is established in the Australian Public Sector? This article aims to suggest steps to enhance benefits realisation in the public sector so that realising benefits becomes realistic project success criteria and enriches the abstract project management theories by arguing for a practice-led theory.
