Plans are Nothing, Changing Plans is Everything: The Impact of Changes on Project Success

Based on a sample of 448 projects, the interactions between three planning variables, the Quality of Planning, Goal changes, Plan changes and Project Success are analyzed. The most important result of the study is that the amount of changes during a project’s implementation stands out as the only variable that distinguishes between successful and failed projects independent of their level of innovativeness. The study also reveals the interaction structure between the planning variables themselves and the resultant impact on project success, as well as several contextual variables, which affect the quality of planning and stimulate goal and plan changes.