Project Planning, Selection, and Implementation as Determinants of Project Success: A Systematic Review of Theory and Practice

Projects have become an indispensable instrument for achieving organizational objectives and advancing socio-economic development worldwide. Governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private enterprises, and community-based organizations increasingly leverage projects to address development challenges, improve service delivery, and catalyse sustainable change. Despite substantial financial, human, and material investments in project-based activities, a significant proportion of projects fail to achieve their intended objectives due to delays, budget overruns, poor resource utilization, and inadequate stakeholder satisfaction (Kerzner, 2022; Meredith, Mantel, & Shafer, 2021). This persistent pattern of underperformance has generated considerable scholarly and practitioner interest in identifying the underlying determinants of project success.