PMI Project Management I.  

Hi friend,
first of all, thank you for start this interesting topic here. Project management is one of my preferred interests area.

You made many questions in just one topic, but I'll try to answer with my opinion some of your points. What we need to be successful? I think if you know the main objectives (goals) of your project, you can determine if you have reached or not the success to your project. So, the goal is: know what are the objectives of your projects.

Project management is not the "golden rule"for everything in our world. For sure, to know some techniques and abilities are important, but the most important thing is manage your environment in the right way to reach your objectives. Obviously, this is not an easy task. Manage people, for instance, is very hard to me.

Do you know the PDCA cycle? Plan, Do, Check, Act. This is a nice tip to manage your projects. I use it all time.

Another interesting point, which I experienced many times, is when an objective is reached and a project finished? Just complete your working plan is not enough to guarantee the success of a project. For instance, if you are developing a software to a client. The objective is reached only if the needing of your client is satisfied with your software solution. Because, if you develop a software just in time but with low quality and no perceptible results to your client, your project had failed. Even if you delivered it in time and with right costs.

So, determine the success of your projects based only in the statistics of your performance is not a good indicator of your success.
Management comprehends a lot of areas and aspects of your talents. And this is what makes it so interesting and exciting!