Mosalaesi, TsholofeloLaryea, SamuelLaryea, SamuelLi, BaizhanEssah, Emmanuel AduMensah, SarfoLiu, HongYao, Runming2024-10-062024-10-062024-07Mosalaesi and Laryea. (2024). Evaluating the new universities project outcomes using the PMBOK project performance domains In: Laryea, S. et al. (Eds) Proceedings of the WABER SuDBE Conference, 30 to 31 July 2024, Johannesburg, South Africa 1072-1082978-0-7961-6032-4978-0-7961-6032-4 (e-book)https://hdl.handle.net/10539/41381This paper was presented at the Proceedings of the WABER SuDBE 2024 Conference, 30th – 31st July 2024, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.The Project Management Institute (2021) PMBOK Guide seventh edition presents eight essential domains or activities that are crucial to ensure the success of a project. PMI (2021) defines these Project Performance Domains as a group of related activities that are critical for the effective delivery of project outcomes. The PMI’s new focus on performance and project outcomes marks a significant shift away from traditional project management tools and techniques. This paper uses the eight PPDs as a framework to determine the critical factors that enabled the success of the new universities project based on the eight domains. A completed project with comprehensive data was used for the analysis. Hence, data from the project close out report was analysed using the thematic analysis method to identify the key project performance practices that were formulated and implemented to successfully achieve the intended outcomes. The key success factors identified relate to the role of the client as a leader, stakeholder’s productive working relationship and the delivery of the project within 1% of the control budget. There may be a common assumption that all clients may employ project managers who may possess the skills to execute these critical functions successfully. However, this is not always the case on all projects, and there is also varying degrees of competency among project managers. Therefore, clients should ensure that those playing leadership roles in their projects are well equipped to perform these critical functions successfully as a condition to achieve better infrastructure project outcomes.en©2024 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.© Copyright The copyright for papers in this publication belongs to the authors of the papers.Document analysisPMBOKProject performance domainSouth AfricaSDG-8: Decent work and economic growthConference ProceedingsUniversity of the Witwatersrand, JohannesburgWABER SuDBE Conference 20240000-0001-6605-208X