A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master oflnternational Public Management, School of Management

Research report (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005

The thesis reviews the recent literature on the Success Criteria and Critical Success Factors in project management, introduces a generic framework developed by Dr. Do Ba Khang and Dr. Tun Lin Moe on the Critical Success Factors throughout the project life cycle and adopts the framework to the reality of international development projects funded by Official Development Assistance in Vietnam. An overview of ODA mobilization and utilization in Vietnam has been drawn and a survey is conducted to test the fitness of the framework, to assess the factors that are critical to the success of ODA projects in Vietnam as well as to benefit the experience and expertise of specialists in the field. The thesis shows that to secure project success, all project phases need to be paid attention and provided adequate resources, competencies and support as they are related to each other and that the framework should be a good reference for ODA project management in Vietnam.