The study aimed at finding an acceptable, practical definition of "success" in social work practice as perceived by front-line social work practitioners. Two major questions were explored through in-depth interviews and discussions with some 28 experienced social workers coming from different practice teams within Lothian, who volunteered to participate in the study: 1) Whom did they value as a "successful practitioner?" and 2) What did they perceive as a "successful practice?" Two core themes were identified and followed up in the course of discussions, i.e. "Good Practice" versus "Successful Practice", and "Good Practitioner" versus "Successful Practitioner". The respondents happened to be more familiar with the concept of "good practice" since it was part of the social work mandate, and therefore, they believed that a practitioner who is competent in performing in accordance with the agency policy, code of ethics, and within the boundaries of professional standards, and in short, in conducting a "good process" of intervention, is a "good" worker, which they thought was equal to the concept of "successful". It was only after certain brain-storming questions and discussion that a practical definition of "Successful Practice" was grounded, which appeared to be an "Outcome-Oriented" concept. Data analysis supported the proposition that "successful practice" is attained whenever a piece of practice, with or without yielding to the criteria of "good practice" and keeping up with the routine "process" of social work, could reach a planned, desirable end result, namely, a client outcome, or a positive "change" in a client system. In this sense, "success" seemed to be a subjective, mental attitude much related to the workers' values, expectations and personal satisfaction derived from the change they could bring about in their clients' circumstances, while "successful practitioner" was perceived as a good practitioner who 'successfully' establishes good relationships with clients, conducts a good command of social work process, in compliance with the standards, in line with the code of ethics and principles of practice, with the hope of reaching a desired client outcome. Although they argued that in general at present, most social workers could be judged to be "successful" in regard to the quality of their practice, that did not necessarily mean that all their interventions with all clients would be "successful practice", in the sense that they, as well as the client, would be quite satisfied with the end result. Thus "successful practice" implied practice where a planned change or client outcome has definitely been achieved.