- Projects are Building Blocks of Strategy - Colvin Peters
The increase in globalization has caused many organizations to critically re-think their business missions. Modern organizations need to make significant shifts in the way business is conducted and in the way success is determined. With the influx of change in the workplace, companies must now operate in a war zone of rapidly changing competitors, technological advances, new laws, managed trade policies and diminishing customer loyalty.
Work is moving away from traditional, process-driven roles and functions, to being more project-oriented. Project managers, department managers and company executives need to recognize the role projects play in contributing to the global view of the organization, as well as, its success. In other words, project management and strategic management are inter-related.
Combining Traditional, Strategic and Project Management
In David Cleland's Project Management: Strategic Design and Implementation, Traditional Management is the process of planning, organizing, motivating, directing and controlling activities to meet the organization's goals and objectives. He also explains that Strategic Management is the management of an organization as if its future mattered.
In James P. Lewis's Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control, Project Management is the facilitation of the previously stated management functions that must be done in order to meet project objectives. However, projects do not exist in a short-term vacuum. Their scope is usually carried out to satisfy the specific goals of the organization, as well as their individual project goals.
Conflict can arise between project goals and the larger goals of the organization. Strategic Project Management optimizes the right mix of projects to achieve organizational goals.
The most important considerations in strategic project management are:
1.Total cost for all projects;
2.Overall time for all projects;
3.What technical performance capability will it provide? (Scope, meeting requirements, fit for use)
4.How will the various projects' results fit into design and execution of organizational strategies?
Optimum Project Mix
Projects are becoming the building blocks of organizational strategy. Organizations that maximize return on projects and project investments are at the forefront of their industries. Project managers must understand the strategic context of the projects they are managing. If any project is in conflict with the organization's goals, it should be deferred until such time when the organizational strategy has changed.
Optimum Resource Allocation
The selection of projects may also bring with it a project/ resource trade-off. This is at the heart of managing multiple projects. Today's organizations experience ever changing levels of cost, time and performance measures. Traditional management is more suited to a static environment and not fully designed to cope with an always changing mix of resources. Finding the best allocation of resources is another challenging problem that modern organizations face.
Strategic management and project management are interrelated in the management of an organization. Project management is not just for the project managers any more. Strategic project management is rapidly becoming the way organizations conduct everyday business operations and build strategy leading to competitive advantage. Selection and implementation of projects have moved from a random process to one where all projects are aligned with the organization's strategic goals and objectives.
Sources
Cleland, David I and Ireland, Lewis R. "Project Management: Strategic Design and Implementation". The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc, 2007.
Lewis, James P. "Project Planning, Scheduling and Control". The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc, 2001,
Carla Crepin-Swift - CC Swift wears many hats. She is a wife, mother, project manager and part-time musician living and operating in Trinidad & Tobago ...
