Strategy and Project Management

Organizations seem to have a dichotomy between their strategy and the projects they manage. A strategy means determining or coming up with what to focus on for a desired long-term result. Strategy cannot only be at the top, as it has to be broken down and shared across the whole organization in the form of project management. Project management is how to actualize an idea to achieve its specific goals and objectives. Organizations usually have multiple projects running simultaneously to address a variety of issues that management often believes can be resolved through a project. However, throwing a project at every issue is not always the right approach especially if there is no strategic alignment to support its execution. According to data from multiple sources, a majority (about 70 percent) of projects fail. Most projects are not managed as a well-defined process with an understanding of what their success should look like, and the resources needed to bring the project’s vision to fruition. In many cases, projects are treated like operations and have no end date. By definition, a project is an endeavor initiated to accomplish a specific outcome within a defined timeframe. On the surface, project management may appear easy, and most organizations mistakenly think all you need is someone who can tell people what to do and produce periodic progress reports. A project completed does not automatically mean a project's success. This is because the essence of project management is not only about coordinating project activities but also being able to organize and strategize project activities in such a way as to produce the intended results for both the organization and the end users. Like a negotiator in a negotiation, the outcome may seem easy but the way to get there is far from easy; this is where you need both the science and the art of negotiation. And the same is true for project management.

Business strategy is the overall plan and objective of selecting where you want to play and how you want to play and continue winning to achieve the business outcome you want. This is where project management needs to start. Like any business goal, projects need to be aligned with the overarching enterprise strategy and not done on an ad-hoc basis by a department or a manager trying to solve a problem with a preconceived notion of the issue and solution. It is sometimes hard to say “no” to management when they want to start a project, but this is where and why an organization needs to have a well-functioning enterprise project management practice that has jurisdiction over all projects, from the enterprise to the department and the business unit level, with well-defined processes and governances to follow. You do not want to have different groups trying to accomplish similar results by doing the same thing in different ways instead of having a well-thought-out plan that addresses the underlying issue as a whole. It does not mean departments should not have project management offices (PMOs) but rather, they should be connected and aligned to the enterprise project management office (EPMO) to better coordinate all project activities for strategic alignment, synergy, resource waste reduction, quality and continuous improvement, and cost savings. Project management is the tactical execution of business strategy. As such, it needs to look at the strategy of the organization and understand where the organization is trying to go and what it is trying to achieve before starting to execute any initiative. The head of enterprise project management (working with other senior leaders in the C-suite and his/her business analysis leader) needs to take the organizational strategy and break it down into strategic pillars and priorities in order to design an appropriate project management system that brings the vision of the organizational strategy to reality. The business analysis leader helps with the analysis of the business needs and assesses the effects of various initiatives on the business.

Strategic pillars are the main blocks of work that when met will accomplish the overall strategy of an organization and help to realize its strategic vision. Once these strategic pillars are identified, they need to be prioritized into those that need to be implemented first, concurrently, and sequentially. The strategic breakdowns or pillars now become the portfolios that need to be managed by the enterprise project management office in addition to the other cost of doing business portfolios like keeping the light on (KLO) portfolio for maintaining the organization functions, ad-hoc portfolio for emergencies that need to be tackled, and other identified portfolios like continuous improvement and enhancement, etc. Portfolios are the high-level distinct blocks of work that need to be done to meet a particular outcome of a strategy. It addresses a strategic business need that is aligned with a strategic objective of the organization, and it may have multiple programs designed to address the portfolio’s goals and objectives. All programs under the portfolio are like children of the portfolio and exist because of the portfolio. A portfolio can sometimes have a direct project if what needs to be done is not complex enough for further breakdown. Each portfolio should be headed by a portfolio leader who is responsible for the overall success of the portfolio and the design and success of programs and projects within that portfolio, along with the creation of associated governance.

Programs are the breakdown of portfolios into smaller segments to meet part of the portfolio’s goals and objectives in a structured way. They are the grouping of projects into buckets that provide synergy which could not be obtained if they were not brought together under the program. The benefits of a program are greater than the sum of isolated individual projects' benefits, meaning the whole is greater than the sum of the individual components. Programs help to prevent run-away projects that do not need to be done in order to accomplish a portfolio’s goals and objectives, and the organizational strategy. As most organizations are resource-deficient with limited available resources to do all that needs to be done, the management and use of these scarce resources is paramount in realizing the strategy of the organization in an optimal way. Focus has to be placed on the needs of the organization before tackling the wants of any business unit. The structured approach to initiative management is what makes project portfolio management a critical strategic discipline rather than just executing various ad-hoc individual projects with no enterprise end goal in mind. The key benefit of having a program is the synergy it provides than doing it as unstructured individual projects. Each program should be headed by a program leader who is responsible for how the execution of the program should proceed along with its success metrics, and the prioritization of the projects within the program.

Projects are the last of the quartet (strategy, portfolios, programs, and projects), and the execution portion of project portfolio management in realizing the defined outcome for a successful initiative. Projects should be aligned with programs and/or portfolios to meet a strategic business goal for the organization. A project helps to solve a specific business problem that will have a positive change in how things are done within the organization and/or with external stakeholders. The scope of the project should be well understood by all stakeholders with the list of deliverables communicated to set the right expectations of the project. This is needed because business leaders sometimes have the notion that a particular project(s) will solve all their problems without understanding the design of the projects within the program and/or the portfolio. It is also a good practice to have the charter of the project signed by key stakeholders to include a list of the main out-of-scope items, the deliverables to expect, and the definition of success for the project. This helps to reduce misalignment between the project team and the stakeholders. The three main parts of a project are the business case or problem, execution, and transition; these form the project implementation. Most people and organizations only focus on the middle part (execution) hence the high failure rate of many projects. The approved business case and transition plan to operations are keys to implementing and realizing a successful project. You can complete a project but still have an unsuccessful project because the other two parts (business case and transition) are not well-defined or missing. Every project needs to have a business case (created with the help of a business analyst) that is aligned with a program and/or a portfolio to reduce the wasting of resources on things that do not need to be a project, and only focus on the things that the organization is trying to accomplish in terms of strategy. The killer of productivity is wasting time, money, and energy on doing the things that do not need to be done at all. Projects should be led by a project leader (usually called the project manager) who is responsible for executing the business case and implementing the needed project or solution to the defined business problem. Other key tasks of the project leader are the management of the project team, various stakeholders, artifacts, deliverables, and transitioning the project to operations.

Part of developing a strategy is knowing what to do and what not to do, and this is what should drive projects because it is the execution of the strategy. Operations readiness to accept the outcome of the project is key to its success as it is where the values and benefits of the initiatives are realized and without this, you can have a completed project but not a successful one. The area of transition from a project to operations is where care and a lot of preparations is needed to plan, train, and absolve the project into operations – organizational readiness. The organizational readiness is the handling of coordination between the project and operations teams, and a plan needs to be developed by the two entities for a smooth transition. Operations are the main stakeholders for the project’s deliverables and acceptance criteria, and their involvement in the project should increase as the project reaches completion. This should be laid out in the organizational readiness plan; a critical part of the change management and communication plans. The transition of a project to operations is like running a relay where the project manager hands over the baton to operations. The handing-off is critical because operations must be prepared and ready to take the baton from the project team or the project fails just like in the relay. Every project needs a change management leader to lead its transition and work with the various stakeholders to complete and steer the project to success. Sometimes the project manager can play the role of a change manager based on the complexity of the project and deliverables. However, having a dedicated resource to lead this for each business unit is a best practice that needs to be advocated for. After completing all closure activities at the end of a project, have the project team available to the operations team for about two weeks after the transition before officially closing the project. Any issues after this grace period should be treated as operational issues. This will stop the misuse of project resources for things that are not project-related and allow a clean cutoff of the project from operations, consequently increasing the project's success rate. Strategic pillars are the start of projects, and each project needs to be aligned to a particular program and/or portfolio designed to bring the organization's strategic vision to fruition.

Strategy relates to an organization’s focus on where and how the organization decides it wants to compete and win within its industry. Once a strategy is developed, it needs to be handed over to the enterprise project management office (EPMO) to drive its implementation. This includes working with various stakeholders and associated project management offices (PMOs) in executing the defined initiatives in bringing the strategy to reality. The EPMO will involve the affected stakeholders to drive the strategy by breaking the strategy into various segments, pillars, or priorities that become portfolios, and these portfolios are further broken down into programs, and broken down again into projects. In each of these segments, the definition of success is key as it acts as the north star for the work that needs to be done, the type of resources needed, and the timeframe required. The success of strategy and project management lies in leadership, vision, knowledge strategy, system thinking, and the tactical capacity needed to execute in an agile way due to expected changing business dynamics and vicissitudes.