Projects are critical to the success of any organization as they involve the activities that result in new or changed products, services, environments, processes and organizations. Organizations have increasingly embraced project management as a key strategy for staying ahead in today’s highly competitive business environment.
Successful implementation of project management creates an organization that can readily meet the demands of each project and yet adapt quickly to a constantly changing dynamic environment, perhaps at the same time (Kerzner, 2010).
Management considers the organization’s resources, its competitive positioning and its critical areas of strategic uncertainty. Gaddis (1997) says that the idea that an organisation can plan its way to a known future is implausible and the ability of people within a system to see failures is equally problematic.
Good project management strategies allow work to be accomplished in less time, at lower cost, with fewer resources and without any sacrifice in quality (Kerzner, 2001).
The idea of strategy has received increasing attention in the management literature. The literature on strategy in the present volume and strategic management texts have become more and more to include all relevant materials.
This paper discusses how project management affects strategy and governance. It begins with a highlight of the theoretical background, which is followed by a brief description of a relevant case study from the construction field. Next is an analysis and discussion of related literature. It then concludes with a detailed discussion.
Literature review
In providing projects, organizations must have dynamic capabilities and a high level of knowledge and competence to be able ...
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GADDIS, P. (1997) Strategy under attack. Long Range Planning, 30, 38-45.
HAROLD KERZNER, P. D. (2010) Project Management: Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence, Wiley.
KERZNER, H. (2001) Using the project management maturity model: strategic planning for project management, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
PMI (2010) PMI ® Case study: SAUDI ARAMCO HARADH GAS PROJECT viewed on 13th March 2010 << http://www.pmi.org/PDF/Case_Saudi_Aramco.pdf >>.
SNOWDEN, D. & BOONE, M. (2007) A leader's framework for decision making. Harvard Business Review, 85, 68.
TEECE, D., PISANO, G. & SHUEN, A. (1997) Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management. Strategic Management Journal, 18, 509-533.
WALKER, D. H. T., ARLT, M. & NORRIE, J. (2008) The role of business strategy in PM procurement. Procurement systems: a cross-industry project management perspective, 140- 176
Kerzner, H. (2013). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Dess, G. G., Lumpkin, G. T., Eisner, A. B., & McNamara, G. (2012). Strategic Management: Text & Cases (6th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Frame, J.D., Managing Projects in Organizations: How to Make the Best use of Time, Techniques and People, third ed., San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,112-117, 2003.
Carpenter, MA & Sanders, WG 2007, Strategic management: concepts: a dynamic perspective, Prentice Hall, New Jersy.
A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service. They are goal oriented, have a definite start and finish time, must be done within cost, schedule and quality parameters. Projects involve the coordinated undertaking of interrelated activities (Project Management: Achieving Competitive Advantage). According to Tom Peters, “Projects, rather than repetitive tasks, are now the basis for most value-added in business”. Based on this, it is clear that projects are of utmost importance to businesses in both the service and the manufacturing industries.
Thompson, A. A., Strickland, A. J., & Gamble, J. E. (2008). Crafting & executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage (16th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Mason Carpenter, G. S. (2013). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases Second Edition. Harlow: South-Western Pub.
Gray, Larson. (2005). Project management: The managerial process. [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill Companies. Retrieved February 5, 2007, from University of Phoenix, rEsource, MGT 573Project Management in the Business Environment Web site.
Thompson, A.A., Strickland, A.J., & Gamble, J. E. (2010). Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage: Concepts and cases: 2009 custom edition (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill-Irwin
In the globalized economy, Successful project managers are in much demand across many industries. Organizations strongly need experienced project managers to lead their staff to accomplish their business goals and deliver successful projects. In an increasingly complex environment, project managers need to turn into many roles and have all kinds of responsibilities at each level of management within an organization. Good project managers are not born. They need to be trained. They develop their skills through study, practise and experience. They become better project managers after they finish a successful project each time. They learn new techniques and apply them on their projects. They learn their lessons from failed projects and then improve to be better project managers in the future.
...c management or planning presents a structure or agenda for dealing with issues and solving problems, therefore, understanding potential risks or pitfalls of strategic management and being prepared to deal with them is critical and vital to success. Strategic management not only permits top leaders and managers to be more proactive than reactive in building or developing their own potential or outlook in an organization, and it also lets them to make the first move and influence activities, consequently, executives and management can control or in charge of the company’s own future, and achieve its main goals and objectives. Overall, increasing cost-effectiveness and efficiency, improving the value for its stakeholders, and advancing customer services and management excellence are the key objectives of strategic management and decision making in an organization.
Over the course of my professional life, I have become increasingly involved in project management roles. Doing so has made me aware of the many varied challenges that can face projects and the project managers who are charged with bringing them through to completion. The success or failure of projects, in whatever economic, political or social field, rests not just on the quality of the project’s goals, but also on the abilities of those involved in the project – and above all those who are managing it – to bring it to successful completion. To do this, project managers need to be equipped with a very wide range of skills, many of which are unrelated to the type of project itself. So, for example, a project manager of an engineering project must not only have engineering
Project management involves all activities that encompass scheduling, planning, and controlling projects. A successful project manager ensure that an organization’s resources are being used both efficiently and effectively. Most projects need to be uniquely developed require a sense of customization and the ability to adapt to any posed challenges. The scope of effective project management includes defining what the project is and what is being expected to be accomplished. Projects are imposed to fulfill a certain need and project managers must have the ability to create the proper definition. Goals and the means used to attain those goals have to be clearly stated. Project Managers must also have the ability to plan
When planning a new project, how the project will be managed is one of the most important factors. The importance of a managers will determine the success of the project. The success of the project will be determined by how well it is managed. Project management is referred to as the discipline that entails the processes of carefully planning, organizing, controlling, and motivating the organization resources so as to foster and facilitate the achievement of specific established and desired goals and meet the specific criteria of success required in the organization (Larson, 2014). Over the course of this paper I will be discussing and analyzing the importance of project management.
“Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to organisational and project activities to achieve the aims of an organisation through projects” (PMI, 2003).