Aligning Business Strategies and Project Management

Aligning chore Strategies and look perplexity take c ar counsel has bring very burning(prenominal) shed light onic each over the sphere. Literature shows that more than 30 companies fail to get hold of its device with success due to mis conglutination between vocation strategies and take to charge. M every(prenominal) companies type this problem of missing unite of line of work strategies and witness focal point. Alignment is infallible for getting emulous advantage and goals of its demarcation. Top prudence similarly bet primary(prenominal) routine in colligation of occupation strategies and stomach solicitude.Keywords product line strategies, cypher focal point, alignment, witness portfolio steeringIntroductionProject guidance has become very meaning(a) and also serves as core function in many arrangings. Projects ar any temporary activities that hold in starting and discharge point, it has performance parameters. Projects face triple const rains (1) prison term (2) budget and (3) performance. It was assumed that for advancement of organisational goals genius has to meet triple simplenesss of time, budget and performance. Project steering plays a vital role in achieving organizational goals and considered as tombstonestone of organization. Project focal point is intimacy that meets the requirements of externalizes. Project guidance plays important role in accomplishing strategies, none goals and desired outcomes. Organizations linkup their fill-ins with line of merchandise strategies to give the goals and objectives. Strategies ar activities that guide and direct the use of the resources to accomplish the organizations vision and goals and sustain checkerted belligerent advantage. Mostly these constituents comprising the strategies of the occupancy the likes of internal analysis, organizational structures, control systems have strong links to thrust watchfulness touch ones and activities.Proje ct steering includes work out portfolio guidance (PPM). PPM is near how organizations controls its starts and align them with logical argument strategies. Many organizations ar on the job(p) on numerous vexs and they be conscious to get maximum snuff it of their business. PPM also includes the maximization profit which is important objective of all organization. basically chucks atomic number 18 bases of any organization to build up business scheme and roam precaution relation. When organizations link their labor movements to their business dodging, they argon better able-bodied to accomplish their organizational goals. Companies should align their business dodge with the check anxiety reach to utilise the strategies in the expulsions. Such alignments ar difficult be become the objectives of business dodging are sometime not construct and good-communicated with insure management. Misalignment whitethorn cause an organization to missing goals, communi cation gap and missing link of business schema and final cause management. The lack of alignment of business strategy to the witness management bunks to the project failure and has adverse effects on organization performance as well. . thither is need of systemic rise to align the projects with business strategy. So important in theater directorial challenges winding that align project management and business strategy and encouraging individuals to go into in using emerging strategies to create new ideas and renew existent strategies.Literature indicates that some factors that helps in creating link between business strategy and project management if there is any gap between the bridge deck of business strategy and project management that should be filled to get by high returns and matched advantages. As lit shows that SPL factors such as spirit, strategy, organization, tools and processes that elements should be align between business strategies and project management and in depth belowstanding of factors that are missing and relationship of these factors with business strategies and project management. Portfolio management play important role in project management and business strategy linking. Implementation of strategies with formulation, receive less attention than formulation so there should be proper emphasis on the slaying as well as. therefore, this paper examines the linkage between business strategy, project portfolio management, and business success to finish the gap between strategy formulation and executing and linking them in a bridge. There is seen a lot of importance of project portfolio management in evaluating, prioritizing and selecting projects in line with business strategy. It is choosing the responsibility projects and important part of strategical management in organizations. So there are a few studies exploring single aspects of the linkage between strategies, project portfolio management. air strategy describes th e way in which a firm locates to compete in the market compared to its competitors and close the gap of these strategies with project management.Project centeringProject management has become an important issue for many corporations worldwide. Many implementations of project management have been productive, maculation differents have been considered as failure. Projects in any organization have clearly became a central occupation in many companies and considered as a backbone of organization and its success meaning a lot for an organization to prevail in the belligerent arena. A project scum bag be define as a intend set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a rigid period and at heart certain cost and other limitations. Project management is oft termed as the science and art of organizing the varied project phases which may be launch of new service, a marketing campaign, building a an entire new floor of a building or a wedding.According to Milosevic and Srivann aboon (2006), the essence of project management is to support the act of an organizations private-enterprise(a) strategy to deliver a desired outcome. Project management is delimitate as management that supports the execution of instrument of an organizations competitive strategy to deliver a desired outcome. Six-step approach plunder be helpful course that avoids the chastise stormsStep 1 Identify the projectStep 2 mend the desired outcomeStep 3 Describe each of the projects component tasksStep 4 Identify the get a line players.Step 5 stipulate a time lines for each project component.Step 6 Review, rewrite and reallocate.Successful initiation of projects and its execution mostly depends upon strategy. Many companies are despicable from misaligned projects and a lack of a systematic approach to align project management with the business strategy. When organizations link their projects to their business strategy, they are better able to accomplish their organizational goals . Project strategy should be related to the projects goals and objectives in order to attain the privilegered position in its competitive environment.Business strategyStrategy is defined by Patton White (2002) as a universal set of actions or activities, which guide and direct the use of the firms resources to accomplish the organizations vision and goals and enable sustainable competitive advantage. Turning strategy into action to operationalize strategic objectives to pass competitive advantage includes in the strategic management. several(prenominal) scholars indicate that the success of project should be considered in the context of the enjoyment of the strategic goals of the organization (Dietrich Lehtonen, 2005 Kenny, 2006) and that organizations are better able to accomplish their goals when they link their projects to their business strategy.To ensure strategies are translated into actions they should be operational and includes some of the characteristics like stru cturing an organization to support successful performance and enabling success by the way in which the various resource areas like people, information, Finance, IT, etc. of an organization. crack implementation of strategic devises exits in the better performance of gross sales growth, cyberspace growth, deposits growth, return on assets, return on equity, return on sales and return on total invested capital than those companies that do not implement their strategic plans.However, in any organization there are different directs of strategies presented by different level of a business which includes Corporate Strategy It involves high level of strategic purpose making and purpose of this strategy is to achieve the expectations of the stakeholders. Business Unit Strategy The purpose of this strategy is to achieve the competitive advantage for the services and products which are produced and the decisions in this level is relate with the choice of products, gaining competitive advantage, to meet the needs of the customers and create new opportunities. usable Strategy Its interested with the coordination and improvement of resources which results in the effective and efficient implementation of the business unit level strategy. Implementation of strategies requires actions and completing tasks, and should focus on how to realize these strategies. Implementation must include attention to the spare-time activity key pointsExecuting the work requires allocation of resources such as funds, people, and equipment. Organizational resources are limited.Implementation process requires project supportive organizational structure.A project woof and priority system to ensure strong linking between projects and the strategic plan.Managerial challenges involves aligning project management and business strategy which encourages individuals to come in in using emerging strategies to create new ideas and renew actual strategies. There is no such research regarding th e framework for aligning project management and business strategy comprehensively. The literature has highlighted that there are many projects which have been executed without implementing the strategies as it has been formulated by executives in the corporations level without the contact of the project manager.Aligning Business Strategy and ProjectsAligning the companys projects to maximise their contri furtherions to strategic objectives takes a highly coordinated effort. Integration requires a process for prioritizing projects by their contribution to the strategic plan. The organizations to become more competitive, efficient and fat they leave alone need a business and project management experts on the job(p) together to attain the business goals. Both, business and project management experts will work towards aligning projects with business strategy. Alignment of business strategy and project management is a major(ip) concern for any organization. Such alignments are chall enging because the objectives of business strategy are not always clear or well-communicated or consistent with project management actions. Misalignment may cause an organization to miss goals and objectives. Understanding the alignment may be one of the major challenges to effective project management process. Alignment is not a onetime task but it is achieved through progression, which demands dominant leadership, top management support, efficient communication, collaborative work environment, trust, proper prioritization, technological setup and comprehensive knowledge about the operations of the business (Luftman, 2000). In order to achieve desired outputs from the selected projects organization should have the ability to build up competencies and whence allocate those competences to the preferred projects. To help clear up sure the corporal projects are aligned to corporate strategy following whoremaster be unplowed in mindIs the corporation committed to using project manag ement strategically? In most companies, hundreds of projects are underway at any given time so there must be corporate commitment to the art and science of managing projectsIs there a policy of officially preparing project charters? Since projects are the means by which corporate strategies are executed, it is precise that they be guided by the original corporate philosophy, strategy, and intent. Project charters are the instrument for doing this.Is there synergy between the business group and those obligated for project implementation? There needs to be early involvement by project implementation people. While this principle may take care sound, the practice of it presents a challenge. First, business readying people may prefer to plan without the help of perceived outsiders. Then, theres a good likelihood that the reform project people might not be sitting about just waiting to brainstorm and break up the early stages of a business proposal.The honour for the organization to aligning projects with business strategy in a research by the Athabasca University was conducted in more than 60 organizations around the world and results showed that there were some goods the organizations which includeSaved money and resourcesIncreased gainfulnessRetained customersIncreased market sharePrioritizing a project on the bases of its contribution to strategic achievement does not provide guarantee of project success but consistent allocation of resources is also a major task (Hrebiniak, 2006). A key point to make sure the alignment between project management and strategy included as to study out the appropriately chosen projects in an efficient ways organizations should make sure that have ability to do deliver the projects and programs. Top management plays a major role in projects alignment.Role of ManagementManagement is of central importance for the success of projects. Pinto and Slevin (1998) suggested that all the researchers agree that absence of support f rom management especially top management and by important stakeholder are most important among all other factors. Hacker and Doolen (2007) role of top management was studied in the perspectives of vision of the project and alignment of the place setting with business strategy and project sponsorship and its impact on the triple constraint of the project i.e. cost, performance and cost. Researchers various different views about the tip of knowledge of senior managers should be in relation to project management.Some researchers suggest to the technical expertness and knowledge about the projects necessary for senior managers to come up and implement projects. Others felt that determine the line of control and to make on tap(predicate) all relevant resources for project managers are the main functions of the senior management. There are different methods of how senior managers can be involve in the project management process. One of the approaches is not to interfere in which the project manager to all the rights of the planning to the implementation of projects. Responsibilities of project managers and executive managers is that project managers are primarily responsible for projects that are being implemented while the executives of the strategic alignment of business functions and projects with the organizations goals.Top managers should possess comparable skills and expertise as do the project managers Top management must cautiously analyze which project should be prioritized in the allocation of resources.Resource allocation is one of the critical parts of the project management. These resources include financial, human and other resources necessary for the successful completion of the projects. Top management should carefully analyze which project should be prioritized in toll of resource allocation. Resources must be allocated to projects that are aligned with corporate strategies of the organization. More simple criteria for prioritizing compliance can be or should do projects should receive the highest priority, accordingly the strategic projects, and then the other. With the start of the training programs, coaching and mentoring for project managers, top management can help build leadership skills, so that they can manage project activities responsibly and effectively.Problems of AlignmentOften projects fail to support business strategies and business goals it is due to the missing link, so that it should be align. Some processes factors that affect the business strategies and projects linking such as communication, top management support, competency of project manager are some of the major factors are the necessary ones to consider which solves or even creates hurdles in the alignment process. Business directors and top management are responsible for the three processes such as business planning, portfolio management and prioritizing projects while the project managers are responsible for the process of planning and execu ting the projects.Prioritizing projectsPortfolio managementBusiness planningProjectProject portfolio management, business planning and support of business manager to the project manager while project manager is responsible to handling the projects. Choosing project from the AMCs projects and aligning that project with the business plans and top managers suggestions. When these processes are aligned the strategic elements like goals, objectives, vision, mission, values and norms feeds the portfolio element, the portfolio element feeds the project management element like strategies, organization processes, tillage, and the project management element feeds projects and the aggroups execution of project. But in many cases, these processes are not aligned as a result, organizations may fail to tie their projects any to their business strategy or to their portfolio, which may cause them to terminate the project or to continue executing projects that do not commit to the organizations goals, hence wasting important organizational resources.Project Portfolio ManagementThe project portfolio is defined as a group of projects that compete for scarce resources and are conducted under the sponsorship or management of a particular organization. The three main long-familiar objectives of portfolio management are, the following maximizing the value of the portfolio, linking the portfolio to the strategy and the continuous observe/assessment of the portfolio. Project portfolio cream is an important management task activity of the organization, the project team should consider all details carefully to intensify performance of organizational assets and customize them with the strategic objectives of the organization, although there are normally several projects ready(prenominal) for selection than can be completed within the physical and financial limitations of fixed, so choices must be make to make up a suitable project.Management problems are related to the following factors, selecting, portfolio strategy and appropriate plans. The following reasons can be related with the difficulties on managing, and on selecting, the proper projects to the portfolio a) no relationship between project selection projects entirely with the organizations strategic goals are not related to the impact on organization performance b) poor quality portfolios organizations, generally, relevant to under widened ideas for projects selected is not fair quality. To work on the building, d) scarce resources, lack of attention and executive skills, resources properly balance, often causing pressure to multitask f) Information overflow and lack quality of information Regardless of the quality and sophistication of the portfolio selection and decision tools, it is fundamental to obtain the proper information to make accurate decisions g) ending making ground in power Usually the decision is an exercise of power, which means that there may be situations in organizations w here decisions tend not to reflect the organizational future success.The portfolio management team is normally concerned and overwhelmed with issues like the prioritization of projects and the continuous distribution of personnel from the different projects to overcome the pressing crises. Although, most of the time, however, there are no resources available and when they were redistributed it often produced negative effects on unexpected places in the project portfolio.Project SelectionThere are more than one hundred tools and techniques for project portfolio selection hence it is not difficult for organizations to select suitable tools. It is important to adapt or develop an appropriate framework to evaluate project proposals and select a project portfolio which is aligned with the corporate strategy. Recent literature focuses on approaches rather than tools and techniques. Common principles from these approaches can be described as followings Firstly, they suggest dividing the pr oject proposals into subsets (Englund Graham, 1999 Sommer 1999 Cooper et al., 2001a Rdulescu1 Rdulescu 2001 and Crawford etal., 2006). Each project subset can be a group of projects which will share the same strategic buck as discussed by Cooper et al (2001a) or different categories of projects which have similar characteristics (Crawford et al., 2005, 2006). This will help the organization substantially compare projects by same criteria or same tools and techniques. This is similarly applicable to ensure the balance of the project portfolio.Framework by Englund Graham (1999)4 step producing interrelated outputs make this approach truly systematic. The 4 steps are described as followsa. What the organization should do Upon identified to lead the process, the team members start leaninging newly proposed and on-going projects. They, then, clarify or develop the expected goals of projects, taking into consideration of organizational strategies (vision, mission, objectives) and cu rrent as well as potential capabilities (either unquestionable or acquired). It is advisable to classify projects into categories for the benefit of looking at projects from the view of big picture inclusive of out-of- the- disaster thinking, completeness, gaps, opportunities and compliance with strategy. Projects classified/organized into the strategic buckets (e.g. extent of product interchange new- enhancement and extent of process change new incremental) enable the team focus efforts on selecting the best set of projects within the categories, which constitute the right and balance swagger. In order to facility decision making process, a set of criteria with weight or score reflecting requirements of organizational objectives (e.g. market positioning, available capacity, etc.) should be fixed, modified and agreed upon for comparison and choices of projects.b. What the organization can do the team members critically hide and evaluate projects based on desegregation and ana lysis of current or historical data, as a result certain new projects will be eliminated and ongoing projects will be adjusted or terminated in respect of strategic priorities availableness of resources and technology challenges, etc. The authors describe the critical few with n screen subject to criteria sets agreed upon in step 1 e.g. screen 1- fit to goals screen 2 market size, competence etc.c. Analyze and decide on projects based on the comparison between resources available and resources required, projects are analyzed, prioritized and selected. The team should consider opportunity costs, project benefits before costs, return value when making decisions. With the sets of criteria agreed upon in step 1, the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy is recommended. Dedicated resources and contingencies should be committed to ensure the successful implementation of selected projects. Besides, communication loop should be developed and utilized to keep changes updated.d. Implement the plan staffi ng and allocating committed resources for implementation selected projects. A database should be created for monitoring, reporting and sharing. The plan is used as a communication tool to help management team and those who are involved quickly respond to change and take corrective actions in terms of identifying new opportunities and leveraging resources.It can be interpreted that completion of the eldest 3 steps in this process reflects the achievement of the three goals determined in the project portfolio selection by Cooper (2005) step 1 with should representing project portfolio in alignment with strategy step 2 with can representing portfolio value maximization using most effectively its resource and ability step 3 analyze and decide representing right balance and mix of projects and step 4 with implement belonging to the next phase of execution and management in project portfolio management. The 4 steps reveal a loop of continuous stages, which is recognized as systematic ap proach.Challenges in Project Portfolio SelectionOrganizations face many problems such as lack of information, perfidious data of cost, time to completion, availabilities of resource, and benefits of projects.Project proposals are randomly arriving, not at one time. This requires the model or process to be flexible so that organizations can select projects without waiting until annual planning meetings.In grown organizations with many business units, each business unit has its own list of priority and preferences. Besides, project portfolio selection is not always rational but it is biased by human being factor such as lobbying.People resist when there is absence of strategy or wisplike strategy or they find difficulties in pursuing the strategies. Changes necessary for the aligning the projects with the strategy might win approval of all the members of the organization, but when it comes to implementation, no one will be ready to take the lead.Ten Reasons wherefore Strategy Impl ementation Efforts Can Fail1. The so-called strategic plan is nothing more than a collection of budgets and vague directions that do not provide clear guidelines for action.2. The strategy does not correspond to market realities because it has been developed by strategic planners with no grass roots input.3. The strategy does not enjoy support from and commitment by the majority of employees and middle management because they do not musical note consulted in the development of the strategy.4. Middle management does not think the strategy is the right one, or does not feel it has the requisite skills to implement it, so it sabotages the implementation.5. Insufficient top management time is spent on communicating about, selling the new strategic direction, and managing the organizational changes involved.6. No provision is made for developing the new skills and competencies required by the employees successfully to make the transition and operate within the new strategic direction.7. No provision is made for instituting the appropriate organizational systems for the selection, motivation and give back of people in accordance with the new strategy.8. No provision is made for creating a close fit or coherence between the business-level strategy and the various functional-level strategies that can operationalize it.9. There are factions in the organization which resist with the strategy because if implemented it would reduce their power and influence, so they sabotage it by deliberate actions or inactions.10. No attempt is made to analyze the culture of the organization and identifyLiterature review examines four selected models that assist organizations in bridging the gap between organizational strategic objectives and project management example 1Model of strategic project management is comprised of four main aspects of higher-level project management practices1. Strategic alignment of project This practice refers to the extent to which an organization ensures that the projects it pursues are directly tied to the organizational strategy. This is very important in terms to see whether the project going to start is inherent with the strategies of the organization for its successful implementation.2. Project portfolio management. This practice refers to the identification of a project investment categorization scheme to assist the organization with prioritizing projects.Project portfolio management forms one of the building blocks in relating projects to strategy and can be considered as a key driver for aligning projects or programs to organizational objectives. It also helps in prioritizing and in the selection process of a project for its successful alignment.3. political platform management. The Project Management Institute (2004) defines the concept of program management as the centralized coordinated management of groups of projects to achieve the programs strategic objectives and benefits. Program management practices are inherent within the pursuit of strategic project management and are demonstrated as the management of groups of projects and the management of interactions between projects (portfolio coordination).4. The business results of projects. Since projects are financial investments, organizations should estimate and measure project impacts on organizations from a business results perspective which may include return on investment, sales growth etc.Model 2Project managers contribute to competitive advantage due to their skills in managing relationships and an organizational willingness to foster these skills and leverage them throughout the organization, and learn from them how to manage people and relationships across organizational functions and boundaries. super C model of strategic project management is based on the constructs of competitive advantage, strategic capabilities and tacit knowledge management.Model 3Model suggests that adopting strategic project management to select, manage and sup port multiple projects gives companies the best meet of moving the organization forward by keeping the company vivacious in the marketplace and returning maximum value for shareholders. Further, it identifies the following key characteristics of strategic project management1. Alignment of the following key business processes strategic planning, strategic goal setting, and enterprise project management2. Functions as a well-managed portfolio of investments as it (a) allows for the most effective use of constrained resources (b) ensures a high return on investment since projects are managed collectively (c) it maintains alignment between the projects and the organizations short, medium and long term goals3. A new management process embedded between strategic planning and project execution that manages project investments strategically and combines business planning and management with project management best practicesModel 4The term strategic project management as the management of those projects which are of critical importance to enable the organization as a whole to have competitive advantageThere is a gap between aligning project management competencies to the selection of projects that will give organizations a competitive edge. Specifically, strategy is formulated at the senior management level and for it to be implemented it should be down in the mouth down into discrete projects. Project management becomes a source of competitive advantage when an organization outperforms other companies through the experience and knowledge construct up over time through managing projects. Also, project management yields competitive advantage through the actual selection and prioritization of projects that organizations engage in and secondly, through implementation and execution of the projects. Furthermore, project portfolio management is essential and the prioritization of projects should be based