Business owners often wonder if they really need strategic project management because at least on paper, it appears to be an unnecessary expense. Traditionally, managers intervene in project proceedings, which leaves the implementation of strategic project management questionable at best.
In successful project teams, however, it has been observed that strategic project management is what holds the operations together. It creates a vision for a successful project and ensures that the deliveries are made on time while sticking to a strict budget. When projects are managed properly, there is a positive impact on the organisational level.
The business landscape is rapidly changing the way we work and the traditional approach to project delivery has become inadequate. Good project management is more than just timing tasks and deliveries - it is about achieving organisation-wide success within volatile and uncertain environments. The leading strategic projects programme is unique in its approach as it imparts both leadership and strategic project management skills that will help you achieve stronger results and keep your employees happier.
In the following post, we take a look at some of the top reasons why strategic project management is crucial for a business.
Skills necessary for effective strategic project management
In its most popular sense today, strategic project management refers to the process of matching projects to specific objectives in a strategic manner. It is achieved by combining business strategy with project management to deliver breakthroughs efficiently. SPM revolves around defining the big picture of how a project can benefit the company as a whole, not just completing tasks for the sake of it.
SPM requires several skills to visualise and plan the future of the projects and the company. Some of these are discussed in brief below
1. Analytical skills
Critical analysis is one of the most crucial strategic management skills. An effective strategy demands the ability to access the intrinsic and extrinsic factors honestly and objectively. Project managers need an interconnected view of their company, including the environment in which it operates, its competitive landscape, and global market trends.
2. Visualising skills
Visualisation refers to the ability of a project manager to look at the data and determine key insights about the team's performance and project the future of the company. Combining visualisation with analytical thinking enables projects to determine all the options present in front of them and select the best course of action.
3. Leadership skills
Leading strategic projects also demands strong leadership skills for implementing business strategies effectively. Leaders need to take a holistic view of their company and engage with stakeholders, be aware of the competition, and demonstrate personal leadership skills to overcome challenges in daily operations.
The importance of strategic project management
1. Strategic alignment
Every client has its strategic goals and frameworks and as a business, it is your duty to verify that what you are delivering is right and within the broader context of their strategic framework. Strategic project management ensures that the goals of the project closely align with the goals of the business and deliver real value against the trade opportunity. As projects progress, new risks may arise and change the business approach. However, strategic business management predicts these risks and ensures that project realignment occurs within the scope of their framework and does not end up being expensive.
2. Realistic project planning
The job of strategic project management is to negotiate reasonable and achievable deadlines. More often than not, deliveries are made in urgency, which compromises the quality of the project outcome. Without a solid project plan, estimates are either overly ambitious or too modest. A strategic leader draws estimates from similar projects to negotiate reasonable deadlines that can be achieved without compromising the quality of the final product. They will be able to analyse and rebalance the resources available effectively to provide a realistic schedule and bring objectivity to project planning.
3. Clear focus and objectives
When project management is left to the teams, you will find that often, the team members are working without proper briefs. Teams working without a clear focus over vague objectives will severely hamper the delivery timelines and quality of the final product. Strategic project managers break up a project into fathomable parts and ensure that the tasks are completed within deadlines. With clear objectives within sight, teams can focus their efforts on completing these tasks and ensure that the deliveries are made on time.
4. Quality control
Most project teams are usually under enormous pressure to complete their tasks as quickly as possible. Without dedicated strategic leadership, urgent tasks are often underestimated and rushed within tightened schedules. The result is substandard quality output, which holds no real value in the long run and hampers the relation between project teams and clients. Strategic project management ensures that the quality of whatever is being delivered consistently hits the mark. Projects have appropriate time and resources to be completed, and the output can be checked at gated phases for applicability, quality, and return on investment.
5. Risk management
It is rare for projects to not encounter risks at all; however, without proper risk management, these risks become issues and hamper the efficiency of a business. Placing a robust process around identifying, managing, and mitigating risks is extremely important in complex projects. Strategic project leaders can identify, quantify, and analyse most of the risks in the planning phase and develop a contingency plan should any of these risks materialise during deliveries. How an organisation deals with risks and adapts to these challenges determines how successfully and consistently it can deliver projects.
6. Continuous oversight
When everything is going according to plan, status reporting and documentation might appear extremely unnecessary. However, continuous oversight over the project progress ensures that the project timeline stays on track against the original plan. A leading strategic projects programme teaches how to create easily digestible status reports, enabling project teams and stakeholders to spot project deviations easily and correct them in their preliminary stages. It provides your team with a simple yet consistent way of building trust among the organisation and with clients and enables organisations to measure project efficiency as it proceeds.
The leading strategic projects programme is specifically designed for professionals who are looking to introduce strategic techniques within their project teams and make a real difference in their business. Anyone can undertake this course and learn the key skills required to make organisations more sustainable and achieve company-wide objectives.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of sciencetimes.com
