What Is the Difference Between Project Management and Strategic Project Management?
Traditional project management and strategic project management have a lot in common. It’s all about taking a strategic look at your current project portfolio.
That means you will use all your standard project management processes and frameworks to manage strategic projects. Project management teams will also need to address their projects’ more prominent commercial elements to align and support the organisational strategy. They will no longer be concerned only with fulfilling standard project management issues.
Strategic project management is simpler to think of as a new sub-discipline inside the greater field of project management. This is similar to how resource management and dependencies are managed now.
Project Management – The Benefits of Strategic Planning
When implemented, strategic project management helps in gaining a competitive market advantage. Most businesses have already deployed their preferred project management style. They are, however, still grappling with the notion of picking initiatives based on a strategic vision. The ability to find and select the best projects to work on within a certain time limit is proving to be a key competitive advantage in today’s industry.
Developing the project management role to include strategic project management approaches in project selection allows an increasing number of companies to discover and pick projects that give the most value for both themselves and their clients. As a result, connecting project management with company-wide strategy yields significant organisational advantages. In contrast to the frequent practice of leading expensive initiatives that are not entirely aligned with the company’s goals, this alignment can provide the project selection process with a fresh perspective. Budget is spent more carefully on enhancing the company’s overall performance, resulting in increased profits and reduced costs.
Connecting project management with an organisational strategy can also boost project success rates and the company’s ability to respond promptly to client demands and expectations. When each initiative immediately benefits the company’s bottom line, the entire organisation improves, resulting in better customer experiences and retention.
How to develop a strategic plan
A strategic plan gives the organisation a focus and aids in developing realistic corporate goals. According to a KPMG poll, when an organisation’s structure and resources fit its aims, 27% more projects are completed effectively. That’s nearly 1/3 more projects successfully completed.
Potential benefits of a strategic plan include:
- Efficiency in project completion
- Improved communication and collaboration within a project
- Effective resource management
- Improved decision making
- Project success is achievable
Breaking your plan down into a step-by-step procedure will increase your chances of hitting each business objective and getting your desired result. Here is an example of five steps you can take to create a strategic plan:
1. Outline your company’s end goal.
Figure out what your company’s current business plan is. It is harder to develop an effective strategic plan without a clear understanding of your purpose and long-term objectives.
Evaluate your overall performance – both past and present – to assess your position; then you can outline how to:
- Identify and take advantage of your strengths and address your weaknesses
- Identify and exploit areas for growth
- Develop awareness of potential obstacles
2. Evaluate resources
Evaluating your company’s resources is crucial since it decides if you can conduct a successful strategic plan. All available assets should be considered in the strategy. It should also look at company services and identify any organisational weaknesses. This enables management to argue for the right sort and number of resources to achieve the organisation’s objectives.
3. Outline future goals
So, you have established your current business priorities and the related resources for addressing them. How do you now determine the short-term goals to achieve your overall objectives?
The first two steps will assist in determining existing company priorities and the resources required to solve them. The next question is how to select short-term goals that will help you reach your overall goals.
Use this list as a guide:
- Set measurable goals.
- Monitor your progress on each goal.
- Ensure your goals are achievable.
- Make sure the goals have relevance to your company’s overall aims.
- Make sure the goals are of relevance to your overall aims.
- Give yourself a deadline.
This list enables businesses to create a statement for the future. Whilst it is hard to predict, ensuring that your organisation has a clear vision can assist establish your firm’s future view.
4. Define the best way to achieve your company’s goals.
The next stage is to create a plan of action after defining your company’s vision statement. Choosing a course of action to achieve your short-term objectives might be the most important phase in a strategic plan, as it can impact the time it takes to achieve your company objectives.
The action plan should lay out the initial tasks that must be conducted to meet your company objectives and effectively convey how to allocate resources. This strategy will mean that everyone is accountable for accomplishing the overall goals.
5. Be flexible with your plan
It is key to understand that a strategic plan isn’t final. Your plan is a continuous work in progress. It is essential to evaluate the strategy frequently and make any required revisions to ensure that it continues to perform as planned.
The stakeholder and resources involved in developing a strategic plan are critical to its success. As a result, the relevant individuals must be involved in the planning process, and that company objectives and how they will be met are communicated effectively. To do so, there should be accountability, consideration of lessons learned during the development of strategic plans, and reassessing the plan regularly to ensure you stay on track to achieve your vision and overall priorities.
Maintaining the ability to pivot and react in an agile way is essential to project success. Consider Execview as a one source of truth platform that can enhance your strategic plan and help you be flexible. Visit our product and solutions pages for a more detailed breakdown of our solution. Our new case studies page provides testimonials from our clients. Contact us here – or – you can e-mail in**@ex******.com, or message Tory, our sales manager, in the online chat function on the website.
