Strategic Leadership of Portfolio and Project Management

This book is intended for executive MBA students, other graduate students, and middle managers through executives in any type of organization. In many organizations executives determine strategy and managers implement it. Unfortunately a gap can exist between the two. This book is aimed to help bridge that gap by including concepts and tools of implementing strategy through carefully identified, aligned, selected, prioritized, resourced, and controlled projects. As such, it can accompany a strategic management text or case. It can also accompany a project management text or approach and be useful to executives and managers in an organization where much of the work is accomplished by projects. Many of the best run organizations have effective methods of identifying, aligning, selecting, prioritizing, resourcing, and controlling the portfolio of projects that collectively best helps them achieve their strategic goals. Furthermore, regular reporting and quarterly updates in planning help to ensure results. Proper application of quality, information technology, and decision-making further help executives prioritize and evaluate projects and their efforts in executing them. Quality management as currently described in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program lays a foundation for leaders to connect their actions with the needs of customers, using the customer desires to improve their productive systems, information technology, and workforce. Multiple information technology forces are fundamentally changing the way work is accomplished. Information technology coverage includes understanding how an executive might utilize the potential of various information technologies to fundamentally change the way his organization delivers service and how to develop a master plan to implement new technology. Many decisions are best made by considering both quantitative and qualitative data. Therefore, we introduce proven, simple methods of collecting both idea data (qualitative) and quantitative data. We then work through effective methods of making decisions. Executives serving as sponsors can informally ensure project managers understand fully how their projects contribute to strategy. We cover 22 executive sponsor behaviors from our research that correlate to project success if they are performed at the correct time in the project life cycle. Modern project managers work effectively with many stakeholders in a facilitating manner leading the project initiating, planning, implementing, and closing. Collectively these project manager responsibilities require knowledge, skill and judgment. It is important for leaders to understand project manager responsibilities at a high level in order to better oversee the project manager.