Strategic

Programme and Project Management

ANUPAMA SINGH

[The report intends to bring out the importance of projects in organizations and why effective program
and project management has become imperative for any organization for doing business in todays
dynamic global market place]

Strategic Programme and Project Management

Contents
Executive Summary
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.

Project, Programme and Portfolio Management

Strategic Role of Project and Program Management
Role of Project Management Office
Project Management Processes
Conclusion
References

Executive Summary
A.

Project, Programme and Portfolio Management

Projects are essential to the growth and survival of organizations today. They create value in the form
of improved business processes, are indispensable in the development of new products and services
and make it easier for companies to respond to changes in the environment, competition and the
marketplace.
A project is a temporary endeavour, having a defined beginning and end (usually constrained by date,
but can be by funding or deliverables, undertaken to meet particular goals and objectives, usually to
bring about beneficial change or added value.
Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about
the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.
Programme management is the process of managing several related projects with common objective
and with the intention of improving an organization's performance
Portfolio Management is analyzing and collectively managing a group of projects or programme. The
fundamental objective of the portfolio management is to determine the optimal mix and sequencing of
projects and programmes to best achieve the organization's overall goals - typically expressed in
terms of economic measures, business strategy goals, or technical strategy goals - while considering
the internal and external constraints.
B.

Strategic Role of Programme and Project Management

Project management has emerged as a strong discipline as organizations have started realizing that
they cannot stay in business if they cannot manage their projects efficiently. However, many
companies are still limiting the application of project management to the tactical level.
Project failures happen mainly due to following reasons:

Sharing of resources is not in line with the requirement of the projects

Priorities of projects change frequently
Projects are launched regardless of the availability of resources
Expected result is not achieved at the end of the project
No synergy between projects and strategy

The root cause of these failures is due to lack of understanding of business requirement from strategic
point of view.
Strategic project management is the management of those projects that are of critical importance to
organization as a whole to have competitive advantage. It is the process of managing complex
projects by combining enterprise strategy and project management techniques in order to implement
the business strategy and to achieve organizational goals. The focus is to move from individual project
management to project management at organizational level or effective program management. All
projects in an organization compete for resources and support, strategic program management views
all of the organizations projects together and makes strategic choices in their support.
C.

Role of Project Management Office (PMO)

Organizations that deliver products and services through projects have increasingly introduced a new
organizational entity called the project management office. The impetus for introducing project
management offices (PMOs) is to improve project management performance and to reduce the
number of runaway projectsthose that fail to meet customer expectations, run over budget, or
become compromisingly delayed. The trend toward implementing PMOs in organizations will only
continue as projects become a way of life for more and more organizations

The main roles of the PMO are:

Support to strategic planning in the high level management of organizations, portfolio
management and program management, including planning, control, reporting, resource and
financial management;
Development of methodology, reporting, tools, techniques, templates and forms; and
Orientation, guidelines, standardization and support to application of best practices, tools,
techniques and software related to project management (PM).
D.

Project Management Processes

A project is accomplished through integration of project management processes. Project Management

Processes are overlapping activities that occur at varying levels of intensity throughout each phase of
the project. A process is defined as a set of activities that must be performed to achieve project goals.
Processes can be divided into two types :
Enabling processes

Scope Management
Schedule Management
Budget Management
Quality Management

Facilitating Processes

Team Management
Stakeholder Management
Information Management
Risk management
Contract Management

The project management processes are interrelated with the Project Management phases during the
entire project cycle (as shown in the diagram below).

(Source:- The Project Management Processes :- pm4dev, 2007 management for development series )

A. Project, Programme and Portfolio Management

Organizations activity can be divided into two categories: operations and projects. Operations
involve repetitive, ongoing activities, such as manufacturing, service, and production, whereas
projects involve unique, one-time initiatives, such as launching new products, construction &
infrastructure projects, new organizations, or new ventures, improving existing products etc.
Projects drive business innovation and change; in fact, the only way organizations can change,
implement a strategy, innovate, or gain competitive advantage is through projects.
With high demand for growth and innovation, the share of projects in most organizations is on the
rise (see figure 1-1). Not only product life cycles are becoming shorter, but also customers today
demanding greater variety and more choices, forcing companies to offer more products in almost
every market. Likewise, time line of Infrastructure projects is also shrinking and customers are
becoming very demanding.

Figure 1-1: The increasing share of projects (Source:- Reinventing Project Management: The Diamond
Approach to Successful Growth and Innovation-By Aaron J. Shenhar and Dov Dvir: Publisher: Harvard
Business School Publishing)

Market globalization has also forced businesses to respond to fierce competition around the world.
Information technology (IT) and Internet revolution have added speed to way of doing things.
During most of the twentieth century, organizations focused more on improving their operations
rather than their projects.] Efforts to improve operational efficiency still continue with more recent
concepts such as just in time, lean manufacturing, reengineering, supply-chain management, six
sigma etc are stealing the limelight.
Now that the world, in particular the developing countries are witnessing tremendous growth in
infra-structure projects it is high time that projects and superior project management are given due
importance. Projects are also the engines that drive innovations from idea to commercialization.
The time has come to recognize that project management is everyones business.
Projects are a part of overall business strategies of an organization. However the common
objectives in all projects undertaken across an enterprise are its alignment with the strategic
objectives of an enterprise.
Project is an endeavour in which human, financial and material resources are organized in a
novel way to undertake a unique scope of work of a given specification, within constraints of cost
and time, so as to achieve beneficial change defined by quantitative and qualitative objectives.

Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring
about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. The primary challenge of
project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honouring the
preconceived project constraints. Typical constraints are scope, time, and budget. The secondary
and more ambitiouschallenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary
to meet pre-defined objectives

Constraints:
Time, Cost, Quality,
Technical, Legal,
environment etc

Inputs- Business
need
andrequirement

Output: Project
Deliverables,
Products and /or
services

Management of
Projects

Mechanism
People,
techniques, tools,
equipment,
organisation

Figure 1.2: Management of projects

The five functions which form the basis of any project management activity are:a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

Scope
Organization
Cost
Time
Quality

Scope

Time

Organisation

Qualit
y

Cost
Figure 1.3: Functions of project management
The scope and the organization are the essential functions of project management. The remaining
three - time, quality and cost are the constraints under which the project is to be executed and
managed.

Project management provides the 'single point of integrative responsibility' needed to ensure that
everything on the project is managed effectively to ensure successful project completion and delivery.
Program Management
A programme is a set of related projects and organisational changes put in place to achieve a
strategic goal. A programme is a series of specific, interrelated projects and additional tasks which
together achieve a number of objectives within overall strategy or strategic goal. It articulates the
organizations business strategy, which is required to be implemented through projects.
Benefits of Program Management
- The elimination of risk arising from interfaces between the projects
- The successful completion of individual projects through coherent prioritization and optimization of
resources.
- A reduction in management effort
Portfolio Management:
A Portfolio is a set of projects and/or programmes which are not necessarily related to each other, but
are brought together for the sake of control, co ordination and optimisation. Portfolio Management of
projects and/or programmes cover the prioritisation of projects and/or programmes within an
organization.
B. Strategic Role of Programme and Project Management
For years, companies have been using the principles of project management to get work
accomplished. Yet, very few attempts were made to recognize project management as a core
competency for the company. There were three reasons for this resistance to project management.
First, project management was viewed as simply a scheduling tool for the workers. Second, since this
scheduling tool was thought to belong at the worker level, executives saw no reason to look more
closely at project management, and thus failed to recognize the true benefits it could bring. Third,
executives were fearful that project management, if viewed as a core competency, would require them
to decentralize authority, to delegate decision-making to the project managers, and thus to diminish
the executives power and authority base.
Business-Focused, Success-Oriented Projects
It is important to consider the strategic as well as the tactical aspects of project performance in the
short and the long term. It is important to focus on more than just meeting time, budget and quality
goals.
Specifically, the strategically success criteria for any project involve at least five dimensions:
Project efficiency: meeting time, budget and quality goals
Impact on the customer: meeting requirements and achieving customer satisfaction, benefits, and
loyalty
Impact on the team: satisfaction, retention, and personal growth
Business results: return on investment, market share, and growth
Preparation for the future: new technologies, new markets, and new capabilities
Organizations now need to use project management as a tactical tool to execute projects. Projects are
essential to the growth and survival of organizations today. Project management creates value in the
form of improved business processes and makes it easier for companies to respond to changes in the
environment, competition and the marketplace.
Project management is emerging as a strong discipline practiced by highly trained, certified
professionals as organizations have come to realize they cannot stay in business if they cannot

manage their projects. It is vital to the very survival of the enterprise to ensure products are designed,
created and delivered to internal and external customers efficiently and effectively. Organizations are
now recognizing that project management is a critical strategic tool. They practice program and
portfolio management to select, manage and support a program/ portfolio of projects that have the
best chance of moving the enterprise forward, keeping it vibrant in the marketplace and returning
maximum shareholder value.
This panoply of competitive advantage, strategic capabilities, and tacit knowledge management
constitute the new lens through which organization should envisage Strategic Project Management.
Basics of Project Program Management
Program management is the centralized management of one or more projects, an approach to
achieving strategic goals by selecting, prioritizing, assessing, and managing projects, programs, and
other related work based upon their alignment and contribution to the organizations strategies and
objectives. Program management combines
(a) Organizations focus of ensuring that projects selected for investment meet the program strategy
with
(b) Project management focus of delivering projects effectively and within their planned contribution to
the program.
The steps of program project management would include assessing merits of the organizations
various proposed projects, weighing them against each other, selecting and supporting those projects
whose execution will deliver the greatest value to the bottom line.
The drivers of a program of projects are:
1. Where the company wants to go and what it needs to do to achieve the goal (e.g., improve its
return on investment, increase shareholder value or gain market share).
2. Tactical concerns, such as improvement projects individual departments need to undertake in order
to become more efficient or effective; e.g., cost reduction, staff reduction, getting to market faster.
3. Problems whose correction requires a project or program; e.g., lost data to support decisions, poor
customer service, slow time to market.
4. The need for organizational change management initiatives that prepare people to move in the
desired direction along with the organization.
The application of program management permits the sharing of goals and the allocation of resources
among these drivers so that projects can achieve their strategic intent.

Figure 1.4: Organizational Context of Portfolio/ Program Management

{Source: Featured Paper- The Strategic Role of Project Management By Don J. Wessels : Published in PM
World Today - February 2007 (Vol. IX, Issue II)}

Challenges and Solutions in Project Management

Those new to the process of strategic project management may encounter challenges in the following
areas.
1) Executive championship. Without buy-in from high-level decision-makers and their ability to give
guidance and support to the program manager, strategic project management will fail. Even
organizations that have established a formal Project Management Office need an executive champion,
particularly when the office is understaffed.
2) Business acumen. A program manager needs much more business acumen than a traditional
project manager because he or she has to decide which projects are necessary in order to meet the
organizations strategic objectives.
3) A solid project management process. Leadership may do an excellent job of creating a strategic
program of projects and setting goals and ground rules. But if the actual practitioners the project
managers and their teams are in a just-do-it mode or are inefficient or ineffective in managing their
projects, all the strategic work is for naught.
4) Timeframes and budgets. Executing projects efficiently and effectively across the board depends
on honest and realistic timeframes and budgets, so that projects are not set up for failure from the
start.
5) Requirements analysis. Program managers need skill in gathering accurate requirements,
analyzing them and managing them properly throughout a projects implementation.
6) Stay on the course. One of the most common mistakes leading to project failure is not staying on
course.

A Better Way to Manage: Toward an Adaptive Project Management Approach

As projects are becoming more complex, it is imperative for the organizations to adopt a focused,
flexible, and adaptive framework. It differs from the traditional approach in several ways, as given in
table 1-1 below.
Table 1-1: From traditional to adaptive project management
Approach

Traditional project management

Adaptive project management

Project goal

Getting the job done on time, on

budget, and within requirements

Getting business results, meeting

multiple criteria

Project plan

A collection of activities that are

executed as planned to meet the
triple constraints

An organization and a process to

achieve the expected goals and
business results

Planning

Plan once at project initiation

Plan at outset and re-plan when

needed

Managerial approach

Rigid, focused on initial plan

Flexible, changing, adaptive

Project work

Predictable, certain, linear, simple

Unpredictable, uncertain,
nonlinear, complex

Environment effect

Minimal, detached after the project

is launched

Affects the project throughout its

execution

Project control

Identify deviations from plan, and

put things back on track

Identify changes in the

environment, and adjust the plans
accordingly

Distinction

All projects are the same

Projects differ

Management style

One size fits all

Adaptive approach; one size does

not fit all

(Source:- Reinventing Project Management: The Diamond Approach to Successful Growth and Innovation-By
Aaron J. Shenhar and Dov Dvir: Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing )
Projects are not just a collection of activities that need to be completed on time. Instead, projects are
business-related processes that must deliver business results. Many projects involve a great deal of
uncertainty and complexity. They must be managed in a flexible and adaptive way. Thus, planning can
not be considered as rigid or fixed, instead, it must have the flexibility to adjust itself as per the
requirement of the project at any given point of time.
As per the Standish Group Chaos Report, 1995, 90% of projects do not meet time/cost/quality targets.
Only 9% of large, 16% of medium and 28% of small company projects were completed on time, within
budget and delivered measurable business and stakeholder benefits. There are many reasons for
such failures. As per a KPMG survey of 252 organizations, technology is not the most critical factor.
Inadequate project management implementation constitutes 32% of project failures, lack of
communication constitutes 20% and unfamiliarity with scope and complexity constitutes 17%. Thus,
about 69% of project failures are due to lack of and/or improper implementation of project
management methodologies.

C. Project Management Office (PMO)

Project management office, (PMO) is an emerging relatively new concept which has become a
global phenomenon reaching the structure of organizations all over the world. The main focus of
PMO is towards successful implementation of project management methodologies and it is the link
between the management and the project managers.
What is PMO?
According to Kendall and Rollins (2003), PMO is a centre of intelligence and co-ordination that
allows a link between the strategic business objectives and the related practical results through
organizational portfolio, program and project management.
The PMOs can be classified as:
Strategic: SPO Strategic Project Office - identification, selection and prioritization of projects, in
conjunction with the organizational strategic planning.
Directive: PMO Program Management Office - definition of guidelines, standards and templates
to application of PM best practices, tools, techniques and software in PM processes.
Support: PSO Project Support Office - providing support for the application of PM best
practices, tools, techniques and software in PM processes.
Hybrid combination of two or three of the above mentioned classes of PMO.
Strategic PMO carries the mission to provide higher management support in strategic planning.
According to the PMBOK Guide, The project management office is an organizational unit which
centralizes and coordinates the project management under its domain. The PMO can be called
also by Program Management Office, Program Office or Project Office.
The renowned Project Management Institute (PMI) Program Management Office Significant
Interest Working Group (PMOSIG), views the PMO as a strategic driver for organizational
excellence and seeks to enhance the practices of execution management, organizational
governance, and strategic change leadership.
Role of PMO
A good PMO will base project management principles on accepted, industry standard
methodologies. Organizations need to define, borrow and collect best practices project
management and need to increase assigning the PMO to exert overall influence and evolution of
thoughts to continual organizational improvement. Organization structure should support the
PMO's existence and operation with direct line authority and communication with stakeholders.
The main functions of the PMO are:
1. Practice management: provides a common approach and frame of reference for conducting
project management activities within an organization. This PMO function area establishes
project management processes and practices, introduces associated project management
tools, specifies project performance standards and metrics, and creates a collaborative project
management environment that guides project information management and includes access to
project archives and a reference library.
2.

Infrastructure management: facilitates establishment of a professional project management

environment. It helps to define the project structure and stakeholder involvement necessary to

support successful project performance and it provides for administration of facilities and
equipment needed to accomplish project objectives.
3.

Resource integration: manages the competency, availability, and performance of project

resources. This PMO function area enables the PMO to collaborate with resource managers to
acquire, assign, and manage project managers and project team members.

4. Technical support: provides project management advice, counsel, and support to project
managers and project teams. This PMO function area leverages the skill, knowledge, and
experience of available project management experts to provide mentoring in the project
management environment; provides a range of project planning, facilitation, and support
activities.
5. Business alignment: introduces the organization's business perspective into the project
management environment. This PMO function area oversees project portfolio/ program
management, facilitates executive involvement in project management to include overseeing
project management.
PMO and Project Managers
Project managers and the PMO pursue different objectives and, as such, are driven by different
requirements. All of these efforts, however, are aligned with the strategic needs of the
organization.

A project manager is responsible for delivering specific project objectives within the constraints
of the project, while the PMO is an organizational structure with specific mandates that can
include an enterprise-wide perspective.
The project manager focuses on the specific project objectives, while the PMO manages major
project scope changes and can view them as potential opportunities to better achieve business
objectives.
The project manager controls the assigned project resources for meeting project objectives,
while the PMO optimizes the use of shared organizational resources across all projects.
The project manager manages the scope, schedule, cost and quality of the products of the
work packages, while the PMO manages overall risk, overall opportunity and the
interdependencies among projects.
The project manager reports on project progress and other project specific information, while
the PMO provides consolidated reporting and an enterprise view of projects under its purview

Benefits of PMO
While project managers have a view of each project they are responsible for, the PMO
encompasses a wider view of the projects since they have a whole view of all the company
projects. Therefore, the PMO provides support to higher management so that they can more
effectively implement corporate governance procedures.
As we can see, project management is essential. It is a bridge between strategy and success.
Company higher management counts on the PMO for supporting planning & control, data
collection and analysis, documentation and reporting, for each project and to all projects, as well
as identification, selection, prioritization of projects, data collection, analyses and communication
of results by project and/or by department, consolidated to all company with the comparison
between the planned values and the real values.

Fig 1.5 given below depicts the relationship of Business Strategy, Projects, resources, Application
and the management..
Business Strategy

Management

Management

Plan and Execute

Projects

Project Management Office

Resources

Validate and Re-plan

Application

Figure 1.5: Business Strategy and PMO

Stages of development of PMO
Five general stages of PMO competency are indicated in Figure 1.6. These five PMO stages
represent a progressive competency and advancement of functionality that can be attained to
meet the needs of the project management environment and the associated business objectives of
the relevant organization.

Figure 1.6: Stages of PMO development (Source: The Complete Project Management Office Handbook
by Gerald M. Hill: Auerbach Publications 2008)

D. Project Management Processes

The project management processes can be divided into two types :
1. Enabling processes
2. Facilitating Processes
Enabling processes

Facilitating processes

1. Scope Management
2. Schedule Management
3. Budget Management
4. Quality Management

1. Team Management
2. Stakeholder Management
3. Information Management
4. Risk management
5. Contract Management

Depending on the scope, large, complex projects will require a more rigorous application of project
management processes than small, noncomplex projects. The Project Manager assesses the
project characteristics to determine how to customize the processes for a specific project and
determine which project management processes will be required.
Project Management Processes are overlapping activities that occur at varying levels of intensity
throughout each phase of the project. A process is defined as a set of activities that must be
performed to achieve a goal, in this case the project goal.
Brief description of Project Management Processes is as below:
1. Scope Management
Includes the processes involved in defining and controlling what is or is not included in the project.
Scope is the way to describe the boundaries of the project.
2. Schedule Management
This process includes the actions required to ensure the timely completion of the project. Schedule
management is the development of a project schedule that contains all project activities, the
project schedule is a communication tool that informs project stakeholders the status of the project
and gives project team members information, in the form of graphs and charts, as to when each
activity must begin and end.
3. Budget Management
Budget management processes are required to ensure the project is completed within the
approved budget. This is the area that receives a lot of scrutiny before, during and after the project
is completed. Risks have the highest impact to the project, the organization and to the
beneficiaries. Thus, it calls for a very disciplined budget management.
4. Quality management
Quality management is the process to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs of the
beneficiaries. Quality is defined as a commitment to deliver the project outputs and meet the
expectations of the beneficiaries.
5. Team Management
During the definition of the project activities a list is created that identifies the skills needed by the
project. These range from highly technical to administrative and support functions. The project
team is after all the team responsible for the project. Project Organization is defined at the
beginning of the project, which identifies the structure and key functional areas of the project.

Team management includes the processes required to make the most effective use of the people
involved in the project. The first step is identifying the roles, responsibilities and reporting
relationships. The second step is getting the people that will be assigned to the project
6. Stakeholder Management
Stakeholder management is one of the areas that receive the least amount of thought and
planning in development projects, this is due to the limited understanding and agreement on who
are the stakeholders and their role in the project.
Stakeholders are all the people who have an interest in the project and they are the most critical
element for the success of the project. Managing stakeholders is not an easy task; the projects
objective is to improve the way the relationships between the project and the stakeholders are
managed, this is achieved by taking a proactive approach that builds trust.
7. Information Management
Includes the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection,
dissemination, storage, and ultimate disposition of project information. 80% of a project managers
time is spent communicating via reports, email, telephone, meetings and presentations. The first
step of the plan is to define the informations needs of the stakeholders, determine when they
need it, how the information will be distributed and how to evaluate the relevance and
effectiveness of the information.
8. Risk Management
Risk Management includes the processes concerned with identifying, analyzing, and responding to
project risk. Risk in projects is defined as something that may happen and if it does, will have an
adverse impact on the project. There are four stages to risk management planning, they are: risk
identification, risk analysis and quantification, risk response, risk monitoring and control.
Risk identification deals with finding all possible risks that may impact the project, it involves
identifying potential risks and documenting their characteristics. The project team members
identify the potential risks using their own knowledge of the project, its environment, similar
projects done in the past. Risk identification results in a deliverable, the project risk list

9. Contract Management
Contract management or contract administration is the management of contracts made with
customers, vendors, partners, or employees. Contract management includes negotiating and
managing the terms and conditions in contracts and ensuring compliance. This includes
documenting and agreeing on any changes that may arise during its implementation or execution.
It can be summarized as the process of systematically and efficiently managing contract creation,
execution, and analysis for the purpose of maximizing financial and operational performance and
minimizing risk.
E. Conclusion
Project Management has experienced an extraordinary growth in the last decade. The growth of
the profession can be attributed to globalization, implementation of mega or highly complex
projects with high risks. Modern project management is emerging as a separate discipline and is
crucial today for enterprises to maintain a competitive edge in businesses. Project Management is
fast becoming a way of life in executing projects successfully and to the satisfaction of all its
stakeholders.

F. References
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Reinventing Project Management: The Diamond Approach to Successful Growth and

Innovation-By Aaron J. Shenhar and Dov Dvir: Publisher: Harvard Business School
Publishing
The Complete Project Management Office Handbook by Gerald M. Hill: Auerbach
Publications 2008
The Strategic Role of Project Management By Don J. Wessels : Featured Paper
Published in PM World Today - February 2007 (Vol. IX, Issue II)
The Project Management Processes :- pm4dev, 2007 management for development
series
A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide 2000)