Amir H Tajfar - Accenture and University of Khajeh Nasir

Strategic project management is one of the hot topics that expanding very fast in various industries and more organizations are using it as new and alternative way of managing projects. Although it is a well known topics but there are still lots of ambiguity and uncertainties on its practicality and effectiveness. In strategic project management the focus and success criteria are switched from covering the requirements in time and within budget to aligning the project in line with organization strategies and how well project is contributing to organization success. Strategy plays a dominant role in strategic project management and the whole project is planed and managed based on that. Moving from conventional project management to strategic project management requires some major transformation and changes in procedures in project planning, definition, budget specification and measuring success. Proper framework and procedures are required to be designed and arranged in organizations to make the application of strategic project management possible. Applying strategic project management for all projects (as is suggested by many) in organizations is a very general statement and there are serious doubts about its practicality for all cases. Significant overhead of SPM process, management complexity when the number of projects for strategic management are large and more important limitation of projects that are defined to deal with urgent operational requirements are among factors that limit the application of strategic approach for all projects. Unfiltered project selection for strategic management may result in high number of project that complicate management process and can result in spiral overhead and loss of control. Applying strategic project management is not without obstacle and challenges, which can potentially create more problems for an organization. Careful execution of some best practices can reduce the associated risks and improve the chance of success.

Strategey SPM (Strategic Project Management), CPM (Conventional project Management), Project, Management