Jacob K. N.Project Management ConsultantDallas, GA, United States
What If We Treated Companies As Projects?
Would companies be more profitable if we treated them as projects with definite time, budget and scope? Say, we run a company as a 3-year project – rather than a business operated in 3-years strategy cycles?
Is there any difference between the way we implement Strategic Plans and Project Management Plans?
In my view, Yes and No. In both Strategic Management and Project Management, time, cost and scope are pivotal. But in Strategic Management, the CEO tends to focus more on corporate strategies while in Project Management, the Project Manger focuses on controlling time, cost and scope.
Many projects make a program. And many programs make a portfolio.
In some business sense, ‘Portfolio’ and ‘Company’ are synonymous. And a strategic CEO is one who embeds Project Management on Strategic Management.
If we look at management in three hierarchical levels, at the top is the Strategic/Corporate level guided by a Strategic Plan. One may call the top echelon the Portfolio or Enterprise level.
Then we have Business Plans guiding the second tier of management. We may loosely call this level of management the Programs level of management.
And Project Management with numerous project artifacts guiding the third level of management. This level of management is also known as the Knowledge/Technical level.
One of the reasons why most business projects succeed is the ability to define, monitor and control time, cost and scope. What if companies would see every Strategic Plan cycle as a project?
What if democratic countries managed every presidential electioneering cycle as a project?
The strategic planning process is intended to result in a portfolio of components which will hopefully deliver the expected strategic objectives for the leadership team. In that regard, the change-oriented aspects of the company will certainly be managed as a portfolio.
However, when we look at the operational, non-change oriented aspects, unless those fall within the scope of an active program, what benefits do you see in having those addressed within a portfolio/program/project management context rather than an operational excellence one?
