Strategic Project Management (SPM) Defined

SPM is the process of managing complex projects by combining business strategy and project management techniques in order to implement the business strategy and to deliver organizational breakthroughs.¹

Why SPM?

In the new economy, increases in competitive change and business complexity led to intensified internal pressure to integrate and deliver much faster and to reduce time to the market.

Linking Projects with Business Strategy

Strategy is a pattern in a stream of explicit and implicit strategic projects designed to create a specific competitive positioning.

The Relevance of Strategic Thinking to Project Management

Strategic thinking is typically associated with 'very big picture' thinking, or 'helicopter thinking' It is relevant to project management at a number of levels.

1. Business projects often materialize as a result of formal or informal strategy development. Besides projects which are of a corporate development and external nature, there are frequently internal projects which are aimed at reaping major organizational change.

2. Individual business projects which have materialized on a 'bottom-up' basis. Each project of that kind then needs to be linked back up to the business strategy. This should be accomplished by teasing out the strategic objectives of each and every major project.

3. Within the project itself: each and every project has both an internal environment and also some strategy for achieving its own, inherent advantage.