What is project strategy?
Karlos Artto
a,*
,Jaakko Kujala
护发素的正确用法b,1
,Perttu Dietrich
b,2
,Miia Martinsuo
a,3
a Helsinki University of Technology,Industrial Management,PO Box 5500,FI-02015HUT,Finland b
Helsinki University of Technology,BIT Rearch Centre,PO Box 5500,FI-02015HUT,Finland
Received 12July 2007;accepted 24July 2007
光敏电阻原理Abstract
The concept of project strategy –referring to the strategy of a single project –has remained ambiguous in existing studies.In this rearch,we review literature from multiple viewpoints to develop a novel definition and interpretation about the project strategy con-cept.Our definition is ud to derive different alternative project strategies from literature,characterized by two important dimensions in a project’s environment:project’s independence and number of strong project stakeholder organizations.We introduce four types of strategies for a project along the two dimensions:obedient rvant,independent innovator,flexible mediator,and strong leader.Exist-ing rearch using the project strategy concept mostly assumes that there is one strong parent organization for a project;indeed,the parent is assumed to dictate an image of its strategy to the project,and the project is assumed to take an obedient rvant’s role,to rve as a tactical vehicle that becomes a mere part of its parent organization and the parent’s strategic scheme.Our project strategy definition and the four project strategy types allow a more open interpretation about the content of alternative environment-dependent project strategies as well as the process of strategy formulation and implementation.The wider concept of project strategy introduced in this paper recog
nizes more widely the various positions that a single project may take in its environment.This way,our paper contributes even to development of new and context-specific project management bodies of knowledge in the future.The paper suggests empirical rearch and further conceptual rearch on detailed contents of different project strategies.Ó2007Elvier Ltd and IPMA.All rights rerved.
Keywords:Project strategy;Project business;Project management
1.Introduction
Current project management literature on strategy of an individual project –or project strategy –mainly considers that project strategy is mostly about goals and plans.Exist-ing rearch suggests that such goals and plans are aligned with a parent organization’s strategy.However,it is not always appropriate that one parent organization dictates a project’s goals or ts the success criteria from outside
the project.It is not always feasible that a project rves as its parent organization’s obedient rvant while copying an image of its parent’s strategy to something that is called project strategy.Indeed,in existing project strategy studies projects are assumed to take a fairly tactical role as non-strategic an
d non-lf-directed vehicles in one parent firm’s context.The existing literature us a much too narrow perspective when assuming that projects’strategies consist of plans or plan-like descriptions,such strategies are cre-ated in the front end of the project,such strategies are dic-tated always from outside the project rather than allowing the project itlf to take a position in its environment,and such strategies are static rather than dynamic in their nature.
Goals for the project as well as project management approaches of the different stakeholders may vary a lot.Due to the inherent complexity of multi-stakeholder
0263-7863/$30.00Ó2007Elvier Ltd and IPMA.All rights rerved.doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.07.006
*
Corresponding author.Tel.:+35894514751;fax:+35894513665.E-mail address:karlos.artto@hut.fi(K.Artto),jaakko.kujala@hut.fi(J.Kujala),perttu.dietrich@hut.fi(P.Dietrich),miia.martinsuo@hut.fi(M.Martinsuo).1
Tel.:+3584048391717.2
Tel.:+358503853490.3
Tel.:+358504302723./locate/ijproman
Available online at
International Journal of Project Management 26(2008)
4–12
projects,projects must take into account multiple stake-holders’interest in their goal tting.Projects cannot directly adopt only one uniform and explicit goal or method communicated by a top management reprenta-tive of a single parent organization.In fact,the project must carefully position itlf to its environment,and the goals and management methods of the project must be carefully matched with the situation at hand and the con-text.Such approaches are contained in the concept of pro-ject strategy.
The objective of this paper is to define the concept of project strategy and characterize different project strategy types bad on analytical reasoning and synthesis from existing literature.As far as the rearch strategy of this paper is concerned,we consider a project as a temporary organization(for discussion about projects as temporary organizations,e,for example[1,2]).This perspective on a project(as an organization)allows us to draw analogies between projects and any other types of organizations. The ancient military strategy knowledge and early strategic manageme
nt literature emphasize the relative position of an organization in its external competitive environment, with emphasis on activities necessary to achieve a desired position[3].As the strategy of afirm relates to thefirm’s aspirations to achieve a desired position in its competitive external environment,the strategy of a project relates to the project’s aspirations to achieve a desired position in its competitive stakeholder environment.When defining project strategy,the existing literature only ldom recog-nizes the following obvious fundamental issue that comes with the basic concept of strategy:if the project(as a tem-porary organization)has a parent organization,then–from a project strategy viewpoint–also the parent organi-zation’s internal environment must be interpreted as part of the project’s external(not internal)environment.In order to understand project strategy,we need to under-stand the project’s position in its external environment and the possible pursuit to alter such a position.This per-spective rves as a foundation for our approach to apply generic concepts and rearch on strategy to answer the rearch question:‘‘What is project strategy?’’
2.Earlier literature on project strategy
In this paper we u project literature,referring explic-itly or implicitly to the concept of project strategy.In fact, we found only one source that provided a conci explicit definition of project strategy[4],and this definition was adopted by another source as a point of departure for an empirical
study[5].In some other sources there are attempts to explicitly define elements of project strategy [6–9].However,most of the studies define project strat-egy in an implicit and ambiguous way,by rather discussing the process of formulating the strategy without defining what the strategy is.Then,there are many project studies that u the term‘project strategy’or just the term‘strat-egy’occasionally,with no particular meaning nor any spe-cific emphasis on its content.We have also taken a look at project studies with general references to‘strategy’or‘stra-tegic’issues,to include them in our literature analysis when appropriate.The large project studies included in our liter-ature analysis are good examples of such studies that dis-cuss strategies of single projects,although they have mostly referred to concepts such as‘strategic project man-agement’rather than project strategy.Finally,as programs are argued often to be more strategic than projects,we also have looked at program management literature for analo-gous concepts,like program strategy or strategic program management.However,the program management litera-ture did not stand out in this study as literature that would have particularly elaborated the strategy of a single program.
We identified three dominant tracks of project literature, referring explicitly or implicitly to the concept of project strategy(e Table1).In thefirst and most dominant track, projects are viewed as subordinate to the parent organization where project strategy is derived from more significant busine
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ss strategies of the parent.This literature track tends to u the project strategy term explicitly whereas the other tracks mostly refer to the concept only implicitly.This lit-erature track mostly suggests that project strategy consists of a mere static plan or predetermined goals for the project.
In the cond track with somewhat fewer literature sources,projects have been considered as autonomous orga-nizations connected looly or tightly to a parent organiza-tion.In such literature,projects themlves develop their own strategies and plans independent of the surrounding organizational context.
In the third track,projects have been considered as orga-nizations that are not subjected to clearly defined governance or authority tting in relation to their surrounding organiza-tions or stakeholder organizations.In such cas,projects interact with their uncertain and complex environment and adapt to the ongoing changes as strategic entities of their own.This track dominantly includes studies on large projects that rather discuss strategic project management related to success and failure issues,rather than project strategies.Table1summarizes central literature on each of the three literature tracks and their main contributions. The following chapters explain the contents of each of the three literature tracks in more depth.
2.1.Project as subordinate to parent organization
Cleland[10]defines strategic management as‘‘the man-agement of the organization as if its future mattered.’’Shenhar et al.[4]argue that strategically managed projects are focud on achieving business results,while operation-ally managed projects are focud on getting the job done. Project strategies and plans are typically prented as part of a hierarchy of strategies,objectives and plans for a com-pany[6,11].The dominant assumption is that the project belongs under the control of one strong parent organiza-tion[4,6–8,11–16].This literature introduces process for
K.Artto et al./International Journal of Project Management26(2008)4–125
creating the project strategy by feeding it from the parent organization[8,13–15].
This literature track assumes that the strategy is created in the front end pha of the project,and that the project strategy is a static plan-like reprentation,explicitly docu-mented in project documents.Such project strategies(as plans)are mostly ud for agreeing about project goals at thefirm level and for providing guidelines for how to exe-cute the project’s work in afirm’s business context,rather than for reprenting lf-established or lf-contained business strategies of the temporary organization of a sin-gle project(e[17]for discussion onfirm’s strategy imple-mentation by projects,[18]for strategic management of multiple projects,[19]for management of project-bad fir
ms,and[20]for project business).This occurs as there is not much freedom for the project to derive the project’s goals autonomously or to u other mechanisms for strat-egy creation than the one dictated by the parent company, but the project’s goals and strategies are given or strongly constrained by one strong stakeholder(the parent organi-zation)from the project’s external environment(e[21–23]for environment-dependent approaches in projects).
In this track of literature,the project’s assumed approach and strategy in its existing environment is limited by the assumption that the project must obey its parent organization’s directions and implement the parent organi-zation’s business strategy.The project is not assumed to be independent of its parent,and the parent ems to be the most dominant single stakeholder who interests the pro-ject must continuously follow.With such assumptions,the mere strategy a single project remains to rve its parent as a rvant and to conform to the parent organization’s ways of operating.The assumptions imply that projects are at tactical level,as compared to the strategic activities at the nior managers’level that are positioned outside the pro-ject’s boundaries to a higher level in the parent organiza-tion’s hierarchy.
Understanding project strategy through its elements derived from standard project management practice [8,13–15],or from components of parent organization’s strategy[4,5]is a good addition to des
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cribe the anatomy of project strategy.However,we e that the suggestions of project management elements,or parent organization’s strategy components and project management approaches, models,or guidelines brought into the project as parts of its strategy,make further limitations about what the nature of an individual project’s strategy could be.Therefore,the project strategy rearch should allow rearch on how projects could carry out entire parts of thefirm’s business if necessary,and not just emphasizing the aspect of how
Table1
Summary of literature on the concept of project strategy
Literature track with specific project
strategy viewpoint
Examples of sources Main contribution to project strategy concept and potential rearch gaps
Project as subordinate to a parent organization [4–8,10–16]This literature concentrates on project strategy formulation through a top-down process starting from the parent organization’s business strategy.As this strategy
formulation process isfixed,the project is not allowed to form its strategy
independently,but the project’s strategy is an image of the parent organization’s
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strategy and the project is in a role of implementing its parent’s strategy.Project
strategy is a static plan(or predetermined management approaches like guidelines
or attitude/perspective given to the project)that is formulated in the front end stage
of the project.The elements of project strategy are explained either through their
inclusion into specific standard project management process,or through copying/
translating component parts of thefirm’s strategy to the project,such
positioning of thefirm’s product in the external competitive market landscape,or
competitive advantage in this external marketplace.This literature concentrates on
the parent’s and its project’s activities in parent’s external environment,and parent
organization’s internal environment is not considered as the external environment
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for the project that would affect the project’s strategy
Project as an autonomous organization but connected to a parent organization [9,22–28]This literature has two distinct conceptions of project strategy.First,a project
carries within its boundaries significant responsibility for the business that it is
expected to establish,and accordingly,the project is authorized and resourced to
choo and implement its directions independently.Second,the project’s strategy is
en as project execution strategy,where the project’s authority is limited to
independent strategies in project execution and in project management,but not in
the actual overall business content/result that the project is expected to implement
Project in a complex environment with unclear overall governance scheme [31,34–41,44–47,50]This literature es the project as an organization/entity that is positioned in a
淘宝网女装店铺排名complex organizational environment with veral powerful stakeholders,and not
just one powerful parent organization.Project strategy of such project relates to the
project’s adaptation to its environment.This literature assumes that project strategy
is lf-originated and it is related to the project’s own governance structure;the
project includes within its boundaries all management levels of any successful and
independent enterpri(institutional/strategic,middle management,technical–
tactical levels)
6K.Artto et al./International Journal of Project Management26(2008)4–12
project execution(and respective project management ele-ments)could be in full rvice to support the implementa-tion of a parentfirm’s strategy(and respective strategy components of thefirm).
2.2.Project as an autonomous organization but connected to parent organization
There is literature that recognizes implicitly the existence of an own business-contained project strategy or lf-estab-lished project strategy of an individual project[22–25]. Loch’s[23]study of product development projects of a European technology manufacturer provides an excellent example of how each project carried a true business content within the boundaries of the project.This emphasizes that the projects themlves could independently carry a busi-ness strategy within their boundaries,in constant contact with their dynamic context.Such business strategies within the boundaries of autonomous projects could be created within the project on an independent basis,even without too much feeding from the business strategy of the project’s parent organization.McGrath[24]introduce an organiza-tional model for autonomous–or authorized–product development projects that independently carry end-to-end responsibility of the actual business related to the new product.McGrath and MacMillan[25]introduce discovery-oriented project management approach for prod-uct development projects with uncertain outcomes.This approach reflects autonomy of a single project with certain kind of internal structure and process to create its relevant content and outcome independently in its environment.
There is literature that es the project’s strategy as pro-ject execution strategy,where the project’s authority is lim-ited to choosing and implementing strategies in project execution and in project mana
gement,but not in the actual overall business content/result that the project is expected to implement[9,26,27].Pulkkinen[9]defines the model of project execution strategy that includes execution related critical success factors that are made in the project plan-ning pha.Even though the project execution strategy does not help much to achieve the higher levels of project success,it is esntial especially for project suppliers who business are focud on project deliveries.Also Lam et al.
[26]introduce a rather execution-oriented project manage-ment strategy of design-build projects in construction. Arnaboldi et al.[27]illustrate‘project management strat-egy’that includes organizational issues and approaches for the strategic management of a large organizational change project.Finally,there are studies that consider pro-ject’s strategies as project’s internal choices of approach, management method,product concept or scope from alter-native strategic options in contingent situations.Such choices may relate,for example,to planning strategy[28], to culturally responsive strategies in project management
[29],to contract strategy[30],or to teaming strategies in
a construction project[31].This literature focus on the autonomous nature of project organizations i
n executing the project,and project strategy as the way forward in that temporary organization.Such literature not only considers goals and plans,but also choices regarding the project’s unique ways of operating.
电脑新手入门教程In this track of literature,projects are easily treated not only as autonomous but also as isolated entities.The isola-tion is apparent in the deficient u of managerial levels. Even if three principal levels of management have been identified for projects–institutional,operative,and tactical [32]–most project management literature deals only with operative and tactical level project strategies.There is little in the literature dealing with institutional level strategy concerning the project’s positioning in its broader context. We would encourage environment-dependent strategies of autonomous projects that would not be restricted by isola-tion of the project(e[33]for continuous change in the environments of organizations and projects).Furthermore, we e that the emphasis on project execution–or execu-tion strategies–could introduce sometimes even a too sta-tic tting to the nature of what a project’s strategy is.We would recommend also considerations of project strategies that would allow for dynamic content of the strategy(e [34]).
2.3.Project in a complex environment with unclear overall governance scheme
There is literature on empirical and empirically bad conceptual studies on large projects embedded in their complex and dynamic contexts[35–42].This literature rec-ognizes implicitly the existence of an own project strategy or lf-established project strategy of an individual project. In this literature,turbulence in the project’s environment, dynamism,uncertainty and complexity tend to be impor-tant issues that affect the project and its strategy.Floricel and Miller[43]propo a conceptual framework,grounded in the study of the large-scale engineering projects,which attempts to theorize the strategic management of large-scale projects in the context of uncertainty and turbulence. Morris[32]describes the turbulent environment in projects by emphasizing the extreme goal-orientation,high conflict, vague roles,constantly changing priorities,and invariably conflicting objectives.Lampel[44]emphasizes the autono-mous process within a single project by describing a pro-ject as a life-organism.This description may even be interpreted to imply that the project would independently continue to conduct its activities in different forms that depend on the challenges caud by the project’s environ-ment and various situational factors.
The above-mentioned large project studies suggest a more independent management of the project by including a lf-directed definition of its outcome into the project’s management scheme.This kind of business-contained pro-ject strategy differs from the project execution type of strat-egy,where the project’s strategy would be derived or created from the business strategy of the parent organiza-
K.Artto et al./International Journal of Project Management26(2008)4–127
tion,and the project rves as a mere extension of its par-ent,with a task to implement its parent broader strategies. Many empirically rearched large projects are public pro-jects that are planned and executed in a consortium of v-eral players and the projects are impacted by political decision making bodies.Such large projects do not always engage one strong customer or owner organization,but there may be veral parties even with conflicting interests that reprent owners(or an owner consortium).
Samt[45]introduces the strategy of a single project through introducing the interrelated key elements of pro-ject strategy that include strategic,tactical and operational objectives,and main contextual uncertainties with each objective.Kolltveit et al.[46]emphasize the importance of strategic choices concerning project’s scope from alter-native scopes with different profitability and uncertainty profiles.Milovic[47]defines strategic project manage-ment as management that address improving of project results.Furthermore,Milovic introduces a systems model of strategic project management controlling the environmental elements usually referred to as the external project stakeholders.Pitsis et al.[48]introduced‘‘future perfect’’strategy as a new conception to manage a project. Pitsis et al.[48]argue that managing through the future perfect is an approach to strategic ma
nagement that occurred in a context where planning was practically impossible.
Studies in this track of literature analyze the creation and implementation of strategies of individual large pro-jects from a more project-originated perspective,where the project must take into account its environment and cir-cumstances in a more lf-directed way.The track record of the projects is fundamentally poor,and the large project studies analyze issues that are related to risk and success. The studies often take a departure of understanding pro-ject success and how successful outcomes are achieved from the project.
The project strategy for such large projects can be con-sidered to be partly derived from the success discussion. The success issue relates to different stakeholders.The var-ious stakeholders’different objectives,interests,and needs add to the complexity of managing a project[49].The gov-ernance and shaping of the project in its complex environ-ment with veral stakeholders relate to project strategy [38].No project can exist in isolation from outside events. Projects as temporary organizations have to be viewed as open systems[1]that are constantly interacting in and with their dynamic context[50].Concerning the management levels in a project,the large/complex project literature assumes that the project’s own governance structure and organization includes within the project’s boundaries all management levels of any successful enterpri[32].The organizational structure of th
e project ems to be relevant from the project strategy point of view,and so is the recog-nition of the dynamism and necessary continuous changes in the organizational structure and changes in the empha-s of the project management levels in different phas during the project lifecycle[32].Slevin and Pinto[51]con-cluded that both project’s strategy and tactics are impor-tant for a project’s success,and they emphasize the dynamic nature of the project’s strategy.According to Sle-vin and Pinto,at no point do strategic factors become unimportant to project success.Instead,they must be con-tinually assd and reassd over the life of the project in light of new project developments and changes in exter-nal environment.
3.Definition of project strategy
Bad on the above analysis,we conclude that the con-cept of project strategy should not be limited to rving a single parent organization only.Instead,the concept of project strategy should acknowledge a project’s autonomy as well as its unique position as part of its complex con-text.Concerning the levels of project management([32], referring to[52]),a project strategy should concern not only operative and tactical levels,but also the institutional level,and thereby enable a project’s significant interaction with its context.This broader viewpoint would allow the project to define and implement a strategy of its own in alignment with the project’s unique environment.There-
fore,a more holistic project strategy concept should be developed,to take into account a project’s possibility to operate as an autonomous organization,to ek survival and success in an uncertain and complex environment, and to consider strategic options possibly with multiple strong stakeholders.However,it is important that the def-inition of project strategy is generic enough,to allow also for project’s choices that are in accordance with sugges-tions in the existing project strategy literature:the defini-tion must allow situations where the project’s choice is to respond to its parent’s will obediently.Bad on our liter-ature analysis above,we conclude a generic project strat-egy definition:
‘‘Project strategy is a direction in a project that contrib-utes to success of the project in its environment.’’
Our project strategy definition is designed to allow for different kinds of project strategies that individual projects may have.In order to clarify the meaning and importance of this definition,we explain the words direction,contrib-ute,success,and environment in our definition:
We lected the word direction to describe explicit ele-ments of the project strategy.It can be interpreted as either one or veral of the following:goals,plans, guidelines,means,methods,tools,or
governance sys-tems and mechanisms including reward or penalty schemes,measurement,and other controlling devices.
We assume that all the elements include a capability to directly or indirectly affect the project’s cour.Pro-ject’s‘‘direction’’and its elements may change even on
a continuous basis in a project,which suggests that pro-
ject and its strategy is dynamic.
8K.Artto et al./International Journal of Project Management26(2008)4–12
