Why Organizations Are Using Project Management to Achieve Their Strategic Objectives - Essay Example

?Critically review and reflect on the reasons why organizations are using Project Management to achieve their strategic objectives: Introduction: In our daily life, for any activity undertaken, a proper working procedure needs to be implemented for its accomplishment. The procedure so adopted, must consist of all the vital steps that are essential for achieving the objectives. Various organization also needs such strategy and planning in order to make the project a success. Project management in other words is a bench mark towards reaching the milestone. Many organizations term project management as a pre-requisite to meeting the strategic objectives. And before approaching any strategic aspect, it is being ensured that project management rules and been followed and project management structure is in place. It is commonly seen that projects often fail due to improper implementation of project management scheme (Morris & Sember, 2008). While scenarios where project management was implemented to the full, have mostly insured success. Project management is a separate discipline in itself and has a list of activities and procedures to it, along with the tools and techniques that help in making the task easy. The importance of Project management in modern times has been more than ever before and for this reason, nearly all organizations have project management scheme in place. Project management in other words is defined as all those actions, strategies, tools and techniques that lead to achieving the strategic objectives (Tonnquist, 2009). Strategic objectives on other hand are defined as those factors that impact the organization and its entities in a direct manner. These can be met through clear definition of the elements that contribute towards their accomplishment. These elements are namely, clear and focused vision about objectives, presence of communication channels, work break down structure, assigning of roles to the suitable personnel, making sufficient use of the resources; prepare a plan for the emergency situations. Focus on objectives: One of the most important factors any organization needs to take into consideration is the clear vision in terms of the goals to be achieved. Deviations are expected any time during the project and organizational activities, with help of clearly defined objectives the chances of deviations can be reduced. Before emphasizing on the need for project management, it is vital to understand and define the elements that constitute strategic objectives. Strategic objectives can be in terms of the overall productivity, budget allocation, social factors, the proper relationship establishment with the stakeholders, maintaining the communication channels, individual personnel that are of high importance to the organization, hence all those factors that have an impact on final result. Customers Aspect: Customers hold the key to the success and failure of any organization. Their response can turn an organization either way. Customer satisfaction is a universal strategic objective that is the front line desire of almost every organization. Meeting the customer demands requires proper planning. The field of project management provides ample guidance towards customer satisfaction (Kerzner & Sponholtz,pg 23, 2007). The scope of project management is very vast and it makes up for an entire discipline, it has few basic elements namely: Planning Organizing Controlling Staffing Leading Every organization needs the above mentioned elements to be in place in order to meet their strategic objectives (Weihrich & Cannice, 2010). Co-relation between planning and Organizational Effectively: A co relation can be established between the organizational functions and project management in many aspects. Planning is one of them. Organizations need planning to be in place while project management provides guidelines for achieving this planning. A famous saying goes about planning that “Failing to plan is planning to fail” (Hess, et al., pg 454,2011), under the principles of project management, planning is the first and foremost requirement for any organization and this can be achieved only through the adoption of incumbent discipline. Roles definition: An important step to meeting the strategic objectives is the defining of roles. Since Staffing is one of the five basic principle components of project management, it again enables creating a co-relation between achieving strategic objectives and use of project management. It is always being said that the right person at right place is vital for any work to be accomplished. In an organizational scenario, this statement is of immense value and employing the right kind of person can help resolve many issues. Personnel with sufficient knowledge of a particular aspect can result in meeting the deadlines and objectives in time and in appropriate manner. Relationship between Leadership and Strategic Objectives: Leading is another important area for all organizations that needs to be addressed in order to meet the strategic objectives. Leaders through their actions and expertise determine the fate of organizational effectiveness and success. An efficient leader can identify the factors of strategic importance and can further ensure their execution according to the need. The Discipline of project management sheds sufficient light on the importance of leading and its execution plan which enables the organization to meet its objectives. Without a proper leading team, the tasks cannot be accomplished. Project managers are important entity in this area of the organization and through their performance and abilities set bench mark for rest of the team to follow. A successful and competent project manager makes use of all the basic guidelines of project management in order to meet the desired objectives (Grisham, 2011). Competitive advantage and Core Competence: these are two important areas that contribute to the strategic objectives. Competitive advantage can be achieved through number of ways, either innovation; reach to the customer or first in market approach, all these can be achieved only if a proper project management structure is in place. Similarly making use of the core competence to the full is another strategic objective, it requires proper homework in terms of assigning the roles accordingly, chalking out the strategy in a calculated manner, project management states clear guidelines about these two areas. Emergency Planning: Any entity in this universe is prone to unforeseen situations and emergencies. Planning in general is a core feature of project management discipline, and it allows meeting all kinds of situations. Organizational working can come across such situations in events of budget reduction, supply disruption, loss of important personnel, loss of important organizational data, to meet this challenge a proper working policy must be in place that enables meeting the tough conditions. Project management in its portfolio allows meeting such situations in a manner most desired (Alexander, 2002). Need for effective communication channel: Communication in any discipline of life plays an important role and without its presence no activity can be performed, they are of immense importance in the sector or management and organization. Communication enables working in an organized manner and further reach to those areas of the project that cannot be achieved otherwise. Communication is needed both inside the organization and outside. It enables establishing a contact with the external forces and stakeholders. Various organizations are dependent on the flow of information from outside sources; this can be achieved only through the presence of proper communication channel (Ferguson, pg 41, 1988). W.B.S (Work Breakdown Structure): Work break down structure process helps meeting the strategic objectives in the appropriate manner. IT enables breaking down all those components that need to be segmented and then investigated, it is a known phenomena that a large task when split into small modules and processes becomes easy, work break down structure enables achieving this, this characteristic is also an important component of project management discipline, hence this is another co relation that leads to achieving strategic objectives through the implementation of project management rules. Dealing with Inventory: Inventory handling is the most critical part of any organizational cycle; inventory can play the role of dynamite and damage the organization in a large way, since inventory hides to raw and low value items. Any organization that aims at achieving the strategic objectives must keep focus on the inventory level and target should be to minimize the level of inventory in the store. This discipline of project management presents clear guidelines on handling inventory; hence, like other aspects of the organizational structure, project management helps the organizations in this area of working. .Project management’s importance cannot be undermined and it is essential component of every activity and every stage of the project, and its impact on the strategic objectives is internationally recognized. Starting from the initiation phase to the completion phase and post completion phase, project management travels along the project. It can be easily said that the management of project and its need is an undeniable fact as long as the project alive, In other words, project management is needed as long as the project continues. Relation between the appropriate tools and techniques and strategic objectives: Project Management provides the necessary tools and techniques that enable facing a certain situation. It is a known fact that the use of appropriate tools and techniques help meeting the strategic objectives, however to use the tools in a desired manner, the principles of project management must be incorporated into the action plan to meet this requirement of strategic objectives accomplishment. Organizations come across different projects and challenges, these challenges can be mitigated through proper implementation of project management. Under the umbrella of project management there are several important functions that make an organizational structure effective. Conclusion: Hence it can be deducted that project management implementation and strategic management go hand in hand. Use of various tools that are part of project management contribute towards achieving strategic objectives (Dinsmore & Brewin,pg 288, 2010). Its implementation results in synergetic effect which enhances the overall working environment and conditions of the organization. Bibliography: 1-Alexander, D. E., 2002. Principles of Emergency Planning and Management. s.l.:Oxford University Press. 2-Dinsmore, P. C. & Brewin, J. C., 2010. The AMA Handbook of Project Management. s.l.:AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. 3-Ferguson, S., 1988. Organizational Communication. s.l.:Transaction Publishers. 4-Grisham, T. W., 2011. International Project Management: Leadership in Complex Environments. s.l.:John Wiley & Sons. 5-Hess, K. M., Orthmann, C. H. & LaDue, S. E., 2011. Management and Supervision in Law Enforcement. s.l.:Cengage Learning. 6-Kerzner, H. & Sponholtz, J., 2007. Project Management Metrics, Kpis, and Dashboards: A Guide to Measuring and Monitoring Project Performance. s.l.:John Wiley and Sons. 7-Morris, R. A. & Sember, B. M., 2008. Project Management That Works: Real-World Advice on Communicating, Problem Solving, and Everything Else You Need to Know to Get the Job Done. s.l.:AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. 8-Tonnquist, B., 2009. Project Management: A Complete Guide. s.l.:Academica. 9-Weihrich, H. & Cannice, M. V., 2010. Management. s.l.:Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Read More