Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Strategic project leadership



"The project perspective, position, and guidelines on what to do and how to do it, to achieve the highest competitive advantage and the best value from the project outcome "
Aaron Shenhar and Peerasit Patanakul (2012)
This quote is actually taken from another of Shenhar's numerous papers, though he gives credit to his co-author for the overall definition.

I like it because it brings in the idea of "Best Value" which is more or less my guidepost:
Best Value is the most of the most important and most effective scope for the available investment of resources

Some call this the "most of the most" doctrine. Ok by me!

Of course, if you are going for "highest competitive advantage" and "best value" the immediate question is begged: "In whose opinion?"

Agilists say: "the customer"; traditionalists say: "the guy paying the bills". If it's a commercial business, then by the OPM principle, the customer is the only one paying the bills, so the traditional and agile ideas merge. 

On the other hand, in the public sector, the merge may not be so obvious, and may not occur at all since the guy paying the bills may be a philanthropists or taxpayer with only a very indirect connection to the project. In that case, the question of opinion is more problematic, even Wicked!

From here, I shall leave it to the reader to.....



Peerasit Patanakul, P, and Shenhar, Aaron. (2012, February) "What Project Strategy Really Is: The Fundamental Building Block in Strategic Project Management.” Project Management Journal.


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