Realizing Strategy Through Projects ― The Executive's Guide

Executives should not necessarily know the intricacies of project management, but they should know how project management, as a discipline, can benefit the organization in implementing its strategies and realizing its vision. The only way that executives can effectively apply project management to realize these goals is to have sound knowledge of the project management discipline.

The purpose of this book is to provide executives with a comprehensive overview of the discipline of project management. It focuses on the benefits of project management to an organization. The goal is to provide executives with a view as to how project management can deliver organizational strategies. The various chapters focus on specific aspects within the project management discipline and how each aspect should be managed from a business perspective.

The book covers the entire spectrum of project management from a management and leadership perspective. The focus is not necessarily on what needs to be done from a project management perspective, but on what organizations and senior executives can do to facilitate projects. The book covers:

• The value of project management
• Project management as a strategic enabler
• Project, program, and portfolio management
• The role of the project management office in the successful delivery of projects, programs, and portfolios
• The benefits of project deliverables bring
• Sustainability of the organization
• Governance and the role of the project sponsor.

The book concludes with a comprehensive portfolio, program, and project management framework. This holistic framework enables organizations to achieve value from project management and realize strategic goals.

Prof. Carl Marnewick’s academic career started in 2007, when he joined the University of Johannesburg. He traded his professional career as a senior Information Technology (IT) project manager for that of an academic career. The career change provided him the opportunity to emerge himself in the question why IT/IS-related projects are not always successful and do not provide the intended benefits that were originally anticipated. This is currently a problem internationally as valuable resources are wasted on projects and programs that do not add value to the strategic objectives of the organization. It is an international problem where there is a gap between theory and practice and he is in the ideal position to address this problem. The focus of his research is the overarching topic and special interest of the strategic alignment of projects to the vision of the organizations.