Strategic Project Management Made Simple

Solution Tools for Leaders and Teams

Terry Schmidt

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781119718154
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Project Management
• Index: Business

Learn to plan and execute projects in any organization with this practical and insightful resource

The comprehensively updated and revised edition of Strategic Project Management Made Simple cements this series' status as the leading resource for anyone looking forstep-by-step guidance onproject design and action initiatives.

Written by celebrated management consultant Terry Schmidt, this book fully covers the necessity of systemsthinking andthe logical framework approachto solve today'schallenging problems. Strategic Project Management Made Simple alsoincludes:

• Anexpanded sectionon turning ideas, problems, and opportunities into projects
• A newly created chapter on managing your "inner game" to achieve project excellence
• Fresh casestudies thatcover how to pivot your business to meet changing needs
• A new approach, Iterating to Excellence, tocreate yourMinimum ViableProject andproduce solutionssmootherand faster

Strategic Project Management Made Simple, Revisedand Updated is an indispensable volume forleaders and workersseeking to transformtheir approach toplanning, driving, and executing projects in their organizations.

Part I
Gaining the Strategic Advantage

These first four chapters examine how these Strategic Project Management concepts combine to give you a repeatable approach to creating projects with a greater likelihood of success:

• Chapter 1 introduces core concepts and shows how they benefit your projects, your teams, your organization, and your career.
• Chapter 2 explores a fundamental principle that serves as the backbone of any strategy or project and is at the heart of this common-sense approach.
• Chapter 3 covers the art of setting project objectives that clearly align with the broader strategy.
• Chapter 4 explains the solution tool and invites you to see how it transformed a poorly performing organization.

1
Developing Your Strategic Project Mindset

We cannot solve problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

—Albert Einstein

This chapter launches you on the path to understanding fresh ways to design and deliver projects that produce measurable benefits.

The systems thinking approach to projects that follows has been proven across a wide variety of industries and project types. Applying this process reduces the gap between strategic goals and the project action plans needed to reach those goals.

This chapter offers a preview of the Logical Framework, a solution approach that gives you a competitive advantage in both your professional work and personal life, even in uncertain times. This organizing tool and four critical strategic questions will help you to design effective project strategies that propel your organization and career forward.

And it shares a timeless lesson NASA learned the hard way, along with my personal story.

What NASA Rule #15 Can Teach Us

Early in my career I was fortunate to work with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where I developed an obsession with designing and delivering ambitious projects. But you do not have to be a rocket scientist to appreciate NASA Rule #15, which states:

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The seeds of problems are laid down early. Initial planning is the most vital part of a project. The review of most failed projects and project problems indicated that the disasters were well-planned to happen from the start.

—NASA Rule #15

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Can you relate? Have you experienced project problems that could have been avoided with more effective initial planning? If so, you are not alone.

Based on my experience observing how project teams typically plan their projects, I see three ways that “problem seeds” get planted early:

First, by using planning approaches and tools that are overly complex, restrictive, or ill-suited to producing the type of actionable plans that are needed. The mandated approach in some organizations is so inadequate that people often resort to just filling out the required forms without first truly understanding the project context and strategic objectives.

Second, failing to recognize the multiple other factors that are necessary for project success but that are not part of the project. Every project is a puzzle piece in a larger picture, and not understanding the strategic connections during project design can result in ignoring the risks that can doom any project.

The third mistake teams frequently make is to prematurely focus on How the project will be done before thoroughly and thoughtfully understanding Why the project should be done. Such project plans, even when well implemented, seldom achieve the expected impact.

My commitment is to guide you through a simple, logical, and flexible planning approach that can overcome these problems and move your project team into motion more quickly and easily. In my experience, this approach can cut upfront project planning time by two-thirds while doubling your chances for success.

Close the Strategy-to-Execution Gap

In recent years, the Project Management Institute, the International Project Management Association, the Association for Strategic Planning, and other professional associations have broadened their scope to emphasize the linkages between strategy and projects. These are huge gaps between these two critical functions that result in a staggering waste of human and financial resources that we can ill afford.

According to Fortune, 70 percent of all strategies fail because they could not be implemented, even though the strategies themselves were sound. Forbes estimates 54 percent of technology project failures can be attributed to poor management, while only 3 percent were due to technology issues. It should be clear that using simple concepts that enable people to think through and logically connect projects with strategic goals is part of the solution.

The Power of Systems Thinking

A few years ago, I was recruited by the president of the Association for Strategic Planning (ASP) to help develop a rigorous program to certify strategic planners. Back then, anyone whose business card said “strategic planner” could claim t...