Towards Strategic Project Management (original) (raw)
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This paper focuses on the application of the Dynamic Capabilities framework to Project Management discipline. A review of project management literature illustrates the new project and project managers' conceptualization and the shift towards a more strategic perspective. Commonalities and overlaps between project management and dynamic capabilities approach are highlighted both from a theoretical and professional point of view. The findings indicate the closeness between project management and dynamic capabilities by creating an integrative framework useful both for top and project managers. Besides, we show the potential benefits of the application of strategic management theories to Project Management.
Project Management in the Development of Dynamic Capabilities for an Open Innovation Era
Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 2021
The aim of the research is to explain how Project Management (PM) ensures the accumulation, integration, utilization, and reconfiguration of the capabilities and knowledge acquired in projects in order to build dynamic capabilities (DCs). This study also gives insight into how PM can develop DCs through the identification and implementation of project management opportunities. The result of 22 semi-structured interviews with 22 participants from 9 companies of different industries are detailed and framed within theoretical dimensions of DCs: knowledge accumulation, integration, utilization, reconfiguration, sensing, and seizing. As a result, we present the best practices, techniques, and PM tools that allow leveraging DCs in organizations. This qualitative study contributes to a theoretical and empirical discussion about how PM transforms knowledge acquired in projects into routines and learning practices that allow organizations to develop or reshape capabilities.
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The problem of achieving individual project performance has been replaced by the problem of achieving organizational goals through project performance. Only project-based firms able to learn and build project capabilities can successfully compete in today’s dynamic environments. The purpose of this paper is to present a dynamic capability-based framework that sheds light on how project and organizational dynamic capabilities are built and how these dynamic capabilities allow project-based firms to perform in dynamic environments. Our theoretical framework unpacks the processes of building dynamic capabilities inside a project-based firm, discussing the routines and procedures that are useful to manage projects in unstable and dynamic environments and to build and reconfigure organizational capabilities from project-led knowledge.
The Effects of Project Portfolio Management on Competitive Advantage through Dynamic Capability
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A business firm needs to respond and adapt to the changing business environment in order to achieve and sustain the competitive advantages in the fast changing and very competitive market of today. Business strategy is an important discipline that provides the guidelines on how to deal with the changing business environment and to develop competitive advantages.The theory development and discussion in the business strategy discipline shows a trend change from the external environment analysis theory by M.E. Porter in the 1980s, to Resource Based View(RBV)in the 1990s, and to the dynamic capability theory in the late 1990s. Another effort by business firms to cope with the changing business environment may be the development and application of project management theories such as project portfolio
Advancing project and portfolio management research: Applying strategic management theories
International Journal of Project Management, 2012
This paper focuses on the application of strategic management theories to Project Management and Project Portfolio Management research, specifically the Resource-Based View, Dynamic Capabilities, and Absorptive Capacity. A literature review and four research experiences illustrate the advances achieved through the use of these three theoretical perspectives and contribute to the development of this field by providing examples and guidance for theory development and future research. Commonalities between the research examples include a strong strategic focus, recognition of the importance of knowledge and learning, and research questions seeking understanding and explanation. These research experiences outline the successful application of strategic management theories to a wide range of contexts, using diverse methodologies at a variety of levels of analysis. The findings indicate a broad potential for further fruitful research stemming from the relatively recent application of strategic management theories to Project Management and Project Portfolio Management research. Abstract This paper focuses on the application of strategic management theories to Project Management and Project Portfolio Management research, specifically the Resource-Based View, Dynamic Capabilities, and Absorptive Capacity. A literature review and four research experiences illustrate the advances achieved through the use of these three theoretical perspectives and contribute to the development of this field by providing examples and guidance for theory development and future research. Commonalities between the research examples include a strong strategic focus, recognition of the importance of knowledge and learning, and research questions seeking understanding and explanation. These research experiences outline the successful application of strategic management theories to a wide range of contexts, using diverse methodologies at a variety of levels of analysis. The findings indicate a broad potential for further fruitful research stemming from the relatively recent application of strategic management theories to Project Management and Project Portfolio Management research.
Project Management as a Strategic Asset: What does it look like and how do companies get there?
2005
In the global marketplace, companies are increasingly turning to project management as a way of work and the discipline is gaining ground as an important organizational asset. Strategic assets are vital to a firm's strategy and its competitive advantage position. Strategic assets are a firm's heterogeneous resource bundles that are valuable, rare, inimitable, and have an organizational focus. Although the connection between strategy and project management is relatively new, it is germane to many organizations from a competitive advantage perspective. Within the strategy literature, the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm focuses on a company's internal assets as sources of advantage. Project management is a knowledge-based organizational asset and most strategic assets are knowledgebased versus physical or financial.
2011
This paper focuses on the application of strategic management theories to Project Management and Project Portfolio Management research, specifically the Resource-Based View, Dynamic Capabilities, and Absorptive Capacity. A literature review and four research experiences illustrate the advances achieved through the use of these three theoretical perspectives, and contribute to the development of this field by providing examples and guidance for theory development and future research. Commonalities between the research examples include a strong strategic focus, recognition of the importance of knowledge and learning, and research questions seeking understanding and explanation. These research experiences outline the successful application of strategic management theories to a wide range of contexts, using diverse methodologies at a variety of levels of analysis. The findings indicate a broad potential for further fruitful research stemming from the relatively recent application of strategic management theories to Project Management and Project Portfolio Management research.
Agile project management under the perspective of dynamic capabilities
Gestão & Produção
There is a growing academic and industrial interest in how firms can adopt agile project management to meet the demands of dynamically fast-moving environments. However, organizations face difficulties using agile methods in developing a physical product, like the companies found in the automotive industry. This article aims to study agile project management from the perspective of dynamic capabilities. It presents a strengthened analysis of the adoption of agile methods needed for developing physical products in the automotive industry. To address this issue, we formulated the following research question: "what are the dynamic capabilities associated with the agile project management of product development in the automotive sector?". The article presents a case study of a multinational organization in the automotive sector that implemented concepts and practices of agile methods in the project management of new vehicles. Results evidenced the manifestation of dynamic capabilities in the organization's agile project management scope at sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring levels. Furthermore, findings showed the presence of agile methods in the projects and their implications for the organization regarding benefits (like communication, time, effectiveness, autonomy, and motivation gains) and challenges (like resistance to organizational changes). Finally, we propose a framework for analyzing relationships between dynamic capabilities' microfoundations and agile project management practices to guide the choice and implementation of agile methods in the automotive sector.
Agile Project Management, Dynamic Capability and Performance: A Systematic Literature Review
Agile project management is often regarded as an immutable characteristic, with the implication that businesses must always undergo change. However, such advice misses the fact that although adjustments and transformations are frequently necessary, they are not always required, may not even be practicable, and come at a cost. The adoption of agile methodologies is necessary in the dynamic environment, and this paper provides a strengthened understanding of that necessity. The goal of this study was to investigate agility from a more basic standpoint and explicitly connect it to dynamic capabilities. This paper was anchored on the Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT) and supported by the Resource Based Theory. The current paper employed systematic literature review to summarize the body of available literature in order to determine the current state of agility as a project management methodology. This paper reveals how dynamic capabilities materialize at the sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring levels within the organization's agile project management scope. Organisation seeking to identify ahead of time which agile principles would be worth using in its projects a head of time can also benefit from the results. Additionally, the paper enlightens managers and organizations on critical dynamic talents that should be fostered in order to support the growth of agility and agile transformation within the company. The study recommends that organizations adapt business resilience while also adopting business continuity strategies and climate resilience technologies. Organization should be able to identify key possible disruptions that may negatively impact its business operations. Organizations also need to build a robust strategy formulation and implementation regime to ensure the actualization of strategic objectives since they operate in a competitive and dynamic business environment. Equally, organizations should encourage knowledge transfer and learning as part of its culture in ensuring an upward growth in an organization. Future studies should look at how agile project management and dynamic capabilities affect optimal performance.