Strategic Project Leadership® Toward a strategic approach to project management

Abstract

Strategic Project Leadership ® (SPL) is a new approach to project management that is focusing projects on creating competitive advantage and winning in the marketplace. This approach is particularly relevant to strategic projects that are initiated to create the company's future, including almost all R&D projects. In the traditional approach, project managers and teams were typically focused on getting the job done, and meeting time and budget goals. SPL, provides a modern view. It suggests that projects are initiated for business reasons, and that just ‘getting the job done’ is not enough. This paper presents a mindset, a framework, and a practical, step‐by‐step approach on how to connect project management to business results and how to turn projects into powerful competitive weapons. The paper is based on extensive case research, of which we present six cases – three successes and three disappointments – to demonstrate the value of the SPL approach to project management.1