Project management as a recognised discipline has been around in
one form or another since the mid 1960s. During this time it has been
clearly demonstrated that formal approaches to managing projects
yield value in terms of budget, schedule and deliverables.
In the last twenty years, the number, size, type and scope of projects
has increased dramatically. As a result the practice of portfolio management
has gained in importance, particularly within IT departments, whose
workload in terms of number of projects carried out during this
period will typically have seen a great expansion.
The most recent development in this field in
the last five years has been the emergence of strategic management.
Take a look through the appointments section of your broadsheet newspaper and
see the increasing number of large organisations who are looking
for strategic change executives. These organisations were few and far
between five years ago, but are now growing in number as they turn their
focus to delivering not just their day-to-day business, but also their
overall strategy.
The three disciplines described above, project management, portfolio
management and strategic management should all operate together
as a cohesive process within the organisation. The strategic management
process operates at the corporate level to control the overall
shape and direction of the entire collection of projects and
programmes within an organisation. Portfolio management co-ordinates
successful project delivery and ensures strategic alignment of all
change activity, and finally project management continues to deliver
individual initiatives. Strategic change management is therefore the
integrated operation of these three disciplines.
The need for strategic change management
Organisations are always involved in a variety of change,
and this is not just confined to internal projects, for example
it could also encompass interaction with suppliers and customers.
The change being undertaken by organisations now is inherently
complex and often impacts diverse stakeholder groups both
internally and externally.
As the change portfolio grows the level of complexity grows with it,
with many
organisations now finding it difficult to understand and track
the plethora of change initiatives underway. An added complexity
is a reduction in manpower: when rapid and complex change is
needed the skilled resources required to deliver it are at
their scarcest.
Where does strategic change management fit?
Strategic change management is the process of delivering
the strategy of an organisation in a controlled, efficient
and effective manner. Strategic change management is not about
the delivery of a single project or monitoring business
as usual activities. Strategic change management is the process
of governing a portfolio of programmes, projects and initiatives
within the context of a wider strategy for the organisation.
The purpose of the whole exercise is to deliver value to the
organisation, and there are three key groups of people
who will need to work together to achieve this aim.
For more information click any quadrant above.
Key strategic change management processes
Strategic management is undertaken by executives, who have the responsibility
of interpreting the outside world and defining the strategic direction
and priorities of the organisation. Co-ordinators have the role of portfolio management
which involves prioritising and selecting the right portfolio of
initiatives to deliver against the strategic priorities of the organisation, whilst
reflecting their inherent resource, time and budget constraints. Initiative
Management is undertaken by programme and project leaders who have
to shape, implement and deliver their initiative.
The delivery of these key activities is at the heart of strategic
change management. Based on the discussion above, some considerations and requirements for organisations
who wish to be successful at managing strategic change are listed
below. These details are discussed in greater detail in the full
version of this document - click here to download.
Executives: Set the strategic direction
Understand the outside world
Communicate a clear vision
Track a balanced scorecard of strategic KPIs
Respond to changing scenarios
Co-ordinators: Select and prioritise
the portfolio
Ensure strategic alignment
Enable project prioritisation
Understand inter-project dependencies
Implementers: Deliver the initiatives
Ensure effective programme and project planning
Manage scarce resources
Resolve issues, risks and changes
Clarify initiative ownership
Executives and Initiative Sponsors:
Realise the benefits
Define the benefit realisation activities
Ensure benefit ownership
Understand the benefit assumptions
Your organisation: Ensure governance
Govern the change lifecycle
Track status
Provide effective reporting
How well does your organisation deliver against these requirements?
Complete the checklist at the end of the full article - click here to download
and find out today.
