Abstract
Organisations continue to struggle in aligning and prioritising projects and programs to
their strategy execution. Significant evidence still suggests that many organisations
have not developed a process that clearly aligns projects and programs to their strategic
plan execution. Even though research suggests that organisations with the strongest
focus on projects and programs prioritisation outperform their counterparts (Pulse of the
Profession, 2017), there is still a noticeable struggle amongst many organisations in
bridging the gap between strategy formulation and implementation. Research also
suggests that there are some projects that move along perfectly, that is, they meet
almost every milestone set on them in terms of cost, quality, time and functionality, yet
after delivery, they fall into decay and become unused or referred to as a “White
Elephant”.
Organisations must ensure that they prioritise implementation of their formulated
strategies accordingly to stay competitive in global markets. Often organisations that fail
to properly plan the execution of their strategies finds strategy formulation as a fruitless
exercise that never bears any results in the business.
To bridge the chasm between strategy formulation and implementation, many
successful organisations use projects and programs as a tool for implementing their
strategic plans. Projects and programs play an important role in assisting organisations
to realise their goals efficiently. If well-managed, this strategic intent could result in
successfully overturning organisational fortunes that may result in market advantages
and helping an organisation to be more competitive and to flourish.
The absence of, or inadequacy of leadership, in strategic management processes has
also led to strategy failures in many organisations. Literature shows that strategic
leadership is important for strategic management, and often the role of strategic
leadership is overlooked in many organisations.
Enterprise Portfolio Management Office, abbreviated EPMO is a structure within the
organisation that is tasked with bringing projects and strategy into realisation. This structure could assist in bridging the gap between the high-level strategic vision of an
organisation, and its implementation. But research suggests that many organisations
still battle to establish such a structure, and that leadership do not set clear
responsibilities and goals of such an office.
This research was conducted to investigate factors that contribute to the misalignment
of projects and programs with organisational strategy execution, and the role that
EPMOs play in ensuring that cohesion exists between strategy formulation and
implementation. The study further investigated best practices that are used by other
organisations, which are realising high alignment of projects and programs to
organisational strategy execution.
Both qualitative and quantitative research was conducted in the study, firstly
qualitatively by means of interviews that were conducted with seven organisational
leaders, also termed C-suite executives to understand how they execute their
organisational strategy; who is involved in the execution; and what challenges they face
during the execution. Quantitative survey questionnaires were then delivered to fiftythree
respondents, who were qualified project managers across South Africa and very
few were received from international respondents. The purposes of the quantitative
questions were to correlate the answers provided in the qualitative research, whist
simultaneously answering research questions and objectives of the study.
Study findings indicate that executives in organisations consider strategic management
as important for their organisation’s sustainability and growth. Many executives are
facing challenges in executing strategies in their organisations due to limited financial
resources and human capital skills needed to execute such strategies. Also,
organisations utilise tools such as project portfolio lists for aligning strategy execution
with projects. However, there are still organisations who do not think that project
management tools and processes are important for successful implementation of
projects.
Many organisations do not measure benefits that resulted from implemented projects
and this is a major contributing factor towards misalignment of projects with
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organisation’s strategy execution. Even though executives indicated that they use
methods such as scorecards and dashboards for measuring strategy implementation in
their organisations, data from surveyed project managers indicates that many
organisations do not have benefits management processes on implemented projects.
Noticeably a gap from the survey data is that many respondents indicated that their
organisations do not have an Enterprise Portfolio Management Office, and even for
those who have it, the structure is that of execution and supportive of project work only,
with very limited controlling and directive powers on projects alignment to strategies.
Survey data also indicates less involvement of EPMO leaders in the organisational
committee that approves selection and approval of projects for execution. Many
respondents perceive the role of EPMO as being only that of supportive and controlling,
and less of directive. This means that the majority of EPMOs are used mainly for
providing guidance in the organisation on how to manage projects, while at the same
time ensuring compliance to organisational practices on projects implementation. It is
simultaneously encouraging to note that most EPMOs are either being led by an
executive or senior member of the organisation, even though some organisations do not
have a dedicated EPMO leader.
Keywords: Project Management, Strategic Management Process, Organisational
Objectives, Enterprise Portfolio Management Office (EPMO), Benefit Realization
Management (BRM).