Strategic Initiative Management: Strategy Implementation through PMO

This report delves into strategic initiative management, emphasizing its role in translating organizational visions into reality. It explores the relationships between portfolios, programs, and projects, illustrating how projects form programs, and programs contribute to portfolios. The report highlights the crucial function of the Project Management Office (PMO) in overseeing strategic initiatives, ensuring alignment with organizational strategies. It emphasizes the importance of focusing on critical initiatives, establishing smart processes, nurturing talent, and fostering a change management culture to ensure successful strategy implementation. The report also references key articles, such as those by Annarelli & Omega (2016), BCG & PMI (2013), and Bull, Shaw & Baca (2012), to support its findings and recommendations.

How could Strategic Initiative Management be applied using Portfolio, Programs and
Projects as the delivery vehicle for strategy?
The project management paradigm has both been developing and proselytized unequivocally
as an administration practice in the previous decades towards turning into a strategy vehicle
for implementations. This headway has accompanied an expanding weight on the project
management worldview. The term ‘strategic initiative management’, points to a delivery
vehicle which is utilized by organizations to make their visions into reality. Every
organization has an end goal to survive and flourish, strategic initiative management makes it
possible for them. They are a set of tactical plans in place to translate the visions to practices
(BCG & PMI, 2013).
The relationship between portfolio, programs and projects is as follows. The smallest unit is
the project. It consists of set of tasks with set expected results to be achieved. Many projects
together could be part of a program. To think of it with an example. While making an
automobile, making of engine is the program while projects could be working on specifics of
the engines. Many smaller projects will together form the engine, the program. Portfolio
would be a larger picture, say the automobile itself, it needs to be formed of many programs
together, like along with engine, there is the designing, exhausts, performance and so on.
Thinking of it, a project management office or a PMO, is the ultimate stakeholder of carrying
on the strategic initiative management for portfolios, consisting of program as well as
projects.It is need of PMOs to efficiently place themselves so as to pose as a competitive
necessity rudimentary to carry out the strategies planned by the organization as a whole (Bull,
Shaw & Baca, 2012). Implementing the strategies ensure that the organization is carried well
on its shoulder to drive the change.
To get results, strategic initiative management must firstly focus on critical initiatives. By
giving appropriate operational insights both project and program based, meaningful
objectives could be set which are imperative for success of the portfolio through critical
initiatives. Also, by instituting smart as well as simplified processes in place within
organization, program level routines could be put in place to oversee projects that important
milestones are achieved. They would also point out towards potential hurdles and assist in
strategize towards their eradication. This would also mean that there is no burden on
operations. By fostering a culture where talent and capabilities are nurtured; technical,
strategic and business management-oriented strategies would further thrust good leadership,
which is good for the organization. Lastly, by nurturing the change management culture,
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there could be wide supports amassed at project, program and portfolio levels which could
further assist in implementing the strategic initiative management fluently and it could also
present the change management culture as a competitive differentiator (Annarelli & Omega,
2016). This is exactly why PMOs always need a strong process in the form of a strategic
initiative management to align, define, track and communicate the meaningful milestones and
the necessary objectives for building further growth roadmaps.
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References
Annarelli, A. & Omega, F. N. (2016) ‘Strategic and operational management of
organizational resilience: Current state of research and future directions’, Elsevier, 62, pp. 1–
18. retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305048315001590
(Accessed: 30 April 2019).
BCG & PMI (2013) Strategic Initiative Management THE PMO IMPERATIVE. Available at:
www.pmi.org. (Accessed: 30 April 2019).
Bull, L., Shaw, K. & Baca, C. (2012) PMO - Organizational Project Management (OPM).
Available at: https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/pmo-opm-performance-strategy-6075
(Accessed: 30 April 2019).
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