Artto, Karlos; Kujala, Jaakko; Dietrich, Perttu; Martinsuo, Miia: What is Project Strategy?, in: International Journal of Project Management, 26 (2008), pp. 4-12
Artto et al. do have a very nice article in the first issue of this year’s IJPM. The authors look into behavioural strategies of projects. They see projects being ’sort of‘ autonomous of their organizational environment and that projects not always follow directions and decisions set-up by their mother corporations.
They do map 4 distinctive types of project strategy/behaviour on two axes. (1) Strength of link to parent organisation. (2) Degree of independence. Thus creating a 2×2-Matrix (what consultants usually love – „there is no problem which can not be shown in a 2×2-Matrix“) with 4 strategy types: (a) Obediant Servant, (b) Independent Innovator, (c) Flexible Mediator, (d) Strong Leader.
Their article closes with recommendations for future research on: (1) empirically validating these 4 strategies; (2) the question how strategies are formulated, what are the routes of development; (3) Empirical studies of strategy shaping factors, to address the dynamics and evolutions of projects‘ strategies; (4) Empirical investigations into different environments, aka application areas (innovation, organizational transformation, IT etc.); (5) Connection to mainstream strategy research and ops management; (6) bringing this to a stakeholder perspective: What kind of influences, levers, tactics are used by different stakeholders to formulate and implement a project’s strategy?
