2.1 DEFINE THE PROJECT STRATEGY The project is a vehicle for the execution of strategy both organization and individual. This implies that a high level consideration of the role of projects is appropriate, particularly to demonstrate how they should fit with other activities being undertaken all together. Within the project themselves, there is also a requirement for the consideration of strategy, as priorities will need to be managed as part of the ongoing decision making processes of management.

This strategic consideration has been missing from the subject of project management in the past, leaving to focus of attention on detail issues. While these do need to be addressed, they should follow the priorities and issues raised by the process of strategy. Although increasing the number of issued to be considered by the Project Manager at the outset of the project, this has been found to be improtant at the high levels of performance both to organization or individual.

2.2 WHY WE NEED THE STRATEGY? Projects routinely fails or facing some defects and appear to be likely to continue doing so, unless something fundamental is changed about the way we manage them. This simply means that the Project Managers throwing up their hands and saying that the failures were not their fault. In many cases they would be right but this does not remove responsibility for doing something constructive about the situation. The issue here is to gain the recognition of the problems caused by lack of decisions made at a high level in our organizations.

So, with the projects in general, what are the strategic issues that contribute to the failures of a project? What are the issues? i) organizational strategy does not include role of project in delivery of organizational objectives. ii) project management not viewed as a strategic capability. iii) the organization lacks a coordination mechanism for resources. iv) project goals not in line with organizational goals. The information above shows the linking through the causes of why the project failures.

2.3 Reasoning on the linking through the causes of failure analysis: a) Organisational strategy does not include role of projects in delivery of organisational objectives. Projects are increasingly recognised by organisations as the means by which a significant proportion of their activities are carried out. The recognition is important. It has been shown that by many world class organisations that considering organisational strategy as a linked series of project is most effective and there is now significant evidence to support this. The linkage between the projects and the organisational goal, and between the project themselves, requires a significant coordination effort on the part of management-especially for large organisations.

b) Project Management is not viewed as a strategic capability. There are many levels at which the Project Manager can influence an organisation. For too long, the subject of project management has focused on the tactical/operational level, some ignoring its role in the development and deployment of strategy. This has resulted in projects being carried out in a reactive mode with many of the problems that the project will face being already built into the work. And the project managers are being brought into the process too late to prevent problems or use their knowledge of operational capability to maximise effectiveness of the project.

c) The organisations lacks coordination mechanism for resources. Many organisations are unable to provide a list of all projects that are being undertaken and their resources requirements. That results there is a fundamental over optimism about what they can be achieved. And no rational basis for dealing with decisions such as should we undertake these projects?. Secondly, resource conflicts where limited resources are the subject contention between the project managers. d) Project goals not in line with organisational goals. Here the requirement is for coherence or linking between the goals of the organisation and those of the project. The project manager will need a rational basis for making decisions about priorities and trade-offs. The nature of project management has changed and he is the person who can understand the strategy process and who can make a major step towards improvements of the project performance.

2.4 The Role and Strategy The vision of where an organisation is going. Implies to the organisation’s current position and where we want to be a point /direction in the future. ‘Our mission is to be the best producer or organisation with high technology for our customers’ Our objectives are: Quality improvements, Cost effective/reduction where possible, Delivery by reducing time constraints. The role of senior management in providing the vision include to setting up objectives for the organisation. The strategy is concerned with providing a path for it to progress towards those objectives. Good strategy is considered as central to success in any organisation, providing the means to achieve the vision.

2.5 The Strategy Process The strategy is the outcome of a strategy process. Traditionally, strategy was considered a one-way process. The traditional approach is normally with a little guidance given to the project managers. Alternatively, the strategic approach where the projects contribute in two ways to the organisational strategy. So,the strategic approach has a number of important differentiating features. This include the strong link between strategy and activities at the project level. Strategy formulation is still carried out by senior management in the organisation, but importantly, there are inputs from the project level. The concern are: progress on existing work, current workload and capacities, Limitations of existing capabilities and potential new capabilities, Ideas as to how new opportunities that have come from the project activities can be developed.

2.6 Project Management as a Strategic Capability During a recent study of new product development practices in a wide range of firms, one of the issues was ‘tell me how you manage project’. So, here what would it mean to have a strategic capability in a project management? There are two aspects for the organisations: The ability to deliver excellent results through projects i.e in earning revenue or income and later making profits. The competitive advantage can be gained through it. It might be as a direct result of the capability, or indirectly, through being able to change the organisation to meet the emerging needs.

2.7 The Aggregate Project Plan This type of plan is essential to keep control of the projects that the organisation is undertaking. Firms have a high level of visibility and it is generally easy to see what is happening with them. But, projects on the other hand are less visible and require some overall picture to be maintained of precisely what is going on in the organisation. So, all project avtivities is the objective of the aggregate project plan as follows: Assess the contribution of each projectto the organisation strategy, Determines using objective criteria what projects are to be undertaken, Rank the relative importance of the projects being carried out, Sets the timing of those projects, Assess the capability, resource and logic requirements of each project.

Without this step, it can be found that firms: Take too many projects, resulting in overstretched resources and less attention paid to the really important projects, Fail to limit the scope of project, allowing non-benefit generating activities to carry out unchecked, Tend to expend resources which refers to the ‘investment in managerial ego’, this project has little returns but has an emotional attachment for the manager or director promoting them, Have project goals that are out of line with organisational objectives, Ignore key issues concerning projects until it is too late, Lack balance between short-term and long term goals.

2.8 Strategy and Direct Revenue-Earning Projects The strategic input here is organisational objectives. Meaning to say: ‘we are in business must always be fastest or the best to run and complete the projects. The key criteria is involving with time, cost and quality. We may consider the element of flexibility to give beneficial. Therefore, the Project Manager must make sure the project is successed. The measurement of reliability is required for the project system is known as conformance, expressed as: Can the project be guaranteed to deliver on time? Will the project finish within the budget? Will the project meet the specified level of quality?

Today, in many business many projects has to be excellence and defined in term of real performance such as: What is the shortest possible project duration? What is the lowest cost? What is the highest level of quality that can be achieved? So, whatever is the reasoning, we have to choose the most important objectives and thereby comes up with the project objectives. We need to understand the nature of the trade-off s that exist in all project development.

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