This chapter looks into being a project leader in strategic project organizing (SPO). It discusses the required social competencies for SPO and associated career development, which are symbiotic with the technical competencies. In many organizations, successful project leaders focus on the strategic and relational factors rather than the technical factors of their projects, and the complexity of the project coincides with how important social competencies are. Thus, the profession of the project leader is not for everyone since it demands stamina and high levels of authenticity. The chapter explains the important consideration of ethics for project professionals, especially for issues involving relationships, optimization, and transparency.
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Being a project leader in SPO
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Being a project manager in SPO
This chapter explores the experience of being a project manager in strategic project organizing (SPO). It then considers that the technical competencies are the basis of task orientation of project managers as professionals during project delivery. Moreover, technical competencies are the principal source of routines used in project teaming. The chapter highlights the importance of having a realistic schedule to ensure the delivery of the project outputs at the desired future date and managing the budget to capture realistic costs while considering the outcome of risk assessments and response strategies. It also discusses how essential managing threats are due to the uncertainty surrounding the SPO.
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The commercial interface
This chapter explores the notion of the commercial interface in relation to collaborating to deliver the project mission. It notes that commercial relations between the owner and the suppliers are some of the most contentious in strategic project organizing (SPO). The commercial interface is fronting the important issue of probity and corruption that became pervasive and the effective management of projects is impossible. The chapter then covers the commercial interface from the perspective of the owner and its contracting strategy, and then from the perspective of the supplier and its project strategy. It explains how the strategies can align to gain the mutual benefits of collaborative working and trust.
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The delivery domain
This chapter notes the delivery domain of strategic project organizing (SPO) in relation to temporary project organizing. It acknowledges that the delivery organization has been at the heart of the traditional approaches to project management. The strategic project delivery plan (PDP) provides the overall strategy for the delivery phase of the project. The chapter notes one of the project leader's principal responsibilities of designing the project delivery organization like the SPO Star Model, while also highlighting the importance of project scope defined by the work breakdown structure (WBS). It considers the principles of teaming on projects while integrating them into the project delivery organization as a dynamic interplay between routines, tasks, and teams in a process of future-making.
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The governance interface
This chapter considers the governance interface between the owner organization and the temporary delivery organization. It explains that the governance interface is about how the owner ensures that what they get at the end of the project as output is as close as feasible to what they expected from the project mission. Moreover, governing the interface is essential because the owner and its stakeholders must be assured that the investment project is on track for delivery. The chapter looks into the structure of contemporary project governance, which involves the stage-gate process for governing delivery through the life cycle and the portfolio management process. The chapter notes how the project management office operates as the controller, supporter, and developer of project governance.
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Introduction
Projecting the modern world
This chapter introduces the concept of strategic project organizing (SPO), which primarily revolves around how organizations and society deliberately transform their futures. It considers how transportation and information technology profoundly changed the world and stimulated the invention of new ways of projecting. The Three Domains Model addresses a fundamental paradox in project organizing, wherein the vast majority of project managers work for permanent organizations while also focusing on temporary organizations. The chapter discusses the systems paradigm of project organizing that laid the foundations for subsequent research and teaching on project organizing. It then references Thomas Cole's Voyage of Life to show that, fundamentally, SPO is a voyage through the life cycle that is projected.
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Leading
This chapter looks into the notion of leading at the core of strategic project organizing (SPO). It acknowledges that leading is the essential social essence that provides meaning to a common purpose. In SPO, a leader is viewed as a problem-solver for leading complex projects. The chapter then presents the Project Leadership Model (PLM), which developed an incomplete leadership concept that has sense-making, relating, projecting, and creating as its dimensions. Across the three domains, leading is distributed through networks of leaders horizontally and vertically dispersed. The chapter highlights the importance of teaming as an essential component of leading in SPO.
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The owner domain
This chapter explores the owner domain of strategic project organizing (SPO). The owner domain is usually populated by a single organization from the public or private sectors. In correlation, the concept of owner-project capability showcases the dynamic capability that all organizations require in order to transform their operational capabilities. The chapter then explains the importance of taking a broad view in the development of the value proposition. Value proposition analysis and the commercial and governance cases are all different ways of testing the viability of the project mission. The chapter shows that only a capable owner can shape and influence the project mission, and then benefit from project outcomes.
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Projecting and creating
This chapter explains the importance of projecting and creating as dimensions of the Project Leadership Model (PLM). It clarifies how sense-making and relating provides information sources for projecting the project mission and working out how that mission will be delivered. Projecting in strategic project organizing (SPO) is the process of imagining how a project will be developed and progressed throughout its life cycle. In order to communicate the project mission, leaders must craft a project narrative to explain why the project exists while simultaneously inspiring related personnel. Meanwhile, creating in the PLM has two distinct elements of designing the project and innovating.
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The resource interface
This chapter cites the importance of the resource interface as the delivery domain needs resources to deliver projects. It highlights humans as the most important resource in projects, citing the issues of mobilizing those resources from the supplier domain onto the project in the delivery domain. Some cities maintain project ecologies in resourcing delivery organizations, which offers flexibility in the supply of competent human resources. The chapter then looks into the process of resourcing internationally before discussing the principles behind technology readiness levels (TRLs). It also acknowledges digital technology as a resource, citing how technologies embody human knowledge and change team dynamics on projects.
Book
Graham Winch, Eunice Maytorena-Sanchez, and Natalya Sergeeva
Strategic Project Organizing places emphasis on the strategic and organizational aspects of projects and their leadership. Structured around the Three Domains model, it covers all the fundamental project management concepts, whilst guiding the reader through the organizational challenges of enabling positive change. Through the lens of strategic leadership, this text discusses how to respond proactively to threats, as well as seize opportunities, in order to advantageously change the socio-economic environment in an organization's favour. The text also explains the tools and techniques adopted during the process of organizational transformation. All chapters offer review and discussion-based questions to encourage critical thinking. Real life projects featured in the case studies include the Eden Project, the Thames Tideway Tunnel and the Berlin Brandenburg Airport. The text is made up of four parts. The first part looks at the core concepts of strategic project organization. The second part focuses on the Three Domains model. Then the next part is about the three interfaces: the governance, commercial, and resource interfaces. The final part looks at the core skills needed.
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The supplier domain
This chapter covers the supplier domain of strategic project organizing (SPO). Members of the supplier domain are responsible for providing the human and technological resources that deliver the output so that the owner can transform that output into outcomes. Suppliers are typically a distinctive type of firm called the project-based firm (PBF), which is characterized by its core operational capability being project organizing. The chapter cites how PBFs are clustered into distinctive project-based sectors, and the ways in which those suppliers are then tiered in relations of contract and subcontract within the project coalition. It also considers the P-form corporation and the Professional Service Firm as distinctive types of PBF which often complement each other within project coalitions.
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The three domains of project organizing
This chapter looks into the Three Domains Model, a model which addressed a fundamental paradox in project organizing. The paradox revolves around how the vast majority of project managers work for permanent organizations while the focus of attention is on temporary organizations. The three domains of project organizing, owner domain, supplier domain, and delivery domain, must perform their shared and separate roles on the project efficiently and effectively. The chapter explains how the model changes through the project life cycle as a dynamic reduction of uncertainty through time characterized as a learning process. It then elaborates on the key concepts of the SPO Diamond Model and the SPO Life-Cycle Model.
