Strategic Alignment in Project Management

Strategic Alignment in Project Management

Introduction

Strategic alignment in project management remains a core concern for organizations seeking to optimize their project performances within complex and ever-changing contexts. Business strategy integration of the projects’ objectives, tasks, and means is one of the key success factors in managing projects. The concept of strategic alignment, as discussed in this study, is also expanded from the existing research framework with additional layers of insights derived from recent literature. Critical success factors include leadership, culture, stakeholders, project size, IT–business, and sustainability. This paper aims to extend the understanding of the role of strategic alignment for project management and organizational performance with an additional focus on providing ideas on how alignment may be optimized in various fields.

Research Topic

The research will focus on the relationship between strategic goals and project alignment within organizations, emphasizing best practices from the five process groups of project management. The study will involve an examination of how strategic goals can be aligned with an organization’s projects, with an emphasis on recommended practices from the five process groups of project management. The key areas of interest will be project implementation, project control, and project performance. The purpose of this current research is to examine the impact of strategic alignment on the success of projects and identify ways through which best management practices can minimize the gap between strategy and performance.

Research Problem

The research problem is formulated as an analysis of how software development projects can be effectively managed to ensure that they meet organizational strategic objectives in dynamic environments. Even with complex project management methodologies employed, software development projects may encounter alignment problems because of emergent environments, changing clients’ needs, and the nature of software engineering (Bjorvatn & Wald, 2018). This research will explore how organizations can sustain strategic alignment in such contexts and identify recommendations for improving project outcomes in the context of computer science. This paper seeks to establish how these challenges can be synchronized and the best practices that can be employed to ensure success in software projects.

Research Problem Background

The literature on project management reveals that the strategic planning of projects is critical in the achievement of organizational objectives. According to the PMBOK® Guide (Seventh Edition), there are five process groups: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing (Project Management Institute, 2021). However, these processes are not well understood in relation to strategic goals, especially in the process of executing, monitoring, and controlling software development projects.

Strategic alignment is crucial for ensuring that software development projects contribute to broader organizational objectives. Notably, misalignment can result in resource wastage, stakeholder dissatisfaction, and project failures (Klojcnik et al., 2018). This study will examine current best practices and theoretical models to identify gaps and propose improvements specific to software development.

Research Question

The central research question is: How can software development projects effectively align with organizational strategic goals through best practices in executing, monitoring, and controlling projects?

Sub-questions include:

• What is most likely to be effective in helping software development projects stay aligned with strategic goals in execution, monitoring, and controlling?
• How do current project management methodologies address strategic alignment in software development?
• What are the challenges and barriers to achieving strategic alignment in software development projects?
• What best practices can be adopted to enhance strategic alignment in software development projects?

Key Constructs and Theoretical Foundation

The study will build on constructs such as strategic alignment, project success, and process efficiency. The theoretical foundation will draw from the PMBOK® Guide and contemporary project management and software engineering literature. Key relationships to be explored include the impact of strategic alignment on software project outcomes, the role of agile methodologies in achieving alignment, and the influence of stakeholder perspectives on project success.

Further, this study will test for the effect of strategic alignment on outcomes of software projects, the role agile methodologies have in achieving such alignment, as well as how the alignment between users and producers of requirements can impact necessary changes to requirements during the software development process, thus influencing a software project’s success and its potential failure (Weck, 2017).

Target Population

The target population for this study includes project managers, software engineers, senior management, and project stakeholders of medium to large technology firms involved in the development of new or altered software systems. The research focuses on organizations where formal project management practices have been adopted and where upper management is intentionally trying to align software development projects to their business needs.

Gaps in Knowledge

Despite extensive research on project management and software engineering methodologies, there is a notable gap in understanding how these methodologies can be effectively applied to achieve strategic alignment in software development projects. Specifically, there is limited empirical evidence on the best practices for aligning software development projects with strategic goals during the execution, monitoring, and controlling phases (Highsmith, 2009). This study aims to fill this gap by providing insights and practical recommendations based on current scholarly and professional resources.

Stakeholders’ Perspectives

The perspectives of various stakeholders, including project managers, software engineers, senior executives, and clients, will be considered. Understanding the diverse views on strategic alignment and project management practices in software development is crucial for developing comprehensive solutions. Stakeholders’ insights will help identify practical challenges and inform the development of best practices.

Literature Review on Strategic Alignment in Project Management

Strategy alignment is an innovative approach to project management and captures the focus and energy of project management workers in achieving organizational strategy outcomes. This review summarizes ten recent empirical studies published in the last five years to explore the relationship between strategic goals and project alignment. The reviewed findings suggest that project management work can be improved through process groups, best practices, methodologies, results, stakeholder perspectives, and various approaches to achieving goals. Empirical research is biased towards practical approaches that can improve project management processes, and learning is compounded when project managers investigate and analyze their work practices. The review focuses on how project management can achieve strategic goals from the five project management groups as defined by the Project Management Institute: initiating group, planning group, executing group, monitoring and controlling group, and closing group. The review also examines the role of methodologies and research outcomes in achieving improved social problems. It addresses the roles of shareholders and multiple stakeholders.

Summary and Comparison of Articles

To begin with, in their paper, Ilmudeen et al. (2019) study the relationship between two dimensions of business-IT strategic alignment and one measure of organizational performance. They report that quality-oriented IT strategic alignment has the strongest impact on performance, whereas product- and marketing-oriented alignments matter less. Moreover, they do so through structural-equation models based on survey answers provided by senior IT and business managers. Also, Martinsuo and Anttila (2022), in their case studies of strategic alignment practices in innovation project portfolios, stress the need for ‘interplay between projects’ and continued adjustment in innovation portfolio practices. This must be achieved through flexible management.

Furthermore, the study by Orlandi, Dantas, and Souza Neto (2020) surveyed companies in Brazil about their use of portfolio management for strategic alignment. Strategic alignment is stronger in mature portfolio management environments than in more immature portfolio management arrangements. Extrapolating this finding, portfolio management maturity is necessary to increase strategic alignment. This finding is particularly important for practitioners, as it illustrates a pragmatic application of portfolio management to achieve strategic alignment.

In addition, Ershadi et al. (2020) emphasize aligning the organization’s HSE management with project management. Using a mixed-method approach, they show that integrated HSE management improves strategic alignment and project performance, suggesting that more rigor needs to be given to HSE considerations in project management and echoing the insights provided by strategic alignment into metrics beyond project management standards. As an illustration of this, Haniff and Galloway (2022) developed a model that captures strategic alignment in project networks. They found that network governance and leadership are critical to achieving strategic alignment, using their network analysis to show that effective governance structures are vital for strategic alignment, especially in complex project networks. Thus, the second emergent conclusion from this set of empirical studies is a clearer understanding of the responsibility for effective governance and leadership in fostering strategic alignment.

Further, Craddock (2021) examined project portfolio strategic alignment change management in case studies and a detailed literature study. The findings demonstrate the ongoing necessity for change management as a process rather than a project. As surroundings become increasingly dynamic and uncertain, change management methods must adapt to strategy alignment. Similarly, Pesce and Neirotti (2023) describe how IT influences strategic alignment and company performance, making behavior more relevant. The authors empirically observed that strategic IT alignment is increasingly driving corporate performance. IT is becoming more crucial in supporting strategic goals. Thus, firms must constantly change their IT strategy to match their business goals.

On the other hand, Al-Surmi, Cao, and Duan (2020) examined how strategic alignment affects firm performance in business, IT, and marketing. This study found that integrating strategic alignment across the three domains into nature improves company performance using structural equation modeling. Notably, this study provides empirical support for the popular notion of holistic strategic alignment rooted in corporation-level business strategies. It stresses that enhanced strategic performance hinges on integrated strategic alignment across multiple domains.

Furthermore, Erceg and Gulam (2018) argue that strategy must be honored during implementation. Their conceptual study suggests that strategic alignment is the key to successful projects and that strategic project management can be a framework for these engagements. This study places strategic alignment firmly at the heart of the project. Lastly, Jenkin and Chan (2020) adopt a process view of IS project alignment and show that aligning processes in IS projects, for instance, change management, project governance, and change architecture, is critical to achieving positive project outcomes. As such, this research offers new strategic implications for process-oriented alignment strategies described in earlier sections, with detailed procedural alignment being key.

Methodologies and Applications

The studies use a variety of methodologies, thereby providing a broad view of the evaluations of strategic alignment, including the practice of strategic alignment and its influences. They include structural equation modeling (Ilmudeen et al., 2019; Al-Surmi et al., 2020), case studies (Martinsuo & Anttila, 2022; Craddock, 2021), mixed methods (Ershadi et al., 2020) and network analysis (Haniff & Galloway, 2022), which emphasizes the multifaceted nature of strategic alignment and further corroborates the importance of strategic alignment for project management.

The value of the findings for organizations trying to ensure project success in ever-changing circumstances is emphasized by the applications—the focus on particular alignment dimensions that should be attended to as proposed by Ilmudeen et al. (2019); the significance of dynamic adjustments for project portfolios stated by Martinsuo and Anttila (2022); the desirability of integrating HSE concerns into project management as urged by Ershadi et al. (2020); or the growing logic of IT is more strategic role as outlined by Pesce and Neirotti (2023)—and all point in the direction of an integrated, iterative and more adaptive notion of strategic alignment.

Results and Analysis

The available studies show that all the previous research and academic reports are in line with the statement that strategic alignment positively impacts organizational performance. Besides, Ilmudeen et al. (2019) show that the extent to which an organization shows quality-oriented alignment necessity has a positive statistical contribution towards their performance measure; Orlandi et al. (2020) demonstrate that where there is a mature level of portfolio and management practices, there is stronger strategic alignment; and finally, in the analysis of 60,762 firm-year observations of 2,661 firms from 2004 to 2019, Pesce and Neirotti (2023) confirm that the influence of IT on the alignment and coordination of business processes and their potential impact on firm performance more than doubled within the same period. These results indicate a dire need to strengthen the strategic alignment that will bring project success to fruition and improve the performance of organizations.

The key emerging concepts with regard to improving the executing, monitoring, and controlling processes are the integration of HSE considerations, dynamic adjustments in project portfolios, and, finally, IT as a strategic enabler. These concepts become crucial in adjusting to project environment changes and ensuring strategic goal alignment (Too & Weaver, 2017). Logical conclusions from the research prove that flexible and integrated approaches toward strategic alignment are the steps to project success. An instance of the consideration integration of HSE offers more than just project performance; it assures compliance with a broader range of organizational standards and regulations. Dynamic adjustments help respond to changes and uncertainties in the project environments and maintain alignments with the strategic objectives.

Stakeholder Perspectives

The studies analyzed different perspectives from stakeholders, all of which shared one common theme: strategic alignment requires collaboration and integration of the different roles. Different stakeholder groups introduce distinctive insights and expertise that make visible system complexities and characteristics of project management in general. The following are the areas of emphasis: technology alignment with business goals for senior IT and business managers; dynamic adjustments and portfolio-wide coordination for project managers; stringent management practices as an extra dimension for portfolio managers; and safety considerations as an ingredient for HSE managers (Wagner, 2018).

According to the network’s leadership and the project managers, it is a matter of governance and leadership (Imam, 2021). According to the change managers and the portfolio managers, it is about adaptive processes. IT managers and business executives would point to the new strategic role developing for IT. Business, IT, and marketing managers join the call for holistic strategic integration. Further, strategic project managers believe process alignment is indispensable in attaining strategic goals. The same opinions came from the IS project managers, who agreed that process alignment was important to attaining strategic objectives.

Such a span of views from this particular literature portrays how complex strategic alignment is and how crucial collaborative efforts should be across different levels and organizational roles. In addition, these findings underline that strategic alignment in project management is a holistic concept, requiring the integration of the insights and skills of all stakeholders. Collaboration and alignment across the functions and levels can be instrumental in gaining better project management practices, which achieve strategic goals.

Emerging Concepts

The articles reviewed provide significant insight into current guidelines and emerging concepts in the execution, monitoring, and control processes as an extension of the project’s planning process and the program. Ilmudeen et al. (2019) and Al-Surmi et al. (2020) pointed out the role of integrating IT and business strategies that support the implementation phase to ensure that project goals are intended toward strategic objectives. Also, according to Martinsuo and Anttila (2022), dynamic adjustments are necessary to check and control project portfolios. Moreover, Haniff and Galloway (2022) note that governance structures are core to controlling processes within project networks.

Novel and emerging ideas for enhancing project management include the intertwining of HSE considerations (Ershadi et al., 2020), agile (‘dynamic’) shaping of portfolio content (Martinsuo & Anttila, 2022), and thinking of IT as a strategic enabler (Pesce & Neirotti, 2023). Accordingly, organizations must become more adaptive and integrated to remain aligned and achieve strategic objectives. The emergent practices surrounding strategic alignment and project management indicate a direction toward more flexible, integrated, and adaptive ways of managing projects supporting organizational strategy.

Empirical studies indicate that these guidelines and concepts significantly improve project outcomes. In this respect, results from Ilmudeen et al. (2019) show that quality-oriented strategic alignment enhances performance measures, while Pesce and Neirotti (2023) reveal that strategic IT alignment positively affects firm performance.

Ethical, Demographic, and Cultural Perspectives

These studies examine project management from ethical, demographic, and cultural perspectives. Ilmudeen et al. (2019) and Al-Surmi et al. (2020) discuss IT and business managers’ strategic alignment roles. Ershadi et al. (2020) use HSE managers’ experiences, while Martinsuo and Anttila (2022) use project managers and innovation leaders. Comprehending and collaborating across organizational roles and levels is essential. Comparing these views shows that strategic alignment requires understanding stakeholder requirements and contributions. The studies agree that ethical activities like ensuring every stakeholder’s voice is heard and respected in this alignment process are crucial. This would make project management more inclusive and effective.

Research in project management provides insight into relevant methodologies, tools, and practices that contribute toward the management of projects. Area strengths include a focus on frameworks, such as those offered by the PMBOK® Guide from the Project Management Institute and Agile methodologies, among other best practices offering structured approaches to plan, execute, and close projects. These frameworks are founded on theoretical principles and practical applications that provide a base for the management of different project environments. Much of the research in this area is related to real-world case studies, which add to the empirical evidence supporting further best-practice development.

However, some limitations exist within the research into project management. It has been criticized a great deal for being based upon traditional, linear methods that do not, perhaps, accommodate the dynamic nature of most modern projects—especially in sectors related to technology and innovation, where rapid changes are common. Moreover, a large part of the research is prescriptive in nature and strives to highlight best practices above context-bound issues that project managers have to face. This may narrow down possibilities of flexibly applying research findings in another industry or environment. Finally, comprehensive studies on the integration of newer methodologies in the area of hybrid project management or the influence of technology and automation on project delivery are still lacking.

Conclusion

The analyzed papers emphasize strategic alignment’s role in project and organizational success. Integration of strategic factors, dynamic modifications, and evolving IT responsibilities make project management effective. These findings can help firms improve project management to meet strategic goals, boost performance, and gain a competitive edge. These studies all point toward the same direction, making strategic alignment a core constituent of project management best practices and a key ingredient in organizational success.

Discussion

The strategic alignment of project management has recently received wide popularity, especially among organizations willing to align this with general business goals. It involves an adjustment of project objectives, resources, and activities to the strategic goals of an organization, making sure that projects are in support of the general mission of the enterprise. With the growing number of studies, special attention is being paid to the issue of strategic alignment, most notably in software development, IT project management, construction, and ERP implementation.

Strategic Alignment in Project Management

Strategic alignment ensures that the project meets the organization’s goals and objectives. Otherwise, non-aligned projects would drain resources, displease stakeholders, and fail to provide what the organization expects (Bjorvatn & Wald, 2018; Klojcnik et al., 2018). With strategic alignment, these risks are therefore reduced since all project activities are traceable to the set strategic objectives. Project Management Institute (2021) defines five process groups: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closing. These process groups aid in facilitating proper alignment of the project outcome with regard to strategic goals.

Leadership and Strategic Alignment

Leadership is a critical driver of strategic alignment. To ensure the alignment of IT projects to organizational strategy, Keil et al. (2018) state that practical leadership must be in place. Leaders must be capable of directing teams toward the execution of tasks relevant to business objectives. Similarly, this leadership role develops a culture of accountability and clarity in which strategic goals are communicated, understood, and acted upon by all project team members (Keil et al., 2018). Leaders promote transparency and self-empowerment of their teams to make decisions in line with the organization’s broader objectives.

Pesce and Neirotti (2023) elaborate on the vital role of IT leadership in aligning a business and information technology strategy. As IT is becoming more critical to the running of businesses today, modern-day leaders have to ensure that their technology-based initiatives are well incorporated into the bigger company strategy (Choe, 2017). In exploiting this, organizations have the capacity for IT to become a strategic enabler for better firm performance. For this reason, leaders in project management must ensure that technology projects are designed to sustain business goals and provide tangible value to the firm.

Cultural Considerations in Strategic Alignment

Cultural factors are core aspects of strategic alignment. This is more so in multinational firms. According to Bredillet et al. (2018), because of cultural differences, there are possibilities of misalignment between the goals and objectives of projects and strategic objectives; this is true where a team has diverse backgrounds. Equally, project managers must understand and adapt to the cultural contexts of project teams and stakeholders, ensuring that project goals are aligned with organizational strategy. This assumes great importance in international team management since there are differences in communication styles, work ethics, and decision-making styles across different cultures, which may impact project outcomes.

The injection of cultural concerns into project management enhances incorporation and, hence, team collaboration and engagement. When teams recognize and appreciate cultural differences, the likelihood of every member feeling valued and contributing to a project’s success is higher (Deng & Joshi, 2017). Besides, Bredillet et al. (2018) note that culturally conscious project management practices are better placed to integrate different perspectives with strategic objectives to ensure that projects have a better chance of success.

Stakeholder Engagement and Strategic Alignment

Strategic alignment is impossible without effective stakeholder engagement. Stakeholders, including project managers, software engineers, senior executives, and clients, provide important insights that dictate the trajectory a project should follow (Jepsen & Eskerod, 2019). Accordingly, strategic alignment requires collaboration from all levels of an organization to ensure the needs and expectations of different stakeholders are accounted for.

According to Jepsen and Eskerod (2019), strategic alignment requires ongoing communication and negotiation with the stakeholders through the life circle of the project to ensure it is on course toward its strategic objectives. It also gives a view into the potential areas of misalignment, allowing a project manager to address the problem early in the project and make adjustments where necessary. For example, Ilmudeen et al. (2019) ascertained that quality-driven IT strategic alignment had the greatest effect on performance. This proves the part of involving the stakeholders in the early moments of a project to align their expectations toward the project’s outcomes, especially on IT-related projects.

Moreover, success criteria may differ for various stakeholders. For instance, a senior IT manager would measure the successful integration of new technologies, while business managers would focus on bottom-line returns (Ul Musawir et al., 2017). The project manager is responsible for assuring that the various perspectives aim at the same strategic objectives (Jepsen & Eskerod, 2019). By openly communicating and collaborating, the project manager facilitates better stakeholder expectations versus project objective alignment.

Project Complexity and Strategic Alignment

The level of complexity of a project may also influence the strategic alignment of that very project. Bjorvatn and Wald (2018) posit that the more complex a project is, the more strategic alignment it requires. In complex projects, there are many stakeholders to deal with, different streams of work involved, and an equally large number of dependencies, making it hard to keep all the elements of the project in line with the general strategy. A project manager will need to select flexible and adaptive approaches to manage that amount of complexity, allowing for the continuous realignment of the project with the organization’s strategic goals.

Another critical factor in the management of project complexity is absorptive capacity: a team’s ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new information (Bjorvatn & Wald, 2018). Thus, teams with high absorptive capacity are better placed to deal with the changing nature of complex projects; hence, they have what it takes to make any adjustments that will keep them aligned with the organizational strategy. The opposite is the case for teams with low absorptive capacity—such a team may struggle to adapt to changes, leading to misalignment and possibly project failure.

Furthermore, construction projects have to adopt a strategic approach to resource allocation and risk management to deal with the complexities associated with a project. In this regard, Fulford and Standing (2017) reveal that through collaborative practices, the productivity and strategic alignment of complex construction projects can be improved by enabling the different stakeholders associated with the project to work collaboratively toward a single strategic objective despite the odds of complexity and uncertainty.

IT-Business Strategic Alignment

In the past years, IT has taken center stage in strategic alignment. Pesce and Neirotti (2023) illuminate how IT-business strategic alignment has changed over time; today, IT assumes greater importance as a driver of firm performance. Organizations must continuously change IT strategies to keep them aligned with the broader objectives of the business. This requires the continuous readjustment of IT capabilities and business needs in light of contemporary needs to stay aligned.

Wang et al. (2021) argue that transactional leadership, and organizational culture, influence IT-business alignment. The authors note that a supportive organizational culture is one in which collaboration and infusion of best practices are possible to pursue alignment. It is these leaders who ensure IT processes are aligned with organizational strategies by creating a culture of alignment, hence leading to improved project results (Wang et al., 2021).

Second, agile methodologies proved to be critical in IT-business alignment. Agile project management is an approach that enables organizations to respond faster to changes in business needs due to its character of flexibility, iterative development, and continuous feedback (Azanha et al., 2017). It increased the interaction between IT teams and business stakeholders, which enabled IT initiatives to remain focused on strategic goals throughout the project cycle.

Sustainability and Strategic Alignment

Sustainability has been a critical concern in strategic alignment in industries such as construction and manufacturing. For instance, Chofreha (2018) developed a framework for implementing sustainable ERP systems aligned with organizational goals on sustainability. The framework insists on integrating sustainability considerations in the project plan and at all operational levels, from resource supply to process optimization (Silvius et al., 2022).

Sustainability reduces the project risks and enhances long-term success as well. For example, Borkovskaya (2018) comments on how construction projects may ensure strategic leadership is organized in a manner that reduces construction risks by aligning the project’s activities with sustainability goals. It not only lessens the adverse environmental effects of the project but also ensures organizational compliance with regulatory requirements and builds on the organization’s reputation (Meskendahl, 2019).

Current trends involve incorporating sustainability, health, safety, and environmental (HSE) concerns into the overall project management function to ensure projects conform to broader organizational standards and regulations (Dalcher, 2017). This is especially true for industries like construction and manufacturing, where non-compliance with HSE standards is accompanied by huge legal and financial penalties (Ershadi et al., 2020). When HSE considerations are factored into project planning and implementation, improved project results are achieved while adhering to set regulatory standards.

Emerging Concepts in Strategic Alignment

Emerging concepts regarding strategic fit concentrate on enhancing project management to ensure that strategic organizational goals align with the projects being implemented (Ilmudeen et al., 2019). These call for the correct planning right in the project initiation, coupled with a proper understanding of the IT and business integration. Project alignment implies that, initiated right from the start, both strategic objectives are meant to ensure that misalignments are avoided and achieve better project outcomes (Kerzner, 2020).

Martinsuo and Anttila (2022) also argue that the project portfolio requires dynamic adjustments to cope with the organizational strategy. The authors further emphasize the need for flexibility in project management practices, especially in managing innovation project portfolios. With a dynamic approach, aligning project portfolios with strategic goals would be easier, even in times of evolution in business needs.

Haniff and Galloway (2022) examine the governing structures regulating project network processes. Strong governance is another mechanism for maintaining projects in alignment with strategic goals, especially in complex project settings. Governance processes that promote transparency and accountability in conjunction with collaboration enable projects to remain focused and aligned to the organization’s benefit.

The Role of Change Management in Strategic Alignment

Another critical factor in strategic alignment is change management. Craddock (2021) notes that change management should be seen as a process constantly in implementation, not an event. As business environments are becoming more dynamic and uncertain, organizations need to reinvent their strategies at a constant pace to stay in the game. This needs a flexible approach to change management, where adjustments are made throughout the project life cycle to ensure that the end results are aligned with the strategic objectives.

In addition to enabling adaptability, change management helps the organization manage the other side of the strategic alignment equation—its people. Kellerman (2018) establishes the importance of leadership in the management of change, especially when dealing with employees’ or stakeholders’ resistance. Good leaders would help the people through change by injecting a sense of purpose regarding the ultimate strategic justification for the initiative and addressing concerns.

Change management is a critical process in industries such as IT that quickly change technology. According to Mohagheghi and Lassenius (2021), the use of agile methodologies can support a process such as change management in terms of flexibility and responsiveness. Agile practices would enable business organizations to shift their priorities rapidly to meet the rapidly fluctuating business needs, thereby ensuring projects are directed towards organizational strategic goals even in rapid change environments.

Project Management Methodologies and Strategic Alignment

The choice of the project management methodology greatly influences the alignment of the projects with strategic goals (Mantel & Shafer, 2018). For example, agile methodologies are adapted to dynamic business needs. For instance, Azanha et al.’s (2017) case study about using agile project management in an IT project in a Brazilian pharmaceutical company shows that the agile approach helped the organization to keep up with changing business needs while remaining focused on strategic objectives.

On the other hand, traditional plan-based methodologies would be more useful for projects with well-defined requirements and stable environments (Ahimbisibwe et al., 2017). These methodologies provide a structured way of managing and running a project to ensure that the activities undertaken focus on strategic objectives from the beginning. However, they may not work as well in environments where business needs keep changing because they are less flexible than agile methodologies.

Equally, various project management methodologies are considered effective depending on the project’s complexity (Wells, 2017). For instance, Vanhoucke (2019) indicates that if earned value management (EVM) were used in project activities, it would be effective in improving project performance. In most cases, EVM offers project managers real-time data about project performance, thereby putting them in a better position to make adjustments on time to ensure strategic goals are met. This is specifically the case in complex projects with many workstreams and dependencies that need managing simultaneously.

Conclusion

Strategic alignment stands as the critical success factor for projects in all industries. It helps to maximize the chances of project success when the following six elements are situated in project management practices: leadership, cultural considerations, stakeholder engagement, management of project complexity, IT-business alignment, and sustainability. Further emerging concepts related to strategic alignment realization in contemporary dynamic business environments include dynamic adjustments in project portfolios and the application of agile methodologies. In the constantly changing market conditions and improvements in technology, the capability to align projects to strategic objectives will remain one of the major determinants of an organization’s success. These insights provide an all-rounded understanding of the process of aligning project management practices with organizational strategy to deliver value and improve performance in various sectors.

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Pesce, D., & Neirotti, P. (2023). The impact of IT–business strategic alignment on firm performance: The evolving role of IT in industries. Information & Management, 60(5), 103800.

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Instructions

Submit your final project. Your final paper should:

• Include a minimum of 15 pages (excluding front-end items, such as the title page, table of contents, executive summary, and references).
  

  Strategic Alignment in Project Management

• Be a revision of your first draft.
• Include citations and references in APA format.
• Incorporate your instructor’s feedback.
• Incorporate further development of your ideas.
• Include an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of project management research.
• Incorporate any additional research you found to include since writing your draft.
• Include all components necessary to the project.
• Fulfill all course competencies that apply to this project.

Support your paper with a minimum of 40 current (less than 5–7 years old), scholarly resources.

Your writing should demonstrate doctoral-level critical thinking skills, a writing style in which sentences are clear, concise, and direct and provide a well-supported analysis supported by current resources. Use the current APA format throughout the paper and format all citations and references according to the current APA guidelines.

Use the links provided under Resources to access valuable information to improve your writing and critical thinking skills.

Read the final Project Methodology Rubric to ensure you understand all of the requirements for this assignment.

Additional Requirements

• Written communication: Writing should demonstrate doctoral-level critical thinking and writing skills and be free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• Number of resources: Include a minimum of 40 current scholarly or professional resources.
• APA formatting: Use the APA format throughout the paper, including the title page, table of contents, introduction, body, conclusions, and references. Format all citations and references according to the current APA guidelines. See the Advanced Doctoral LearnersLinks to an external site. section of the Writing Center.
• Length: 15–20 double-spaced pages, excluding front-end items, such as the title page, table of contents, executive summary, and references.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 3: Analyze current guidelines and emerging concepts for executing and monitoring and controlling processes as an extension of planning processes for projects and programs.
  • Analyze current methods and advanced concepts for executing or monitoring and controlling processes for a selected knowledge area (scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, risk, stakeholder management, integration, or procurement).
• Competency 4: Evaluate the current guidelines and emerging concepts for improving the executing, monitoring and controlling processes of projects and programs, within the organization.
  • Synthesize current best practices to ascertain potential improvements in project or program outcomes based on project or program complexity within existing environmental, strategic, and cultural constraints of the organization.
• Competency 5: Assess ethical, diverse demographic and cultural perspectives appropriate for leading projects and programs to a successful outcome within the framework of initiation, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing.
  • Assess ethical, diverse demographic, and cultural perspectives appropriate for leading projects and programs to a successful outcome within the framework of the five process groups of initiation, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing.
• Competency 6: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of professional communities.
  • Communicate in a professional manner that adheres to APA guidelines and is indicative of doctoral-level work.