ABSTRACT
We have stated throughout this book that the purpose of procuring a project is part of a process to derive benefit from a planned and executed transformation. Moving from state X to Y, development of a new building or product, or moving from a stand-alone IT system to an integrated solution; all start with a need that is expressed as being part of a strategy to generate a benefit from an identified opportunity. So any one project is probably part of a series of projects that together, in the context of a programme or portfolio sense, deliver an outcome that contributes to strategic goals of the organisation. The value proposition is not so much the success of the project but the success of the strategy. This is why some failed individual projects can lead to strategic success because, as explained in Chapter 6 and Chapter 8, the project outcome may have led to accelerated learning and improvement on subsequent projects that would not have happened without the initial apparent failure. If we use the original sense of the word strategy being associated with warfare, a project may be considered as a tactical battle, in a long war. This may be of little consolation to a project manager who has been haunted by the spectre of failure – so this chapter is important in that it may bring solace to such individuals, it places projects in a meaningful organisational context, and supports the focus on the need for experimentation, innovation and learning to be encouraged in project management, as highlighted in Chapter 8.
