Projects are at the heart of achieving competitive advantage.  Companies implement their corporate strategy through projects.  Those projects may be directed at developing new products or systems.  They may have a goal of improving the efficiency or quality of a business process.  They may entail building new facilities.  Whatever the organizational objective, a project is used as the method of organizing and directing the work associated with achieving the objective.  Therefore, an organization’s competitive advantage can be enhanced through effective project management. 

Yet a consistent theme I hear from business executives is that their organization does not manage projects well.   I believe that the fundamental problem lies in an understanding of the business environment in which the projects are conducted.  There is typically a set of unstated assumptions that the business environment is predictable and controllable.  While this may be the case for many elements and disciplines of business management, it seldom is the case for projects.  In fact, project objectives often entail changing some aspect of the business environment, which by its very nature creates an instability. 

Does this mean then that projects can’t be managed?  Definitely not.  However, it does mean that the project management methodology that is used needs to recognize the areas of instability inherent in the business and project context and account for that effect.  This has profound implications on project initiation, project planning, and project control.  In my experience, a project management methodology and project management tools are often applied without an understanding of their strengths and limitations.  This leads to the wrong methodology or tool for the specific business and project considerations.  A hammer is an excellent and essential tool in the hands of a carpenter, but it is not the only tool and is not applicable in all situations.  In the same way, the Gantt chart is an excellent and essential tool in the hands of a project manager, but it is not the only scheduling tool and it is not applicable on all projects. 

Therefore, I believe that a major objective of a project leader and the business leadership that oversees a project portfolio needs to be to understand the business environment in which the project is to be executed.  This business environment is unique for each company, each industry, each business objective, and is ever changing.  In the real world, the project environment is not stable and predictable; it is dynamic and often discontinuous.  The project management approach used must address both the unique requirements of the project and the unique and ever-changing business environment.