The module aims to develop:
• A critical awareness of how projects relate to their business and organisational context and the strategic drivers behind these projects. Students will understand how projects arise from a client perspective and whether they have arisen for the right reasons, aligned to the organisation’s strategy.
• An understanding of the role project professionals, such as PMO’s, play in establishing strategic objectives and shaping projects towards these early in the project lifecycle.
• Knowledge and understanding of the dynamics between projects, programmes and portfolios, the need for governance and assurance across these and how these relationships influence strategic considerations.
• High level intellectual and practical skills to identify and influence strategic factors in a project environment, through effective prioritisation tools and development of capability maturity models.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module the learner, operating autonomously and creatively, should be able to:
• LO1: Flexibly and creatively apply appropriate knowledge of techniques to identify an organisation’s underlying strategy and the obstacles that may be impeding project alignment to this.
• LO2: Demonstrate the development of a critical awareness of, and response to, the importance of assurance and governance, and how a P3O approach can support this.
• LO3: Analyse and interpret complex, incomplete or contradictory client requirements, clarify objectives and produce a brief and rationale for a project.
• LO4: Demonstrate a deep and systematic understanding of how project professionals can influence an organisations strategy and the early shaping of a project.
• LO5: Analyse and evaluate the tools required to prioritise an organisations portfolio, to ensure alignment to strategic drivers.
