TABLE OF CONTENTS Selling project management to senior leaders requires that they recognize a problem and the need for project management as the best solution. The problem that senior leaders have is managing from a strategic point of view and getting the tactical work to align with those high-level goals. Project management, although mature with more than 50 years of formal recognition and growth as a process and discipline, is still developing.
Bridging the problem from a high-level view to the execution of work may be difficult with the need to have a strategic focus by senior leaders. Implementation of the goals in detail is often not understood by the senior leaders and left to the mid- to lower-level leaders. There is not the ability to cascade the thinking from top to bottom.
| Note | Senior managers set the tone for the use of project management in the organization |
Senior leaders have the non-delegatable responsibility to establish the principles of work and practices for the organization to follow to achieve success for their business. It is important for senior leaders to establish a system to measure the effectiveness of the strategic planning, through the business process, to the operating level. Through measurement, senior leaders know what is working and what is not, where successes are most needed and where lower priorities may exist.
Senior leaders are concerned with and conduct strategic planning that is far removed from the operating level.
