The SPL research program covered over two decades of research, which were focused since the early 1990s on identifying the missing links and building new frameworks on top of the traditional tools.
The research involved contributions of 32 outstanding researchers, who were involved in this program in several research teams (Find out more). It also enjoyed the benefits of eight grants from several institutions – including two important grants from PMI. And it was conducted at four universities, which supported and encouraged this research (Find out more).
Based on our team’s experience it was clear that the traditional project management knowledge is not always sufficient to explain why some projects succeed of fail, why so many projects do not meet time and budget goals, why many do not meet their business objectives. Furthermore, no specific guidelines existed for managing modern projects in extreme situations, such as high technology or uncertain environments. We witnessed highly experienced and talented leaders fail in important projects, while others made it without clear explanation. We also saw successful projects not make it in the marketplace or not being used by the customer for reasons of irrelevance and little contribution to customers’ effectiveness or businesses. Clearly more knowledge was needed, and thus we selected the project management field as the focus of research and teaching. Together with our early teams we defined the above-mentioned vision on strategic management of projects, titling it Strategic Project Leadership in 1995, and obtained a registered trademark for the name in 2003 (the trademark is used for commercial purposes). It is important to note that unlike many strategic studies, the research vision was not just focused on project portfolio management or project strategic selection, but more important, on the management of an individual project or program by a dedicated leader and team.
