What is project strategy?

The concept of project strategy – referring to the strategy of a single project – has remained ambiguous in existing studies. In this research, we review literature from multiple viewpoints to develop a novel definition and interpretation about the project strategy concept. Our definition is used to derive different alternative project strategies from literature, characterized by two important dimensions in a project’s environment: project’s independence and number of strong project stakeholder organizations. We introduce four types of strategies for a project along these two dimensions: obedient servant, independent innovator, flexible mediator, and strong leader. Existing research using the project strategy concept mostly assumes that there is one strong parent organization for a project; indeed, the parent is assumed to dictate an image of its strategy to the project, and the project is assumed to take an obedient servant’s role, to serve as a tactical vehicle that becomes a mere part of its parent organization and the parent’s strategic scheme. Our project strategy definition and the four project strategy types allow a more open interpretation about the content of alternative environment-dependent project strategies as well as the processes of strategy formulation and implementation. The wider concept of project strategy introduced in this paper recognizes more widely the various positions that a single project may take in its environment. This way, our paper contributes even to development of new and context-specific project management bodies of knowledge in the future. The paper suggests empirical research and further conceptual research on detailed contents of different project strategies.