Strategic project management for product innovation projects: How project strategy aligns project capabilities with project contingencies to drive project success

Abstract: Many product innovation projects do not adequately develop an effective project strategy. This leads to poor choices of project approaches often resulting in poor project outcomes. Unfortunately, business and strategic level thinking is rarely examined in detail in the project management literature. This paper contributes to the advancement of business and strategic thinking in product innovation project management by developing a conceptual model of (i) how project innovation type, project uncertainty and firm-project compatibility influence the required project capabilities, and (ii) how project strategy aligns project capabilities with these project contingencies to drive project success. It is argued that such a theoretically well founded and practical strategic project management approach will guide practitioners in making appropriate project strategy choices. The findings are part of a case study research project.