APPLICABILITY OF A STRATEGIC MAP UNDER THE PERSPECTIVE OF CRITICAL FACTORS FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT MATURITY AT A LARGE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

Abstract

Project Management and Strategic Management are two subjects of major relevance within the corporate environment, despite usually being treated separately, at organizations. However, for Westphal et al. (2008) one of the ways to link project management and strategy is through project management maturity, and to this effect, a series of actions that can be characterized as critical factors (Rabechini Jr. & Pessoa, 2005) are required. Another way of seeking this connection is by means of the strategic map concept which, according to Kaplan and Norton (2004, p.10), “represents the lost link between strategy formulation and the execution of the strategy”. In this study the purpose is to evaluate the applicability of a strategic map, from a critical factors perspective, on project management maturity, as proposed by Silva Jr. and Luciano (2010). Thus a qualitative and exploratory approach case study was conducted at a large financial institution, where three interview scripts were applied on nine professionals, whereby three were leaders, three were project managers and three, functional managers. Furthermore, a graphical representation standard was designed picturing possible situations concerning the applicability of strategic objectives of the map proposed in the case under study. As a result, an important academic contribution to the vague and scarce literature on the relationship between project management and organizational strategy was verified, in addition to mapping possibilities of improvements for the organization, which otherwise might have been impossible to identify.