Managing the development of a drug molecule from research through commercialized product is a long and arduous journey. Along that journey are many speed bumps and triumphs, process optimization, clinical trials, and manufacturing validations, but all along the way there are a variety of key stakeholders who engage in decision making, guiding, and informing project teams. As a biopharma project manager – one needs to communicate effectively, work in a cross functional matrix, guide project teams through many levels of governance to achieve success and reach the next milestone on the path to health authority approvals. There are also many drug molecules and project teams that form partnerships, alliances, or even contract out certain aspects to specialized organizations and services, all of which require key stakeholder management and communication channels to ensure goals are met, progress is made, and the organization stays competitive within a given therapy area.
PMI Talent Triangle: Technical Project Management (Ways of Working)
Project management and cross-sector partnership are distinctive fields of practice and academic study and yet they both share the challenge of enabling meaningful engagement of stakeholders in nuanced, complex (inter-) organizational contexts. Over the past decade, there has been growing attention to the involvement of stakeholders in project management. In a related vein, partnership practitioners and researchers have long grappled with the challenge of balancing the interests of partners and a wider stakeholder community in cross-sector partnerships. This has particularly become the case as project management methodologies, skill sets and perspectives have been assimilated much more widely in the public, private and non-profit sectors. Funding agencies have begun to make project management practice mandatory in bidding and delivery. Inter-agency working is now axiomatic in effectively tackling complex health, social and security challenges, for example. This raises much deeper concerns for project managers than processes, procedures, reporting, systems and organisational structures. Questions about values and trust are fundamental to successful project outcomes in dynamic environmental contexts.
To what extent do projects and partnerships facilitate or impede stakeholder inclusion? Some of the stakeholders have invited themselves. What are some of the common challenges and key differences of stakeholder engagement in projects and partnerships? How might project managers and partnership practitioners learn from each other about how best to inform, consult, involve, engage and in some cases ultimately collaborate with their corresponding stakeholders.
This paper will explore the synergies and differences between project management and cross-sector partnership concepts, theories, frameworks, and tools in relation to stakeholder engagement. We are particularly interested in exploring the extent to which stakeholder engagement strategies and approaches in current project management and partnering contexts are aligned or diverge.
PMI Talent Triangle: Leadership (Power Skills)
