Alan Stretton
Sydney, Australia


Life Fellow, AIPM (Australia)
Alan Stretton is one of the pioneers of modern project management. He is currently a member of the Faculty Corps for the University of Management & Technology (UMT), USA. In 2006 he retired from a position as Adjunct Professor of Project Management in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia, which he joined in 1988 to develop and deliver a Master of Project Management program. Prior to joining UTS, Mr. Stretton worked in the building and construction industries in Australia, New Zealand and the USA for some 38 years, which included the project management of construction, R&D, introduction of information and control systems, internal management education programs and organizational change projects.
He has degrees in Civil Engineering (BE, Tasmania) and Mathematics (MA, Oxford), and an honorary PhD in strategy, programme and project management (ESC, Lille, France). Alan was Chairman of the Standards (PMBOK) Committee of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) from late 1989 to early 1992. He held a similar position with the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM), and was elected a Life Fellow of AIPM in 1996. He was a member of the Core Working Group in the development of the Australian National Competency Standards for Project Management.
Alan has now published 250 professional articles and papers. Alan is a global advisor for PM World and the PM World Journal, in which he has published many of his papers.
Alan can be contacted at alanailene@bigpond.com.au.
Articles and Papers
- Helping people find career positions which maximise their innate personal strengths - Commentary - Stretton -
- Aspects of People Management in a Projectised Organisation - Second Edition - Stretton -
- An autumnal personal commentary on some questions about individuals’ career contributions and legacies - Commentary - Stretton -
- From Customer Needs to Project Requirements: Helping customers/users clarify and confirm their basic business or equivalent needs - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Re-affirming the importance of users in all project contexts - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Revisiting models of organisational and project contexts - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Further thoughts on Pells’ 2021 suggestion for broader, more comprehensive life cycle models - Commentary - Stretton -
- Further thoughts on Pells’ May 2022 editorial: Representing environmental and global influences relevant to projects and their organisations - Commentary - Stretton -
- Commentary on “higher purposes” for project management, via partnering to tackle broad societal / environmental issues - Commentary - Stretton -
- Revisiting project successes/failures: From behavioural biases to project pork-barrelling by politicians - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Program/project management, and responsibilities for achieving outcomes and/or realising benefits - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- 3. From project outputs to organisational outcomes and benefits, and the roles of user groups, and of program/project management (PPM) - Series Article - Stretton -
- 2. What’s in a name? Portfolios, programs and projects in owner-organisations’ strategic and operations management contexts - Series Article - Stretton -
- 1. Some existing project-related supplier-organisation services in owner-organisations’ strategic and operations management contexts - Series Article - Stretton -
- Revisiting classifications of types of projects and programs and their application sectors - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Representing users converting project outputs into assets and organisational benefits; relevant organisational contexts; and a three-zone representation of an organisational strategic/operational model - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- An exploration of assets and projects: Types of assets, and project deliverables as assets, in an organisational context - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Representative examples of operational users converting project-related outputs to outcomes and benefits within an organisational strategic-and-operations framework - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- An organisational strategic-and-operational framework with provision for operations users to convert three key types of project outputs into operational outcomes/benefits - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- A commentary on project portfolio and program management terminologies, and relationships with organisational strategy - Commentary - Stretton -
- Potential for project management representative bodies to extend their influence in helping solve global problems - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Towards a “higher purpose” for project management representative bodies? - Commentary - Stretton -
- An addendum on organisational strategic preparedness for significant disruptive events (Revisiting Organizational Strategic Management – Part 6) - Series Article - Stretton -
- Accelerating global and local VUCA-related disruptors as drivers for organisational strategic responses - Series Article - Stretton -
- A commentary on Pells’ “higher purpose” editorial, Part 2: Organisational vision, mission, and strategic drivers - Commentary - Stretton -
- On Pells’ “higher purpose” editorial, Part 2: Organisational social responsibilities - Commentary - Stretton -
- Incorporating strategic drivers into the recursive strategic management model, and discussing differences between industries - Series Article - Stretton -
- Towards extending the scope of project-related management to help address climate change and other global problems - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Deliberate and emergent strategies, and a classification of strategic drivers (Revisiting organisational strategic management, Part 3) - Series Article - Stretton -
- Augmenting a recursive strategic management model to accommodate changes impacting outcomes and benefits - Series Article - Stretton -
- Revisiting organisational strategic management: A recursive organisational strategic management model, and responsibilities for managing various stages - Series Article - Stretton -
- Towards more context-specific representations of the role of project management - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Relating three prominent program-related benefits management/ realisation processes with a basic organisational strategic management sequence - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Notes on project-related outputs, outcomes, and benefits realization in an organisational strategic management context - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Expanding from conventional project management into broader types of services in an organisational strategic management context - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- On the Subject of Black Elephants - Letter to the Editor - Stretton -
- Further notes on project/program management involvement in helping choose the “right” project(s) - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Strategic initiatives, project/program management, and responsibilities for benefits realization - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Increasing project management involvement in the initial choice of projects - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Causes of failure to effectively implement organizational strategy, and “project” failure contributions - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Extending specialist PM services to a more generalist role in an organisational strategic context - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Specialist PM and more generalist project-related contributors to organisational strategic management - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- 7. Comments on major contexts, and further discussions (Project Contexts) - Series Article - Stretton -
- 6. Contexts of external influencers, and of project application areas - Series Article - Stretton -
- 5. Contexts of project types (Series on Project Contexts) - Series Article - Stretton -
- 4. Context of project dimensions - Series Article - Stretton -
- 3. Contexts of projects undertaken by supplier organisations (SOs) and by owner organisations (OOs) - Series Article - Stretton -
- 2. Contexts of organisational strategic management - Series Article - Stretton -
- 1. Representations of a variety of contexts which impact on the management of projects - Series Article - Stretton -
- A commentary on managing the front-end of projects - Commentary - Stretton -
- Expanding the scope of project management services in the construction industry, to add value and reduce costs - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- A perspective on project success levels in an organisational strategic management context - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- Representing “other strategic work” in addition to projects in an organisational strategic management context - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- A commentary on strategy formulation-related causes of “project” failures in an organisational strategic context - Commentary - Stretton -
- Responsibilities for “project” successes/failures? - Featured Paper - Stretton -
- A commentary on program/project stakeholders - Commentary - Stretton -
- A commentary on “commercial management” in the program/project context - Commentary - Stretton -
- Stage 5: Achieve strategic outcomes and realise benefits - Series Article - Stretton -
- Stage 4: Execute other strategic work, along with projects (Organizational Strategic Planning and Implementation) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Stage 3: Augment and consolidate strategic initiatives (Organizational Strategic Planning & Implementation) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Stage 2: Develop strategic options, evaluate and choose the best (Series on Organizational Strategic Planning and Implementation) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Stage 1: Establish organisational strategic objectives (Series on Organisational Strategic Planning and Execution) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Notes on increasing project management involvement in senior management activities in production-based organizations - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Increasing project management involvement in pre-execution phases of projects - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Relating causes of project failure to an organizational strategic business framework - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- An organizational strategic framework, and project and other contributions to achieving strategic objectives - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Deliberate and emergent strategies and origins of projects - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- A Commentary on Project Classifications - Commentaries - Stretton -
- Some conflict-related situations between parties to projects - Commentaries - Stretton -
- Some commonalities and differences between managing in production-based and project-based organizations - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Some existing guidelines for managing “non-traditional” projects - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Some representations of how projects and/or their management related to a variety of contexts - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Some differences for project managers working in supplier organizations and in owner organizations - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- A viewpoint towards guidelines for non-traditional projects - Commentaries - Stretton -
- Complication, complexity and uncertainty in the program/project context - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Some sources of complexity in programs/projects - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Is “program” an appropriate universal descriptor in the project-related context? - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Adding value to project clients - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Types of project management services provided by supplier organizations to owner organizations - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Notes on project management academic scholarship, teaching and research, and its relevance to practice - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Managing Project Contexts - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Project Interfaces and their management - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Project Integration - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Some consequences of having two co-existing paradigms of project management - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Scoping the project management discipline - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Organizational strategic plans, projects, and strategic outcomes - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Customers’ needs and project requirements - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Project outputs and customers’ outcomes (Article 1 in series on increasing project management contributions to helping achieve broader ends) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Some ‘Technical’ Management Functions and Activities; Summary of Series (article 7 of 7) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Management Implementing/Controlling Functions and Activities (Article 6 in series on general management functions and activities, and their relevance to the management of projects) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Management Staffing Function and Activities (Article 5 of 7) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Management Leading Function and Activities (Article 4 in series on general management functions and activities, and their relevance to the management of projects) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Some “unexpected” differences between Australians and Americans, and their relevance to project management - Commentaries - Stretton -
- Management Organizing Function and Activities - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Management Planning Function and Activities (Series on general management functions and activities, and their relevance to the management of projects) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- A general management framework, and its relevance to managing the project life cycle - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Further thoughts on the nature of, and futures for, project management - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Summaries and post-scripts (Series on Project Successes and Failures, article 6/6) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Approaches to Increasing Level 3: “Business” success (Series on Project Success and Failure, article 5 of 6) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Approaches to improving Level 2: “Project” success - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Factors affecting Level 1: “Project Management” success (Series on Project Successes and Failures) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Some deficiencies in published causes of project failure (Series on Project Successes and Failures) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Some deficiencies in data on project successes and failures (Article 1 in new Series on Project Success and Failure) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Other categories, and combinations of categorization matrices - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Program/Project Types (Series on Project & Program Categories) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Categorizing Programs (Series on Project & Program Categories) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- Project Categories (Series on Project & Program Categories) - Series Articles - Stretton -
- A note on accessing and utilizing collective experience in project-based organizations - Commentaries - Stretton -
- Some differences between project management and accounting perspectives on project cost control - Commentaries - Stretton -
- Notes on General Management, Project Management and Professionalism - Commentaries - Stretton -
- Identifying and Classifying Program/Project Stakeholders - Second Editions - Stretton -
- Notes on organisational stakeholders - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Managing inter-project coordination within programs - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- A note on management integration in project contexts - Commentaries - Stretton -
- A further note on involving program/project managers in organizational strategic planning - Commentaries - Stretton -
- Involving program/project managers in organizational strategic planning - Second Editions - Stretton -
- A Specialist Generalist Perspective on Project Management - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Some externally-focused aspects of project management - Commentaries - Stretton -
- Some implications of a changing world for the management of projects - Second Editions - Stretton -
- Some externally – focused aspects of project management - Commentaries - Stretton -
- Some implications of a changing world for the management - Second Editions - Stretton -
- A note on project management, and different understandings of the nature of professions and professionals - Commentaries - Stretton -
- Needs identification processes to establish program/project benefits targets - Second Editions - Stretton -
- IDENTIFYING/VERIFYING CUSTOMERS’ NEEDS BEFORE SPECIFYING PRODUCT/SERVICE REQUIREMENTS IN THE PROGRAM/PROJECT CONTEXT - Second Editions - Stretton -
- Revisiting types of relationships between a program’s component projects - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- A note on identifying needs of multiple internal customers within a client organisation - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- A case for re – focusing on basic processes/procedures underlyin g effective project management - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Two broad dimensions of program management - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Alternative scenarios for the future of the project management industry - Featured Papers - Blythman, Stretton -
- Notes on programs vs. standalone projects - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- ‘Portfolios’ and the project management literature - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Notes on the relevance of contexts for program/project management - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Programs, ‘standalone’ & ‘component’ projects, and perceptions of scope of project management applicability - Featured Papers - Stretton -
- Identifying and Classifying Program/Project Stakeholders - Featured Paper - Stretton -