Alibaba Infrastructure PMO Wins Best Enterprise Practice Award and Presents Strategic Project Management Framework

On October 29, 2019, the "China Project Management Development 20‑Year Achievement Release and Summit Forum" organized by the China International Talent Exchange Foundation and co‑hosted by the Project Management Institute (PMI®) was successfully held at the Beijing Friendship Hotel. Leaders from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the foundation, PMI® executives, and representatives from government, enterprises, and universities attended.

Alibaba Infrastructure was awarded the "Best Enterprise Practice" prize. The Infrastructure Business Unit PMO, led by Xu Bo, presented a keynote on "Strategic Organizational‑Level Project Management Practice," which received wide acclaim.

Dividing corporate or departmental strategy into executable projects and achieving strategic benefits through those projects is a common challenge in project management. Rapid changes in the internet industry force organizations to continuously adjust strategies to meet market demands.

Alibaba Infrastructure Business Unit PMO was established in early 2013 and has progressed through three stages: key project delivery, strategic program execution, and strategic planning and implementation. Since its upgrade to a strategic PMO in 2017, it has distilled a multi‑layered strategic project management framework.

First, departmental strategy is treated as a strategic portfolio, with the PMO team lead acting as Portfolio Manager to oversee the entire strategic landscape, monitor risk, assess resources, evaluate financial investment, and report to the strategic governance committee.

Second, each strategy is managed as a program, comprising interrelated projects that serve the same strategic goal. An experienced Program Manager oversees the program’s overall benefits, resources, and risks, ensuring coordination among projects.

Third, individual components within a strategy are managed as projects. High‑impact components become key projects under direct Project Manager control, while other components are handled by part‑time managers from functional departments. Project managers focus on scope, schedule, and cost, holding weekly or bi‑weekly meetings and issuing status reports.

This hierarchical structure clarifies responsibilities across portfolio, program, and project levels, defines stakeholders and decision‑making bodies, and provides a clear path for translating strategy into actionable outcomes, ensuring progressive achievement of strategic goals.

The internet sector’s project management is still in its early stages; rapid business and technology changes render traditional process‑centric approaches insufficient. Alibaba Infrastructure PMO’s strategic, organization‑level project management practice offers a reference for the industry, inviting broader exchange to develop mature, replicable best practices.