Stratgic alignment has been one of the top concerns for IT executives for decades. One of the great debates in literature regarding strategic alignment is what act ‘alignment’ means, why it is needed and how do enterprises stay aligned. Alignment has many definitions, but in this context, it is concerned with the integration of business and IT strategies. Research has proven that there are positive relations to enterprise performance when it is aligned.   This qualitative research investigates the causes of misalignment through the views and thoughts of IT professionals at a Scandinavian IT consultancy company. By using a model created by, Schlosser, Wagner, and Coltman, this thesis could establish the most common factors to achieve alignment in the given enterprise. The model allowed the field of business-IT alignment to be explored in IT projects, and allowed for a better understanding of what causes misalignment.   This thesis conducted six interviews to answers two research questions; (1) what factors cause misalignment in IT projects and (2) how do these factors differ in different methodologies. The results from the analysis found that the main factors of misalignment were ‘procedures / workflow alignment’, ‘managerial skills of business and IT employees’, ‘technical skills and knowledge of IT employees’, ‘mutual trust and respect between business and IT executives / employees’, ‘IT skills and knowledge of business executives/employees’ and ‘alignment of business and IT strategy/goals/plans’. The second research question could  concluded that more research is needed to understand how factors change using different methodologies, as the results were to similar to reach a definit conclusion. For future research the thesis recommends using a multiple case study using the same model to verify the data gathered in this thesis and to strengthen the use of the model.

Purpose – The research purpose is to add insights to the project management literature by studying a global project encompassing Chinese and Western project participants, to possibly increase the understanding of how project alignment can be achieved. Method – The analytical approach for this abductive and explorative study was anchored in a six-phase thematic analysis (Clarke & Braun, 2014). A single-case study approach was used encompassing 17 interviews and 61 days of observations at a multinational manufacturing firm in China.  Results - Both Chinese and Western project managers consider project effectiveness and efficiency when evaluating project success. However, there are several key nuances that separate the two groups, as Western project managers focus on customer satisfaction through efficient methods when evaluating project performance, whereas Chinese project managers focus on internal satisfaction through effective methods. The different viewpoints although similar affect the ability of manufacturing organizations to achieve alignment within global projects. To achieve alignment within global projects manufacturing organisations need to focus on three types of alignment while accounting for the nuanced view on project success; objective alignment, role alignment and internal alignment. Theoretical implications – Our study proposes an emergent model reducing the complexity of achieving alignment in global projects. The model contains three new types of alignment (objective, role and internal) that are actionable and direct compared to previous alignment types. The alignment types aids in the unification of Chinese and Western project managers view on project success. Practical implications – We expand the understanding of the Chinese and Western view on project success and provide insight into how alignment can be achieved in global projects. Our findings suggest that project managers should first achieve objective alignment before addressing role and later internal alignment in efforts to increase project performance.