Aligning Projects with Strategies Leads to Strategy Execution
Aligning projects with strategies, assuming that the company has strategies, is one of the simplest ways to quickly see which projects are worth doing. Conversely, projects that don’t align with strategies should quickly be assessed and probably stopped. One of the ways to get a read on alignment is to simply put together a strategy map. The concept is seemingly simple:
1. Id goals of company- increase shareholder value, increase revenue by X%, decrease costs by X% are examples.
2. Id strategies to fulfill the goals- for the revenue goal it might be a customer response program or a web based presence program.
3. Id tactics to fulfill individual strategies- for the customer response program you might have a software/business process implementation project.
The result is a map or a “tree” that reflects how projects fit in with tactics, strategies and goals . Each level, and item within a level, is owned by an executive, director, manager or project manager. Strategies drive key requirements and point out pain in some areas. The projects that result from the tactics that are agreed to must align with a strategy. More on why I said “seemingly simple” in the next post.
Do you have a strategy map process in your company? If you don’t, how do you know that projects are aligned with strategies? When strategies change do you reassess projects for alignment? Why or why not?
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A strategy map is a great way to prioritize efforts. In some models I have seen IT becomes a dimension that spans all facets of the strategy implementation.
From IT’s perspective, and by IT I mean the customer support groups, helpdesk, etc., there can a gap in understanding the driving forces behind a business. With a strategy map IT can have a better understanding of why the components are important to specific areas of a company and at what time in business cycle they take on the most importance.
Sensei- Yes! Executives, managers and all employees can begin to see how their work contributes. The feeling that an organization gets when focusing on projects that align with strategies is that “what we are doing makes sense”. IT will undoubtedly affect all facets. This combined with PMOs and governance board’s (or smaller organizations innovation group’s) project prioritizing efforts really make an organization sing. Sounds like you’ve used strategy mapping- an example?