The Strategic Learning Curve

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Portfolio Management   Strategy  

We hear a lot today about the importance of project managers understanding the business reasoning for projects--the strategic goals and objectives that the initiative supports. I completely agree that this is important, and I have touched on the subject in several of my articles. But there isn’t anywhere near as much written about how PMs can gain that knowledge and understanding. In many cases, it is expected to happen by osmosis--PMs develop a better understanding of the business drivers, goals and objectives simply by being part of the organization and therefore being included in discussions and meetings around their projects.

I have no problem with that approach conceptually, but it’s not the most effective or efficient way of helping PMs to gain an understanding of the organization’s strategy. In this article, I want to look at a few other ways for PMs to develop these skills.

Strategy and the PM
Let’s start with the basics and look very briefly at why an understanding of the strategic drivers is important for project managers. A project is not undertaken simply to complete a defined set of requirements, rather it is executed in order to drive business benefits through those deliverables. That is frequently some combination of revenue growth and cost reduction, but it may also be others--regulatory compliance, reduced risks, etc. For …

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