Business Is Personal: The Business Savvy Project Manager

  PM Network  

The widespread adoption of a business-driven approach toward projects ultimately relies on executives. It’s senior management that has to ensure that practices such as financial analysis and business case preparation become a regular part of doing project business. Inviting the project management community to participate on front-end activities such as strategic planning, operational planning and portfolio management is largely at their discretion.

That reliance on senior management can be discouraging. However, as an individual project management practitioner, there are some things that you can do to demonstrate your personal knowledge of business. And in some cases, you can advance the cause of business-savvy project management within your organization.

Here are a few examples:

Verify your project is clearly and directly linked to one or more organizational strategies, business objectives or operational goals. Make sure your managers know you’re aware of this linkage and that you will integrate it into your approach toward project decision-making. Speak up if the link is not clear to you.

Understand the business benefits your project yields. For example, does your project advance long-term strategy? Increase revenue? Lower operating costs? Reduce headcount? Increase efficiency? Knowing the big-picture benefits can help your project management …

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