How Deep Does Your Business Knowledge Need to Go?

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.

  Business Analysis   Career Development  

I have long talked to organizations and project managers about the importance of business acumen. I’ll freely confess that I didn’t use that term much until it was brought into the PMI Talent Triangle®—but call it business understanding, business context, project purpose, the “why” or anything else, and the concept is the same.

Nowadays, virtually all PMs understand what business acumen means, and most recognize that it is an important part of how they manage their projects. But how important? I don’t think that there is anywhere near the same level of understanding on that point.

• I know some PMs who think that simply having a brief chat with the customer, business owner or similar role at the start of the project is enough.
• I know others who meet with that individual every day to at least touch base and to ensure there is time on the calendar should something come up.
• And I know of other PMs who won’t make any decision without ensuring that they have assessed any potential business impact.

What is the right approach? How deep should a PM’s business acumen be?

It depends, of course
You knew that I was going to answer that question by saying “it depends.” It is impacted by the type of project, the stakeholders, the experience of the team, and the PM’s own personal style.

If a project …

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