Business Context or Business Acumen? PMs Need Both

 

by Dave Wakeman

I was scrolling ProjectManagement.com recently, looking for inspiration and ideas for this month’s piece when I saw one author pose a question about “business context” and another one post about “business acumen.”

These got my attention, because over the years, my entire collection of posts has been about reinforcing these two points:

1. One, the business context matters.
2. Two, business acumen will make you a better project manager.

So this month, I want to reinforce the importance of your business skills to be a better project manager by highlighting two key ideas.

1. The best project manager can’t fix the wrong project. Peter Drucker said something about the worst waste of timing being doing something that need not be done at all.

One of the key ways that you can use your business skills to improve your PM performance is by understanding what projects are really going to push your business toward its key strategic goals.

This speaks directly to context. You get there with your business acumen.

Why does this matter? First, a lot of projects end up taking place due to momentum. A project starts gaining steam, no one steps in to ask if it is “essential.” It just seems important. So, it gets done.

Second, a lot of projects are done because that’s the way similar projects have been handled in the past. So, a project is just done because it is consistent with “best practices” even if there have been no lessons learned to update the process.

These scenarios highlight the importance of context and business acumen for PMs, because being able to step in and understand if a project is essential and impactful can stop the wrong projects from taking place.

2. Context is key in any situation. The best project manager in the world is still operating in a situation filled with context, no matter what.

The idea of any project, business or PM operating in a vacuum is funny, because nothing occurs in a vacuum. Great PMs know that context matters in every situation, and that context is fluid.

Andy Jordan recently wrote about there being “multiple” contexts, and that is right to a point, but it can be confusing to people. A good PM’s frame of reference for “context” in their projects revolves around the answer to the question of, “What does success look like?”

Why does this matter? One, we need to isolate the signal from the noise. I agree with Andy that there are multiple contexts for any project decision. Where I want you to focus your attention is on recognizing which one is most important.

In the modern business environment, you are never going to be able to manage all the contexts, so the process of isolation and focus matter more than ever.

So, look for the thing that is going to help you achieve “success,” whatever that means in your situation.

Two, the proper context should help you justify your project’s execution. Above, we discussed business acumen and the “right project.” Here is where context helps that come true because the context can change—and likely will change.

So, it is your job to make sure you know what success looks like so that you can place the project in the proper context to ensure that the right projects move forward.

Remember, the best project manager in the world can’t save the wrong project—and that’s where the meeting of business acumen and business context come together.

What do you think? Am I off the mark?