Strategic Alignment: The Secret to Project Success

A project that doesn’t align with an enterprise’s objectives will never be considered a success. But project managers with a strong understanding of the business landscape and their organization’s goals can execute projects that drive their companies’ priorities—and deliver real benefits. We discuss this with:  Ayobamiji Iyiola, PMI-ACP, PMP, senior IT project manager, First Bank of Nigeria, Lagos: Iyiola discusses the processes he uses to determine his organization’s goals, how he created success measures so a project drove the bank’s objectives for increased exposure and customer acquisition, how he manages change on projects when organizational priorities shift and his advice to project professionals on the importance of business acumen. Omar Picone Chiodo, PMP, PgMP, PfMP, senior portfolio management office director, Kenvue, Zug, Switzerland: Picone Chiodo discusses ways project professionals can learn their enterprise’s strategic objectives, how to create processes to better align portfolios with an organization’s goals, ways to engage with stakeholders to create success measures that everyone sticks to, and why clear and concise communication with leaders can have a big effect on what happens to a portfolio when an organization’s goals change.   Key themes [01:50] Identifying an organization’s objectives—and using projects to achieve them [05:13] Creating project success measures to drive a bank’s acquisition goals [10:02] Managing change when a company’s priorities shift [13:50] Communicating an organization’s goals through onboarding sessions, knowledge libraries and talks with leadership [15:11] Developing processes to align portfolios with an enterprise’s objectives [16:39] How to keep stakeholders informed—and in line with the same measures of success