How Do You Prioritize It Projects in Alignment With Broader Business Goals?
In the dynamic landscape of IT project management, prioritizing tasks in sync with company objectives is crucial. We've gathered insights from CEOs to Directors of Information Technology, distilling their strategies into five key examples. From aligning IT with business strategy to quantifying project contributions with metrics, these technology leaders share how they ensure IT projects advance broader business goals.
- Align IT with Business Strategy
- Upgrade for Scalability and Efficiency
- Map Projects to Company Goals
- Engage Stakeholders and Use Balanced Scorecard
- Quantify IT Project Contributions with Metrics
Align IT with Business Strategy
At our company, our approach to prioritizing IT projects is intricately linked with our overarching business strategy, which focuses on enhancing productivity and streamlining operations. For instance, when we consider upgrades or new implementations, we first assess the potential impact on our core functions: Toggl Track, Toggl Plan, and Toggl Hire. A recent project involved enhancing the data analytics capabilities of Toggl Track. We prioritized this because our strategy emphasized data-driven decision-making, and enhancing these capabilities would directly improve our product's value to customers.
The decision process involved stakeholders from multiple departments to ensure that the project aligned not just with IT capabilities but also with marketing, sales, and customer support goals. This collaborative approach ensured that the project was not only technically feasible but also commercially beneficial. It's about creating a synergy between technology and business needs, ensuring that every IT project we undertake has a clear, measurable impact on our business objectives.
Upgrade for Scalability and Efficiency
Aligning IT projects with our overarching business objectives is crucial for our organization. One strategy we have adopted is prioritizing an approach throughout our operations, focusing on adaptability and quick responses. For example, when we recognized the need to improve the scalability of our platform to meet rising customer demands, our IT project prioritization was evident. We allocated resources to concentrate on upgrading our cloud infrastructure, improving data processing capabilities, and strengthening security measures. This initiative was more than advancement; it was about ensuring the reliability and efficiency of our services, directly supporting our goal of delivering uninterrupted digital signage solutions to an expanding global customer base. It involves understanding the perspective and ensuring that every IT investment contributes to that vision, allowing us to stay ahead in the signage sector.
Map Projects to Company Goals
When you're creating a prioritized portfolio of IT projects, you must align it with the company's goals. I get IT leadership and a few stakeholders in a room with all the possible IT projects on sticky notes (real or virtual). Then I put the company's top goals on the board and start having participants add the projects to the goal buckets. Many IT projects may not achieve the goal directly but could have a direct dependency for teams to complete the work and achieve the goal. If there are other projects that are not aligned with goals but have high risks for the company, those are also considered for top positions for prioritization as well.
Engage Stakeholders and Use Balanced Scorecard
Prioritizing IT projects in alignment with broader business goals involves a strategic approach that integrates both short-term needs and long-term vision. It's essential to engage with key stakeholders to understand their objectives and pain points. By mapping IT initiatives to these goals, you ensure that each project contributes to the overall success of the organization. Additionally, using frameworks like the Balanced Scorecard can help in assessing the impact of IT projects on various business dimensions, ensuring a balanced and comprehensive prioritization process. Regularly reviewing and adjusting priorities based on changing business needs and market conditions is also crucial for staying aligned and agile.
Quantify IT Project Contributions with Metrics
Prioritization should be as a clear line of sight, jointly tied back to the clearly defined business goals, through an understanding of what those projects, in quantifiable terms, provide to that goal - use of OKR/KPI metric elements is useful here. For example, what exact monetary value will this project deliver in operational savings, or revenue gain? What defined points in NIST security rating will it achieve? And what non-monetary elements will it achieve, i.e., how many points in customer satisfaction will it move the needle? Which regulatory penalties will it avoid, etc.? Fundamentally, a good portfolio prioritization activity of IT projects will take these variables into account and provide a value and score for each - which an independent, documented algorithm can do (and also provide the bonus of providing a fair playing field of parity and assessment - avoiding the pet projects of senior leaders which are inappropriately over-pushed and/or the HIPPO syndrome of 'they who shout loudest get their work prioritized to the top of the stack inappropriately').
