Thoughts on Project Prioritization
I’ve been toying with an idea around, maybe not project prioritization, but project categorization, as a way to both help understand why we’re doing certain projects, and if or how they align with strategy.
This builds on my colleague Diane Dromgold’s idea that we do projects for one of three reasons:
- We Have To – in order to remain in business (legal, regulatory, compliance, etc.)
- We Need To – in order to remain competitive (updates, improvements, maintenance, etc.)
- We Want To – in order to gain some advantage (new products, new markets, innovation, etc.)
We then in turn do each of these with one of three intents:
- To Remove Something
- To Change Something
- To Provide Something
This could be a process, a product, a capability, an asset, or…. but in general we’re either trying to eliminate or change something that currently exists, or provide something that doesn’t.
With this you end up with a 3×3 model that shows ‘what’ and ‘why’. (above)
‘Strategic alignment’ will primarily be found in the ‘Want To/Change’, ‘Want To/Provide’ categories.
Still working through some of my thinking on this, but wanted to share for thoughts and feedback.
*Originally published on LinkedIn