Aligning for Success: The Essential Trio of Project Management
One of the critical success factors for innovative projects that I’ve previously mentioned is communication and alignment. You can see the full article on the 4 critical success factors here. You can also view this through the lens of “alignment” in it’s own right. Having alignment in three critical areas can ensure strategic foresight, technical precision, and can harness the power of relationships. This article examines the three areas of alignment that every senior project executive must master: Strategic Alignment, Technical Alignment, and Relationship Alignment. Each of these have individual value and a unique interaction with each other, which will augment the value of projects once they are understood and applied.
The Three Pillars of Project Alignment
1. Strategic Alignment: At its core, strategic alignment is about ensuring that every project and initiative directly contributes to the overarching goals and objectives of the organisation. For instance, when a company chooses to invest in new technologies, it’s imperative that these investments are in direct support of its strategic ambitions, like market expansion. Having a clear strategy (not just a plan) that aligns with the organisation’s capabilities and mission is a great starting point and shouldn’t be taken for granted or underestimated.
2. Technical Alignment: This aspect focuses on the technical underpinnings of a project — its architecture, infrastructure, and the nitty-gritty that makes it tick. The goal is to make sure that the technical decisions, from the programming language to the software architecture, bolster the project’s objectives. They should also be aligned to the capabilities within the execution team. A prime example would be selecting a scalable programming language for a project anticipated to grow in scope and complexity.
3. Relationship Alignment: The strength of a project often lies in the harmony of its stakeholders. This means aligning the expectations, communication, and efforts of everyone involved, from internal teams to external partners and customers. A successful project manager knows the importance of fostering open lines of communication between, say, the development and marketing teams, ensuring that each understands and supports the other’s role. This shouldn’t be limited to internal relationships. The internal departments should be aligned with each other but should also foster strong relationships with customers, investors and partner organisations.
The Synergy of Overlaps
The starting point for alignment lies within each of these areas independently. Without having an internal sense of alignment, an organisation is already behind the curve. However, while each type of alignment is vital in its own right, the magic happens in the overlaps:
Strategy-Technical: Aligning company strategy, project strategy and technical feasibility as critical for building something that is worth building. Whether a physical product, service offering or internal reorganisation, having the technical expertise to execute the project in alignment with it benefitting the company is a crucial requirement. An example could be deciding to migrate to cloud services, where the decision aligns with both the strategic goal of cost reduction and the technical goal of enhanced scalability.
Strategy-Relationships: This involves ensuring that the strategic direction of the company is in tune with customer expectations, thus building stronger customer relationships. It also ensures that everyone within the company is in agreement (or at least aware) of the direction that company expects to go. This is much easier within start-ups as there are fewer independent interactions, but it is equally important within larger organisations. During my work with some large companies, it is common to have VP of Product and a CMO have completely different ideas about what success looks like. Achieving this alignment have to be rooted in a strong and clear company strategy from which the project strategy emanates. As is similar to the interaction between strategic alignment and technical alignment, the bond between strategy and relationships is critical in making the right people involved to get the job done… and making sure the job is worth doing.
Technical-Relationships: The connection between technical and relationship alignment can take many forms. Firstly, it is important that what is to be done and what has been done is communicated in the language that all stakeholders understand and care about. A discussion about the technical merits of a particular programming language will not likely be of interest to the average CFO. However, you may engage them if you can explain that the scalability it provides will have a cost saving as the product grows. The technical merits of a project should be communicated throughout the organisation in a way that is interesting and valuable for the recipients, and this includes customers. Being able to differentiate between features and benefits improves communication between those building and those using a product or service. Secondly, how the way that the technical aspects of a project enhances relationships is also important. Is there an internal communication plan that is more efficient than email? Is slack just being used as a proxy for that email communication? How are we able to better communicate updates? Where can we make asynchronous suggestions or recommendations? Consider how the technical capability within the project team and broader organisation can help foster stronger relationships.
Strategy-Technical-Relationships: At the heart of the Venn diagram, projects that embody all three alignments represent the pinnacle of project management success. An example is a new product development that is strategically significant, technically viable, and backed by robust relationships with all stakeholders. This is where you can start cooking with gas. A project with this level of alignment will be able to decide which teams are best aligned to work on a specific area of the project. Should the project take place at all? How will it affect our existing relationships? Does it give us any strategic advantage over our competitors? Should we buy a third party tool to integrate or should we build our own? Should we use the technical expertise we have in-house or outsource part of it to contractors? What is the best allocation of resources given our strategic objectives as an organisation and our existing capabilities? As you can see, being in this mindset raises a lot questions but they are good questions, ones that once answered will position the project and broader organisation for greater long-term success.
For senior project executives, the path to successful outcomes involves navigating these alignments with care and precision. By fostering an environment where strategic goals are supported by technical excellence and strong relationships, projects can not only meet their immediate objectives but also contribute to the long-term success and growth of the organisation.
In summary, the mastery of strategic, technical, and relationship alignments, and more importantly, their intersections, is a powerful framework for leading projects to success. As we chart our course through the complexities of project management, let us keep these alignments in focus, for in their synergy lies the blueprint for success.
