Saturday, September 12, 2015

Mapping Projects Back to Strategies

In order to be successful, IT needs to closely align its services to the Business's Strategy. This requires that the Enterprise Architecture group have a clear idea what the business strategies are! While I am actively studying the TOGAF architectural framework, I recognize that many Enterprise customers are unwilling to completely "buy in" to a specific framework. So this series of BLOG entries look to fill the void.
Illustration: Mind Map of Strategy to Goals to Projects
In a previous post, we described how the ERRC Canvas can help support the Strategy, by helping achieve the Goals. As we move from left to right through the above illustration, multiple Goals might be required to realize a Strategy. The ERRC canvas is a great tool for identifying activities, which broadly fall into the categories of Eliminate, Reduce, Raise and Create.

Building on that theme, and assuming we want SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based), we can identify the Metrics, which are the measurements of success. Assuming we can cleanly map between the ERRC Canvas (representing the Goals) and the SMART Metrics for those avtivities, we can derive a Plan or Project to implement those Goals.

On the far right, we see the conventional wisdom that Project Plans contain elements of Budget, Timeline & Resources. The Project Plan is a culmination of the Strategy (Why), the Goals (What), the Metrics (How Much) and the Plan (Who). The Project Charter can define the When, as well as any required sequencing.

If you're curious about how projects evolve from a Project Charter through to successful delivery of the objectives & goals, take a look at my previous entry, entitled Project Management Life Cycle. I cannot stress enough the importance of proper planning ! When in doubt, think of the axiom "measure twice, cut once".


No comments: