Q&A: How do we ensure alignment across projects?
Ideally, all of your organization's work, including projects, programs, and initiatives, sits at the intersection of your mission or purpose, your strategy, and your resources or capacity. But with multiple projects, each targeting different needs with varying stakeholders and funders, it can be hard to ensure that all of your projects are truly aligned with each other and your organizational priorities.
Here are some key strategies to help support alignment:
1) Implement a Project Approval Process:
Don't let funding be your only test for project approval. Gathering consistent information about proposed projects will support clear decision-making before projects begin, so implement a project approval process that considers several crucial factors:
Strategic Alignment: How well does the proposed project align with your organization's current strategic priorities and objectives?
Project Feasibility: Is the project achievable given your existing staff and resources? Will the timeline and resources needed affect other projects or work?
Project Impact: What are the anticipated short-term and long-term impacts of the project and its outcomes on your team, organization, and the community you serve? Are these outcomes sustainable?
2) Establish Consistent Project Workflows:
Creating consistent project workflows across your organization can be a powerful tool for ensuring alignment. These practices, processes, or workflows can intersect with all of your projects at key alignment points, including:
Project Planning to ensure best practices for planning and resource use are followed.
Monitoring and Reporting to ensure your teams are tracking and reporting on key outcomes and success factors.
Project Closing to assess project outcomes against strategic goals, providing valuable insights for future alignment.
3) Track Projects across the Organizations:
To ensure alignment across projects, we need to understand not only which projects are happening but also who is involved and how those projects are progressing. While this can be accomplished by asking for consistent, periodic reports from project managers, most project management tools can provide this type of strategic insight across projects. Leaders can create dashboards that gather data on project progress and resource use, and projects can often be grouped into portfolios, allowing for the tracking of projects aligned with specific priorities or strategic goals.
By taking a proactive and integrated approach to project approvals, workflows, and tracking, mission-driven organizations can enhance alignment across their projects.
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