Connecting the Dots: Aligning Projects With Objectives in Unpredictable Times

Organizations are struggling for greater return on their multibillion-dollar technology and project-related investments. Individual projects may be useful, but when examined collectively, they often work at cross-purposes, duplicate each other’s efforts, or aim for obsolescing business objectives. And all are competing for scarce resources. In today’s earnings-driven business environment, companies must look to their portfolios to better deliver on objectives and propel the organization forward.Based on their experience with a variety of companies, authors Cathleen Benko and distinguished professor F. Warren McFarlan have developed an alignment approach that better connects an organization’s project portfolio to its corporate objectives in a manner responsive to today’s unpredictable environment. Connecting the Dots provides a scalable framework and practical tools for better aligning a company’s: project portfolio with its objectives; individual projects with each other; and portfolio and objectives with the volatile environment. Better-aligned companies enhance business/technology performance by increasing shareholder value and confidence and improving the portfolio’s return on investment. This in-the-trenches guidebook helps companies capture this latent value while building a more adaptive organization. Cathleen Benko is Braxton’s Global e-Business Leader. F. Warren McFarlan is the Senior Associate Dean and Albert H. Gordon Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.