The Top Four Key Drivers of Project Work

Apr 13
08:31

2011

Dr. Joseline Edward, PhD

Dr. Joseline Edward, PhD

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Organizations have been implementing numerous projects to compete on a global scale. This article highlights the top four key drivers of projects in today organizations.

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Over the past several decades there have been enormous changes in the business environment. Organizations have been implementing numerous projects to compete on a global scale. Well known project management tools including Microsoft Project,The Top Four Key Drivers of Project Work Articles PRINCE2 and many more being used to manage projects effectively.  Many project collaboration tools such as Teambox, Basecamp and many more are available in the market place to manage projects easily.

No two organizations are exactly the same. One organization might implement a set of projects, and the other organization might perform completely different sets of projects. In order to know why organizations perform projects, one should understand what drives an organization to perform a project in the first place.

This leads to a simple question. What is a driver? Given that, it is so important and so valuable, it is a question that needs to be asked and answered. Earlier management writers on this subject have suggested that the word “driver” is a descriptive measurable rationale used to support something. From a business standpoint, the something can be referred to the business vision. I’m sure most of you all use public transportation for travel. In that, the driver controls and steers the movement of the bus.  Likewise, business drivers drive an organization’s business. Organizations develop strategies based on the drivers; they develop programs based on the strategy, and they implement a set of projects to implement that strategy.  I would think that the below drivers are the major ones and without it, an organization can’t sustain.

Introducing new products and services: This is one of the top drivers of a project. It is self explanatory. For example, the car companies have started with Diesel engine cars; then petrol engine cars, and now hybrid cars. Also, time to time they introduce new features to meet the customers’ expectation. Without this driver, most of the organizations cannot sustain in today’s business environment.

Supporting Organization strategies: Strategy is nothing but the direction of an organization in the long run. Let me give a simple example. Let’s say, the company “ABC International” from Media & Entertainment industry, operating from Berlin, Germany wanted to expand their business. They wanted to capture the entire US market within 3 years. In order to accomplish they will do lot of projects. One can map this example with the projects that their organizations to understand the importance of this driver.

To implement Latest IT products: Let’s refer the same above example here. Let us say the same ABC International company has been using customer care representatives to address their customers’ queries. The management decided to use “Interactive Voice Response (IVR)” systems which is the latest IT product available on the market would help to handle the customer queries. Now, one can imagine the importance of this driver for an organization.

To implement Legislative requirements: This is self-explanatory. For example, a government might request the Financial Institutions operating from that country to notify the money laundering monitoring agency if someone withdraws more than certain amount from a bank. Organizations perform similar projects to meet legislative requirements.

I would think that whatever projects an organization performs can be classified into the above categories. Are there any other key drivers you can think of, please share your views.