Learn how to track and improve the effectiveness of project management with KPIs. Use performance metrics to demonstrate the value of the project to the stakeholders.
- “Projects” and “Initiatives” – what’s the difference?
- Project management: why measure, and who are the stakeholders?
- KPIs for project management: Scope, Cost, Time, Risk, Quality, Resources
Project vs. Initiative: The Position of Projects in Strategic Planning
What is the role of projects in strategic planning? Before, we talked about different levels of abstraction in strategic planning.
We started with the highest level (mission, vision, core values), moved on to the level of strategic priorities, business goals, performance metrics, and finally, to the action level (Level 5 on the diagram).
In strategic planning, the actionable items are normally called “initiatives.” Why don’t we call them “projects?”
What’s the difference between an initiative and a project?
- A definition of the initiative that we can find in the dictionaries underlines the novelty or the difficulty of the activity.
- In contrast, the term project is explained as a method worked out in advance or some planned work with a deadline.
I like to use a trip as an analogy to explain the difference:
- When a family plans their first car trip from Paris to Barcelona, it sounds a lot like an initiative. The nuances of the road are not well-known, the road fees are estimated very roughly, finding a good restaurant along the way is a matter of chance.
- Now, imagine a different situation, a truck driver who covers the same route. The timing, road fees, fuel and accommodation costs are calculated with high accuracy. For the logistic center, in charge of this truck, this is a small project.
What are the attributes of a project? Let’s take a classical project management triangle:
- Budget
- Timeline
- Scope
What about an initiative? It can have exactly the same attributes! For example, here is an initiative dialog from the strategic planning software, it looks very similar to what we have in a project management tool.
