How to Choose the Best Projects to Take on as an Organization

Ideas abound in organizations with big goals and focused teams. If you manage a team, you might have some decision-making power in what projects are green lit. If you’re managing projects, you might not have that power–but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a say in what your team can take on. 

No matter where you sit in an organization, deciding which projects to tackle can be confusing, especially if every department wants their project to be the priority. Without a structured approach to making these big decisions on behalf of your team and company, you will have a project portfolio full of scattered efforts, stretched resources, and diluted focus. 

So, how do you choose the best projects? And more importantly, how do you manage them across the entire organization without stepping on toes or overloading your team? Let’s explore strategies that will help align your projects with the bigger organizational goals.

Define strategic priorities

The strongest organizations operate and make decisions based on long-term vision and strategic goals. If your organization is unclear about its focus or leadership has not communicated it, it will be challenging to determine the best work to take on. 

If you do not have that level of clarity, it’s time to find it! Maybe leadership isn’t communicating, and maybe they don’t realize that your team needs more direction to help them meet organizational goals. Meet with an executive (or a senior decision-maker), present your project prioritization issue, and seek guidance. If you can talk about organizational goals, suggest a quarterly or biannual meeting with leadership from all departments to recalibrate priorities. That way, you’re not making project decisions in a silo.

Create a scoring system
Not all projects are created equal, so why treat them that way? A scoring system can help objectively evaluate and prioritize projects. Consider criteria like:

• ROI: Which projects will likely generate the most revenue or reduce costs?
• Resource demand: What’s needed regarding manpower, budget, and time?
• Strategic fit: Does the project align with the company’s long-term goals?
• Risk level: What’s the likelihood of success vs. failure?

Inspecting and ranking each project request against these criteria can be very helpful to see which ones rise to the top. That might mean that you’ll require more information when taking project requests, and that’s not a bad thing, either. If you don’t have a solid project intake process that allows you to evaluate requests, think about simple questions to gain more clarity. Here are just a few you might consider:

• What are the main goals of this project, and how will it contribute to the company’s objectives?
• How does this project align with the organization’s strategic goals or priorities? (Yes, you can ask them this!)
• What is the project timeline? And are there any dependencies? Are there any critical milestones?
• Does the project need specific technical skills or departments to be involved?

Again, projects are opportunities to help your organization meet strategic goals. You will succeed if you value prioritizing efforts and only taking on work that will move everyone forward.

Encourage cross-departmental collaboration

It’s easy for departments to focus on their own needs, but when managing a portfolio of projects across the entire organization, you have to think holistically. The only way to do that is to ensure transparency and collaboration in your decision-making process. 

If you work in a larger organization, you might consider implementing a project management office (PMO) or a centralized governance team that oversees all project work. This team can help ensure project alignment and resolve any conflicts between departments or even project priorities.

You also might consider a Strategic Portfolio Management solution to provide a top-level view of all projects at once. Empowering leaders with a bird’s eye view of all work will help everyone make smarter, data-driven decisions about what you can take on and when. This level of transparency will force conversations and decisions that will impact what’s most important–progress and meeting strategic goals together as a team.

Keep an eagle eye on resourcing

At the end of the day, you have to know that you and your team can only take on so much. It’s critical to always have a view of your human and financial resources so that you can be realistic about what your team can handle. Having data to back up your decisions will make it easier to say no or defer a project if you’re at capacity.

Resourcing can be tricky because priorities shift, projects evolve, and people introduce change often. But if you always have a sense of upcoming effort and defined roles and responsibilities, you will have a clear view of what’s possible (or impossible) when it comes to bandwidth. 

Remember: employees aren’t “resources” who have 40-50 hours to complete work. They’re human beings who can work at capacity but also require a healthy balance of working and thinking space. When they’re over-taxed by tasks and projects, their ability to deliver great work is diminished and usually something negative will happen: missed deadlines, poor communication, missed work or even negative team interactions. 

When you put people first and consider individual needs, you make sound, responsible decisions that lead to stronger project outcomes. When you treat people like resources, who must crank out work day in and day out, you not only risk lowering the quality of output, you risk that person’s happiness and potentially even their longevity within the team.

Continuous review and adaptation

We’ve already said it: things will change. And just because you’ve chosen a project doesn’t mean it’s set in stone. It’s key to regularly review your portfolio to assess progress, value, and alignment with evolving company goals. That means projects may need to be reprioritized or even cut if they no longer serve the business’s needs.

Keep a pulse on the market, company goals, and resource availability, and adjust your portfolio as needed. Shared access to a Strategic Portfolio Management platform like OnePlan will keep stakeholders tuned in to priorities and let them address issues when required. 

Balance ambition with reality

There’s no doubt that the decisions you’ll make will impact the success of your team and company–and that can be daunting. But knowing that you’re taking a strategic approach anchored in company goals, a solid intake and evaluation system, transparency, and collaboration should help you build a portfolio of projects that drives growth, innovation, and efficiency. The key is balancing ambition with realism and ensuring every project moves you closer to achieving the big picture.