Over at TechRepublic’s IT Leadership blog, Rick Freedman has written about the importance of not only focusing on projects in themselves, but also to understand the core business strategy that fuels the portfolio. He writes:

Here are my three best practice tips for keeping the overall project strategy in mind:

* Participate: The best scenario is one in which IT has a seat at the table as corporate objectives and strategies are being devised. Even if you aren’t invited to the strategy meeting, you can still contribute by posting your ideas and opinions in forums, suggestion programs, user committees, online communities, and various social media outlets.

* Study: Learn what directions your organization is thinking about taking in the future. Many enterprises have internal communication programs that are set up to ensure that all associates have a clear idea of the overall corporate strategy. Publicly traded companies must report to the SEC, and these reports are gold mines of data about the strategies, challenges, and risks associated with the company’s market, competitive position, and product mix. So are analyst opinions, which often cut to the heart of the challenges with a company’s strategies. In addition, trade magazines are one of the deepest sources of data on the risks, concerns, and opportunities in a particular vertical market, and they provide budding corporate strategists with plenty of great ideas about what the competition is doing and about what IT can bring to your firm.

* Think strategically: IT professionals and project managers who can think past their project and can see the entire context of the organization’s portfolio and strategy, are enabled to make the right decisions at every level of the project, from selecting the right components to pilot in a prototype or early iteration, to determining which projects should live or die depending on their overall contribution potential.