Aligning on outcomes

Let’s now break these eight steps into an actionable plan, using the previous example. These eight steps will explain how to, in specific detail, align with your business stakeholders. As you become more confident in this process, you will find it takes less time to complete this process. However, the first few times you go through it, you may find it takes a bit of time to map out. This would be a good process to work on with someone on your team or as a small team to ensure you capture all possible outcomes and work to refine them into a clear outcome prior to sharing them with your stakeholders for input and discussion. This is also a great process to work on with a stakeholder if they are open to collaborating more closely with you.

Step 1 – Aligning on the business outcome

Start by ensuring you and the business stakeholder (referred to as the business sponsor) are aligned on the business outcome they need, to support their business strategy...