Five key success drivers in 2025
To understand what successful project management means today, you have to look beyond the classic trio of scope, cost and time. More than just delivery, organizations want lasting impact—results that align with their strategy and projects that can adapt to a rapidly changing environment.
According to the Project Management Institute, project management is about applying the right tools and skills to meet project requirements. But increasingly, it also involves adopting a strategic advisor mindset from day one. This means understanding the real need, asking the right questions and steering decisions to create value.
Here are five practical ways to get a clearer view of your projects and boost your strategic position. These success drivers can also enrich your practices whether you're managing a project, on an executive committee or leading an initiative.
1. Align project management with strategic business priorities
An often-overlooked aspect, it's important to ensure that your project is truly aligned with the company's strategic goals. This isn't just the project manager's job—it's the responsibility of everyone down the governance chain, from leadership to the team in charge of delivery. Only by working together can you ensure that the project serves a bigger vision.
Why is strategic alignment crucial?
Strategic alignment is essential: It ensures your efforts reflect the company's priorities and deliver maximum value. Therefore, make sure you have solid alignment from the very beginning.
This is a pivotal step as it ensures your project doesn't stray from its intended impact. It's easy to get sidetracked because a solution is on the table or funding is available. By focusing on strategic alignment, you ensure your projects have a tangible impact on the company and deliver the intended benefits.
In practice, it's always best to document this alignment early on. Asking yourself some key questions on day one can help you ground your project in a value-driven approach.
Strategic alignment isn't a one-time effort. It needs to be verified at each project stage to ensure your project remains in sync with the company's strategic goals.
Where do I start?
First, you need to clarify the need to be addressed or the problem to solve. Remember that not every project is intended to generate visible or strategic value. Some are driven by regulatory, technical or operational requirements. For example, a project may arise due to new regulations or a server update.
Start by asking yourself:
- What situation is the company trying to improve?
- What need is the company facing?
If the project aims for measurable impact, ask yourself:
- What performance indicators will be used to measure success?
- What targets do we want to reach as a company? Are these targets realistic?
2. Use the project management triangle to build lasting value
Before targeting more advanced indicators, you need to ensure your foundations are solid. The traditional project management triangle remains an important guide —when used thoughtfully and as part of a broader approach.
Project management triangle
Three elements in the project management triangle:
- Scope
- Cost
- Time
These elements remain essential today, but they need to be part of a broader value-driven vision. Applying the project management triangle alone doesn't guarantee added value. To ensure your project delivers lasting value, continuous assessment of strategic alignment needs to be a governance priority.
Your company's situation and environment can change. An ongoing project may need to be adjusted after an event or a strategic realignment, or simply because the initial goal wasn't reassessed as the project progressed.
Factor in value and ROI from the planning stage
It's important to link the three elements in the project management triangle to performance metrics and measurable outcomes. This will help you assess the project's return on investment (ROI).
Your planning needs to be realistic and aligned with the three elements in the triangle (scope, cost and time). According to a recent article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, "almost half of business projects fall behind schedule, and up to a third are not completed at all." In many cases, an overly ambitious timeline undermines results from the start.
Anticipate and document changes
Your company needs to strike a balance between two responsibilities: sticking to a solid plan for success and staying flexible enough to navigate uncertainty.
When a change is required, it's crucial to:
- Quickly identify it
- Clearly document the impacts
- Involve stakeholders in the decision-making process
Doing this will help safeguard the project's success without compromising quality. You can also use data from past projects to adjust expectations accordingly. The traditional project management triangle is useful, but it needs to be supported by real, context-driven data.
3. Apply dynamic governance and effective change management
Governance isn't just committees and charts. It's a dynamic process that should guide day-to-day decisions, support execution and help you adjust a project's course without losing sight of your goals.
A clear governance structure
In project management, it's essential to manage risks proactively and escalate critical decisions before they become urgent. Having a clear governance structure in place can make a real difference.
Governance should:
- Be capable of adjusting a project's course without losing sight of the goals
- Clearly assign responsibilities
- Maintain transparent communication
- Provide effective channels for escalation
Key Power Skills
Interpersonal skills are increasingly recognized as essential to managing complex projects and key to building stronger, more resilient and better-aligned teams.
According to the Project Management Institute, the following skills have become essential:
- Active listening
- Communication
- Conflict management
- Emotional intelligence
- Empathy
- Negotiation
- Problem solving
- Teamwork
These power skills ensure teams don't lose sight of their goals during times of uncertainty while fostering support and long-term collaboration.
They are just as essential as technical skills and they directly influence how problems get solved and how well project stakeholders work together.
Business acumen: an emerging skill
The Project Management Institute identified a new key skill in 2025: business acumen.
Business acumen is a skill that helps project managers:
- Understand how the company creates value
- Align their decisions with business goals
- Act on strategic priorities
This skill shifts the project manager's role from simply overseeing deliverables to becoming a real strategic partner.
Why is the change management team essential?
For many of our clients, the change management team is often the first to face cuts when budget adjustments are necessary. However, this team plays a key role by supporting users, fostering buy-in and promoting lasting adoption of new practices.
Weakening this team risks compromising project adoption on the ground.
Why not cut costs here?
Because the change management team helps to:
- Support teams during project setbacks
- Foster buy-in through targeted communication
- Speed up adoption to generate benefits sooner
In short, the better users adapt, the faster the project will deliver results.
4. Break down silos and build cross-team project collaboration
Seamless collaboration across teams is one of the clearest signs of organizational maturity in project management. Silos, on the other hand, break alignment, delay results and reduce agility. A well-governed project is agile: Everyone knows who's doing what and whom to turn to if there's a dependency or roadblock.
The Project Management Institute highlights that hybrid projects (combining agile and predictive approaches) are increasingly used to address the growing complexity of today's environments. These types of projects require close collaboration between the business and technical functions. That kind of cohesion doesn't just emerge—it has to be built.
Multi-project committees are an effective tool
Steering bodies can play a key role in breaking down silos and synchronizing efforts. For example, multi-project committees can help coordinate initiatives and maintain a unified overview.
Multi-project committees help to:
- Share information across teams
- Anticipate conflicting priorities
- Align efforts among departments
- Prevent fragmentation in major programs
Toward a common language
Beyond promoting synchronization, these mechanisms also encourage different teams to speak a common language. This alignment helps maintain momentum, reduce friction and reinforce shared responsibility throughout the project.
5. Measure the project's real benefits and ROI beyond delivery
To measure a project's real benefits, it's not enough to confirm delivery. You also need to monitor the tangible results the company was expecting.
Measuring impacts beyond delivery
More and more companies want their project management office (PMO) to shift from simply managing deliveries to generating tangible value. The value created only becomes clear after the delivery is complete.
Once delivery is complete, ask yourself:
- Did the project achieve the intended transformation?
- Did the expected impact materialize on the ground?
Key role of the benefit owner
A good practice is to name a benefit owner within the company. This key role ensures follow-up after delivery, so results are genuinely measured and not just assumed to be achieved.
This approach transforms project management into a strategic steering tool. It also creates conditions to learn from each project, improve practices and showcase the tangible contributions of the teams.
Five questions to assess your project in 2025
- Does this project meet a clearly defined strategic need?
- Have we identified measurable benefits to monitor after delivery?
- Does the governance structure support the ability to make quick adjustments?
- Are the right people assigned at each phase?
- Do we have full stakeholder engagement?
Five drivers of lasting project management success
Project management is no longer just about execution. It is increasingly a strategic tool, a governance framework and a value-driven practice.
These five success drivers can enrich your project management practices and help you create lasting impact. Far from being set in stone, they are adaptable principles to be aligned with the needs of your organization.
These five drivers can help you to:
- Better align your projects with your goals
- Make better decisions from the start
- Build a more solid framework for team collaboration
They promote a shift toward a more mature, cross-functional and value-driven project culture.
Every project becomes an opportunity for learning and lasting transformation.
Maybe that's the true definition of success?
Want to boost the strategic impact of your projects? Our experts can assist you from the very first step.