You’ve got a lot of projects. You’ve not got a lot of money or a lot of people to do them. How do you get a grip on what stays and what goes? Portfolio analysis is the answer. Here are five principles to help you organise your portfolio of projects.
1. Define who you are
What’s your corporate remit? What’s the mission of the PMO? Do you focus on IT projects, or deliver all projects across the organisation? Do you do resource allocation, or do you have to beg the rest of the business for staff? Think about what your current reason for being is and what you are tasked to deliver.
2. Get control of the data
You can’t start cutting (or prioritising) projects until you know what they are. You need to have control of all the data surrounding the projects in the portfolio. Start with the list of projects. Don’t forget that what the project managers report might not actually be a true reflection of what’s really happening, so do a governance check on the data to verify what the portfolio office is being told.
3. Relate projects and programmes to business strategy
Work out how the projects and programmes on the list tie back to the business strategy. If any of the don’t, why are you doing them? Prioritisation methods differ between companies, and in the end it doesn’t really matter what you choose, as long as the method you use makes sense to you and everyone understands how the priorities are worked out.
4. Define portfolio office processes
The portfolio office processes are your rules of engagement. What approvals do you need before a project manager starts work on a new initiative? What reports are required, who will produce them and how frequently? Establish the escalation processes too, as well as the tolerances above which things will be escalated.
5. Define success
Once all that is in place, you need to know what success looks like. Use something like Seavus DropMind to record all the metrics, measures and key performance indicators that you could possibly use. Then work out which ones are the most meaningful to you. Establish how you are going to track and record them, and then do it! These are measures that your portfolio office is doing a quality job, although you will also need measures around the successful delivery of projects.
With a clear direction and processes for the portfolio office, you should find it easier to get a grip on the projects, which will help you make the right choices for your organisation.