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Portfolio, Execution & Monitoring 

Not all projects make the grade and many need to be eliminated even after the portfolio has been approved, because:

a) The projects concerned do not provide sufficient value and are no longer aligned with the business’s objectives.
b) Projects with a higher urgency have been proposed, resulting in a delay to or termination of current projects.
c) A project has been rescoped and integrated within another.
d) Technology has changed, negating the benefits of a planned project.

With only a small percentage of the proposed projects approved and executed, it is crucial that they succeed. Since the business is changing throughout the year, there will also be ongoing changes to the portfolio. This includes the addition of new projects and the elimination of old. This ongoing process of replanning and rebalancing the work, based on changing business needs, is also a part of the portfolio management execution and monitoring process. Portfolio management is therefore more than a one-time event that is performed once a year during your business planning phase. It is a contiual, iterative process that needs ongoing monitoring and course correction. It is essential that the PPMT take proactive steps to resolve problems and keep projects on track by:

a) correcting overlaps and redundancies
b) reviewing and resolving issues and problems
c) monitoring project spending and adjusting budgets
d) monitoring and mitigating project risks
e) managing resource conflicts sch as supply and demand shortfalls
f) reassessing the timing and duration of projects

The PPM selection and prioritisation process is easily emasculated if the portfolio is not actively managed. With projects straying over time, over budget and with business goals shifting and evolving, even originally well conceived projects rapidly become misaligned. However, misalignment must not be feared; it is in fact a natural and expected outcome. The real success of PPM lies in the ability of the PPMT to identify this misalignment and take corrective action. The PPMT must be able to make objective ‘go/kill/hold/fix’ decisions and be able to recognise that a dramatic change in business priorities may eliminate the need for a project, requiring quick project terminatio. As stated earlier, management of the portfolio includes managing the resources, proactively communicating what is going on, reviewing and replanning the remaining work on a regular basis and measuring the results. If new projects are added to the portfolio it will mean that other, previously authorised projects will need either to be eliminated or put on hold. With the help of the PMO, the PPMT needs to document and track individual projects and impelment a course correction process to ensure that the portfolio as a whole accomplishes its objective.

The typical steps involved in executing and monitoring the portfolio include:

Step 1: Gathering project portfolio information
a) collective individual project score cards
b) building a consolidated portfolio score card
c) collecting  project and portfolio resource plans including shortfalls and new demands
d) building a detailed project status report
e) building a detailed portfolio status report

Step 2: Measuring and analysing the project portfolio
a) measuring the performance of ongoing projects
b) measuring the success of completed projects
c) measuring interdependencies between projects
d) measuring overall business value and alignment
e) determining an inventory of projects for portfolio course correction changes

Step 3: Analysing the impact of changes to the project portfolio
a) analysing the impact of projects that may be cancelled
b) analysing the impact of newly identified projects
c) analysing the impact of current projects not achieving objectives
d) analysing the impact of projects that have changed their scope

Step 4: Reviewing portfolio changes and reforecasting
a) filtering new projects against the existing project portfolio
b) reviewing current and new portfolio goals and objectives
c) ensuring individual project business cases are revalidated and aligned with these objectives
d) ranking projects against revised priorities
e) updating the project inventory
f) modelling resource scenarios and analysing the overall impact on the business
g) selecting scenarios and updating the resource schedule

Step 5: Communicating and implementing portfolio changes
a) revalidating business cases for existing authorised projects
b) revalidating business cases for newly authorised projects
c) issuing a new project portfolio review
d) providing guidance on changes to portfolio work
e) communicating with project stakeholders
f) agreeing a timeframe for the next portfolio review
g) making ‘go/kill/hold/fix’ decisions

Being able to take corrective action on projects is a key component of PPM. If a project is not meeting its objectives, it is crucial to identify the root cause, develop an action plan, and then monitor and track to ensure the action is implemented and the issue is resolved. The PPMT must have the ability to intimately understand how projects in the portfolio relate to different business goals and the ramifications if either projects or business goals change. The PPMT needs to track trends and anticipate new opportunities and threats so that project stakeholders can implement measures to avoid misalignment.