Managing The Portfolio

Managing the Portfolio
Approach to management of portfolio projects

Stuart Robb
May 2012

The science of project management is the art of predicting the future
-- Stuart Robb 2006

Four Dimensions of Project/Programme Delivery

 Product what is it?
CLIENT or
 Scope: what am I going to get PRODUCT
BUSINESS
 Time: when will I get it

 Cost: how much will it cost me

 Quality: will it work? ORGANISATION PROCESS

 Organisation who delivers it?

 Process how does it get delivered? RISK
 Client/Business is it what I’m expecting?

Clouded by the fog of RISK - likelihood of a successful outcome

Essence of good project management is to set &
monitor the levers of product delivery in “equilibrium”
OUTCOME
Processes should guide where the levers should be set, how
the delivery should be monitored and identify risk areas.
Copyright © Maddison Ward 2006 => REDUCE RISK | INCREASE CERTAINTY 2

What makes a successful delivery organisation?

Culture
Behaviours
Leadership Collateral
Training Knowledge
Incentives/Reward Procedures
Peer Reviews Forums
Monitoring Terms of Reference
Environment Directory Structures
Project Folders
Signoffs/Acceptances

PEOPLE
PROCESS
Milestone Management
Risk/Issue Management
Portfolio Management
Financial Management
TECHNOLOGY
Resource Management
Knowledge Management
Configuration Management
Business Change Mgt
Microsoft Project
RAID Logs (Excel/MS Access)
Timesheeting (Clarity) GOOD PROCESSES
are no substitute for

Copyright © Maddison Ward 2006
GREAT LEADERSHIP 3

Four Essential Disciplines of Portfolio Management

Tools/Diagnostics Discipline Allows us to understand:-
Are we doing the right thing,
Prioritised initiatives
Project Estimation Plan
at the right time,

PERFECT VIEW
Inter-dependencies Management in the right order
to maximise business value?

Resource (talent) pool Do we have sufficient people,
Resource
BAU baseline with the right skills,
Management
Project Plans available at the right time

Budget
Financial Can we afford it and
Business cases does it make us any money?
Project costings Management

Project Plans Can the business tolerate the
Change Impact Map Change
Training Needs Analysis Management change footprint and is the
Stakeholder Engagement business ready for it?

Underpinned by clear, accurate, unambiguous STATUS
(through dashboard etc) 4

How do we determine what the “STATUS” of each project is?

 In order to manage the portfolio successfully, it is vital to be able to
understand what’s going on in each of the projects/initiatives and make
informed decisions accordingly.
Therefore, accurate status reporting is vital.
 The key to successful “status reporting” is consistency and commonality
 All project managers report “in the same way” – the same status for similar
situations – remove subjectivity as much as possible

 Status reporting needs to cover, at least, each of the portfolio dimensions. So, at
a minimum, status should include:-
 Time
 Cost / Benefit
 Resources
 Change Readiness
 Clear, and commonly understood definitions of RED, AMBER and GREEN for each of
the dimensions.

 Status reports should cascade up – they should not be overly onerous to produce –
They’re not essays!

“LITE” GOVERNANCE PROCESSES and PROJECT ASSURANCE
ARE CENTRAL TO SUCCESSFUL PROJECT DELIVERY

5

Status Reporting

 My project/workstream is on-time and on-budget.

 My project is on-time but over-budget

 My project is on-time and on-budget, but I forecast it will go over-time

 My project is on-time and on-budget, but I forecast it will go over-time and over budget

 My project has one workstream that is ahead of schedule, but another that is very late

 My project is on-time and on-budget, and will deliver on-time and on-budget, but the number of
defects is extremely high
 My project is on-time and on-budget, the number of defects is low, but I have hundreds of change
requests which haven’t yet been impact assessed

 My project is on-time and on-budget, but in a weeks time I lose all my resources to Project X

 My project is late and over-budget
 My project is on-time and on-budget but there’s an issue that’s preventing me from making any
further progress

 My project is on-time and on-budget, but I’m dependant on another project which is late

WHAT IS THE CORRECT RAG STATUS FOR EACH OF THESE?

6

There are many tools that can assist in managing a project

Introducing project management change should be “unambitious”
Increasing rigour slowly over time
7

Challenge of managing projects?

 “One size fits all” project management methodology rarely successful.
 E.g. Marketing project delivery rarely has much synergy with, for example, IT
Infrastructure projects - deliverables and stage-gates may be different.

 Product launch plans may have only minor overlap to business change plans

 Hence, flexible project management framework tends to work better.

 Introducing project peer review framework for project assurance particularly
effective (especially for estimating).
 Portfolio Management and Project Management intrinsically linked and
should be undertaken holistically.
 Creating the portfolio should be an iterative process, informed by prioritised
initiatives and high-level project plans. The portfolio must be able to
accommodate change.
– the greater the effort in planning, the more accurate the
plans will be, but law of diminishing returns.

100% of the costs and timescales will be understood when
100% of the project / portfolio is delivered.
8

How do I manage large programmes/portfolios?

 Establish manageable and achievable expectations with the client/business
 For each project or workstream, fixate on delivery of top 7 milestones per
phase (...7 is the magic number in project management...)
 Will they deliver on-time, to budget and quality or not? If not, what is the
resolving action?
 Right to left planning

 Delegated authority, coupled with peer reviews and regular one-to-one’s.
 Openness & Honesty
 It is inevitable that things will go off-plan. It is vital to have a culture where these
challenges can be raised and addressed without fear of recrimination

 Focus more on developing the project managers leadership skills than
developing overly burdensome project processes – governance lite...
 Create commonly understood outcomes, vision, plans etc.
 Widest possible communication of information in easily digestible format

Passion, commitment, tenaciousness, resolution, pragmatism,
decisiveness and determination are not attributes that can be
governed by process.
9

In portfolio management,
the perfect view is...

hindsight

Investment banking is gambling with money. Project management is
gambling with time
--Stuart Robb 2009

Copyright Maddison Ward 2006

Managing The Portfolio

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