Starting A Portfolio 1.2
- 1. How to get started – managing a project and programme portfolio
- 2. IntroductionThis guide is aimed at those responsible for arranging and managing investment in projects and programmes across the whole of an organisation or for a specific departmentThis guide sets out the initial steps to:Help you understand what portfolio management is and its benefitsHelp you define the purpose for creating a portfolio in your organisationProvide examples of the challenges and resistance you will experience when trying to establish a portfolio approachGive you some ideas for:Identifying all existing initiativesCategorising the initiatives so that you can see their impact by function, by contribution to strategic objectives or by resource usageCreating criteria for initiatives to form part of your portfolioTo access the white paper ‘Building Capability for Effective Portfolio Management’ go to http://www.maventraining.co.uk/whitepapers/2© Maven Training 2011
- 3. Scope of the workPortfolios represent the totality of an organisations investment in the changes required to achieve its strategic objectivesPortfolio Management is a coordinated collection of strategic processes and decisions that together enable a more effective balance of organisational change and business as usualThe portfolio already exists (although it might not be called a portfolio) as there are projects and programmes taking place throughout the organisation at any one time, but portfolio management is formalising what is known about it and how it can be managed better as a group of initiativesTo undertake portfolio management you first need to understand the scale of the work already underway in organisational change (projects and programmes) and business as usual(daily pressure of work and small scale change initiatives to make improvements to this daily work)3© Maven Training 2011
- 4. Benefits of portfolio managementGreater emphasis on achievement of strategic objectivesClearer link between actual activity and ideas in the Business PlanIncrease in the emphasis given to realising benefits and the subsequent increase in their achievementMore effective use of resources:Reduction in costs from stopping or not starting initiatives that do not contribute sufficient benefitsIncrease in availability of resources to undertake projects and change initiatives deemed high priorityA reduction in project and change activity that is a duplication of effort or is running at cross purposesFewer resources are involved in preparing for change, with consequent reduced pressure on all resources Fewer initiatives mean less disruption to day-to-day business activity4© Maven Training 2011
- 5. Why do you need a portfolio?Need to understand the total spend that the organisation is making on improvements and changes to the way it operates – many organisations are surprised by the figures once they total the spend because prior to the creation of a portfolio the spend was ‘hidden’ in departmental budgets and the total investment in change was not calculatedNeed to see how much change is underway and how much capacity the organisation has for more change – in some cases the need for a portfolio approach is driven by pressure on resources who cannot assimilate the deliverables from multiple projects into their working practices whilst at the same time managing growth in the volume of their business as usual activitiesNeed to understand where changes are taking place (resources split between projects and programmes and business as usual) and where the organisation is ‘stable’ with limited project and programme management activityNeed to understand the current resources assigned to projects and programmes in order to undertake an expansion (hiring) or contraction (redundancy/restructuring)Need to understand what initiatives are underway prior to the launch of a new strategic direction, where some of the existing initiatives will be stopped, some given greater emphasis and the need for additional initiatives identified5© Maven Training 2011
- 6. ChallengesThose running the projects and programmes will see your initial information gathering about existing work as:A threat to their autonomy to run themA threat to the continuation of these initiatives as comparing them against each other in a portfolio will show up the weaknesses (limited benefits, cost overruns, delays, resource conflicts etc) Building a portfolio requires information gathering and planning which can be seen as an additional bureaucratic step that does not add any additional value to the organisationProject and programme managers believe that they are already reporting the information that you want and that portfolio management is an additional administrative burden for them6© Maven Training 2011
- 7. Identifying existing initiativesWho to ask - to create a comprehensive understanding of the existing portfolio, don’t just take the information you are given in reports about project activity in each department. You need to ask likely recipients of project deliverables, who may identify initiatives that have not been formally documented but are using resources – see next slide for examples of who to askWhat to ask – compile a set of characteristics about each possible project and programme and make sure you ask all managers and read all reports to gain the same information for each initiative. For example:Type of initiative – decide if you are going to capture details of all the projects within a programme separately or just record high level information about each programmeProject deliverables – systems, processes, staff hires, new locations, new equipment, new or changed contracts with suppliers etc.Number and type of resources involved in each project The expected costs and types of cost e.g. consultancy, equipment, licences etc – and define if the costs are from a departmental or central budgetThe benefits expected from each initiative, ideally quantified in financial terms7© Maven Training 2011
- 8. 8© Maven Training 2011Portfolio stakeholdersExternal stakeholdersInternalstakeholdersSupport staffCustomer facing staffManagersSuppliersCustomersReviewersBusiness line 1Function 1BoardRegulatorsEssentialHigh valueBusiness line 2Function 2ExecutivesAuditorsAll othersAll othersBusiness line 3Function 3Senior ManagersMediaFinancial analysts
- 9. Building the portfolio – categoriseOrganises change initiatives into groups, types or segmentsCategories can be based on:Type of deliverable or type of benefitSponsoring departmentUsers or those that will need to change their way of working to benefit from the projectStrategic objective that the project or programme contributes to e.g.Growth in customers, staff, product or service range, locations serviced by the organisation, number of officesIncrease in productivity by person/team/departmentDecrease in cost of salesDecrease in staff turnover/increase in staff satisfactionDecrease in customer complaints/increase in customer satisfaction9© Maven Training 2011
- 10. Building the portfolio – prioritiseOnce you understand what work is being undertaken, organise the portfolio so that the following questions can be answered:What are the most important initiatives?Which initiatives should the organisation invest in?What initiatives no longer meet the strategic objectives and can be retired from the portfolio?Identify the importance of each strategic objective and give each importance a weightingAssess each initiative for its contribution to the strategic objectives and give it a scoreMultiply the score by the weighting and rank each initiative with highest scores first – see next slide for an example of this approach10© Maven Training 2011
- 11. Prioritisation example - 1Weighting:Critical to the survival/success of the organisation has a weighting of 3 i.e. 3 times more important than the least important objectiveImportant to the survival/success of the organisation has a weighting of 2Useful for the achievement of the strategy has a weighting of 1For each initiative, identify its contribution to the strategic objectives of the organisation:No contribution = 0Some contribution = 5Significant contribution = 1011© Maven Training 2011
- 12. Prioritisation example - 212© Maven Training 2011Name of initiativeWeightingContributionTotal valueMarketing programme2510Upgrade of office software100Leasing of new office2510Hiring new sales team31030Sale of subsidiary company2510Launch of new product31030Name of initiativeWeightingContributionTotal valueHiring new sales team31030Launch of new product31030Marketing programme2510Leasing of new office2510Sale of subsidiary company2510Upgrade of office software100
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