Managing Project Interdependencies
Managing project dependencies (or interdependencies) is an often-missed tactical capability of project portfolio management (PPM). Yet, managing project dependencies is an important part of portfolio planning so as to tactically coordinate project execution. Successful management of project…
How to Build and Use a Priority Matrix
In this post we will cover what a priority matrix is, and how to build a prioritization matrix, and how to use a priority matrix in the context of project portfolio management. What is a Priority Matrix? A priority matrix is a tool used to categorically prioritize types of work. It has three…
How To Create A Successful Work Intake Process
Work intake is a critical success factor for project portfolio management. Does your organization have a “single entry” for new project requests? Or rather, does your organization have a front door, a side door, a back door, and many other ways to receive requests? Having multiple ways to submit…
The Complete Guide to the Project Management Office
In this complete guide to the Project Management Office (PMO) we will break down in detail the difference between a PMO and an EPMO. In order to do this, we will go in-depth to review what a PMO is, what it does, what the benefits are, and PMO frameworks. From there we will cover what an Enterprise…
Assess Portfolio Maturity Early and Often
Portfolio maturity levels represent the level of sophistication around portfolio management processes, tools, and people. It helps identify shortcomings in PPM processes (current state) and can be used to establish improvement goals to reach a better future state. A portfolio maturity model is a…
Benefits Realization and Portfolio Value Management
Benefit realization is one of the hardest portfolio management processes to get right (after resource capacity planning). Yet, in spite of the challenges, it gets the most buzz of any PPM process. It is a hot topic among Portfolio Managers and PMO leaders and the Project Management Institute.…
Portfolio Risk Management
Portfolio risk management enables organizations to protect portfolio investments and balance the level of risk in the portfolio. Organizations focused on improving their portfolio management discipline will be in a position to begin portfolio risk management after they have established work intake…
What is a Project Portfolio Manager?
The Portfolio Manager role is commonly misunderstood related to project and portfolio management. In this article we will answer the questions, “what is a Project Portfolio Manager?” and “what does a Project Portfolio Manager do”? Most articles get this wrong because it is discussed from a…
Project Portfolio Optimization
Introduction to Project Portfolio Optimization Project portfolio optimization offers the promise of generating and delivering the maximum possible business value from the company’s project portfolio. By using data and advanced analysis techniques, organizations can often generate more business…
Project Portfolio Decision Gate Framework
A project portfolio decision gate framework is a governance structure to evaluate, authorize, and monitor projects as they pass through the project lifecycle and is a critical component of project selection and portfolio oversight. In the previous post we discussed the work intake process which…