Managing The Portfolio

Approach to management of portfolio projects

Stuart Robb

May 2012

Managing the Portfolio

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

2Copyright © Maddison Ward 2006

Four Dimensions of Project/Programme Delivery

Product what is it?

Scope: what am I going to get

Time: when will I get it

Cost: how much will it cost me

Quality: will it work?

Organisation who delivers it?

Process how does it get delivered?

Client/Business is it what I’m expecting?

PRODUCT CLIENT or BUSINESS

ORGANISATION PROCESS

RISK

OUTCOME

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”

Processes should guide where the levers should be set, how the delivery should be monitored and identify risk areas.

=> REDUCE RISK | INCREASE CERTAINTY


What makes a successful delivery organisation?

PROCESS

PEOPLE

TECHNOLOGY

CollateralKnowledgeProcedures

ForumsTerms of ReferenceDirectory Structures

Project FoldersSignoffs/Acceptances

CultureBehavioursLeadershipTrainingIncentives/RewardPeer ReviewsMonitoringEnvironment

Milestone ManagementRisk/Issue ManagementPortfolio ManagementFinancial ManagementResource Management

Knowledge ManagementConfiguration Management

Business Change MgtMicrosoft Project

RAID Logs (Excel/MS Access)Timesheeting (Clarity) GOOD PROCESSES

are no substitute for

GREAT LEADERSHIP


Four Essential Disciplines of Portfolio Management

Plan Management

ResourceManagement

FinancialManagement

Prioritised initiativesProject EstimationInter-dependencies

Are we doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right order

to maximise business value?

Resource (talent) poolBAU baselineProject Plans

Do we have sufficient people,with the right skills,

available at the right time

BudgetBusiness casesProject costings

Can we afford it anddoes it make us any money?

ChangeManagement

Project PlansChange Impact Map

Training Needs AnalysisStakeholder Engagement

Can the business tolerate the change footprint and is the

business ready for it?

Tools/Diagnostics Discipline Allows us to understand:-

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

PER

FEC

T V

IEW


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


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?


There are many tools that can assist in managing a project

Introducing project management change should be “unambitious”

Increasing rigour slowly over time


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.


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.

Copyright Maddison Ward 2006

In portfolio management, the perfect view is...

hindsight

Investment banking is gambling with money. Project management is gambling with time

--Stuart Robb 2009

Investment banking is gambling with money. Project management is gambling with time

--Stuart Robb 2009

Managing The Portfolio

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