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Project portfolio managers require distinctly different skills to project managers, so finding a candidate with the appropriate skill-set is crucial for the performance of the whole portfolio and organisation. A portfolio manager needs to be less focused on the tactical management of each project and more oriented toward the whole picture, identifying opportunities, driving growth and anticipating risks in order to deliver on a portfolio’s objectives.

The ideal project portfolio manager needs to combine different skills. In this post we will discuss the responsibilities of a portfolio director and the ten most relevant skills that they should bring to the table.

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What are the responsibilities of a portfolio manager?

According to Gartner, the discipline of project portfolio management is composed of functional areas:

Business strategy planning
Portfolio planning
Creation of the portfolio
Evaluation of the portfolio
Balance of the portfolio
Communication of the portfolio
Evaluation of the portfolio

Unlike external projects for clients, which are relatively independent from each other, internal IT projects are very complex, since almost all technologies used within the organisation are interrelated, and their performance is subject to pressure with each new change. For this reason, the portfolio manager must ensure that IT teams maximise their efficacy and focus their efforts on the technological systems that best support the productive part of the business.

The 10 key competences of the portfolio manager

The soft skills of a portfolio manager are like those of a project manager, only their impact becomes much more relevant. The difference between the two profiles lies in the scale and importance of the decisions the managers have to make. If a project manager makes mistakes, their project suffers. But if a portfolio manager makes mistakes, the entire organisation suffers, which will mean a loss of competitiveness.

A project manager must be able to follow a very rigorous methodology while attending to all the aspects of people management that make the project a headache. Portfolio managers, on the other hand, need to have deep technical knowledge to perform their job, which includes the coordination of project managers and exchanging technical opinions with them.

The methodological aspect should be combined with very clear organisational leadership. This means that the portfolio manager must be able to make quick and well-informed decisions based on the information at their disposal. For this, you need a good PPM system for project and portfolio management and planning.

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1. Decision making

Of course, a project manager cannot be an indecisive person. A project manager can plan to the smallest detail in a limited area of responsibility to understand the consequences of a particular risk, so their decisions always have a technical outlook. On the other hand, a portfolio manager must make decisions that usually affect people around them: each time a project is cancelled there is a sponsor that is affected, in addition to a project manager and a whole team that has to be reassigned. These decisions tend to create a dilemma between short- and long-term gains, internal balances and business priorities, so a very balanced mind is needed to be able to take decisions cooly and without biases.

2. Competitve spirit

It is recommended that a portfolio manager promotes a culture of internal competition intended to stimulate project teams. Of course, it is important to keep control of motivation levels, since internal competition can clearly affect the emotional health of the organisation if it starts to translate into envy, quarrels or political disputes.

The internal competition should be well directed. The objective is never to promote confrontation, but to stimulate the improvement and the performance of the teams involved, promoting excellence as a value and associating it with the identity of the organisation. In the case of external competition, this type of corporate culture translates into an advantage over competitors.

3. Entrepreunarial spirit

The portfolio manager must be a person open to new ideas and constant transformation. In a paradigm that adopts portfolio management according to agile principles, it is especially important for the portfolio to be subject to constant scrutiny for identifying those “unicorn seeds” that can appear at any time.

4. Emotional intelligence

Sadly, many managers are excellent at decision-making and analysing complex financial data with a practical approach, but are unable to connect with their teams.

Empathy is an essential emotional characteristic for every portfolio manager. When your decisions directly impact project managers and their teams, anticipating the emotional reactions of those affected and finding formulas for motivation is as important as making the right decisions. Otherwise, they risk losing authority and leadership.

5.Communication

Portfolio managers must face the harshness of their decisions and be able to justify them with fair arguments. Hiding behind the decisions of a committee, the emails of the secretary or the agenda it is not advisable or effective.

Of course, communication must be proactive. Otherwise, the people in the organisation will never have enough information about the current strategy, what is expected of them and how they should collaborate to make the management’s plans a reality.

6. Proactivity and agility

It is obvious that a portfolio manager cannot wait for the bad news happen. If there is a chance that a strategic project won’t achieve the expected results, the portfolio manager must be the first to know. For this, it is essential that project managers understand and extend a culture of transparency in which the failure of a project is not (necessarily) seen as a personal failure, but as an opportunity to rectify, learn and face a new challenge.

7. Independence and impartiality

No matter how intelligent, successful and far-sighted, a portfolio manager loses all credibility if they give ground to favouritism.

To avoid this, it is useful that the manager recognises the biases that exist, identifying any colleagues they may be inclined to lend preference to, and recognising that it is at least possible to make decisions that moderate the natural predisposition and maintain independence.

8. Analytical ability and numerical intelligence

Although this list includes mostly soft skills and character traits, it is worth remembering that a strong portfolio manager, beyond the methodologies in project management, should have the ability to analyse swiftly, interpreting statistics and KPIs in a matter of seconds and detecting relationships between parameters.

In short, hiring a big data enthusiast as a portfolio manager is be a good idea.

9. Determination

Sometimes a portfolio manager must make hard decisions whose consequences are hard to bear for everyone, including the manager. On other occasions, abstract decisions are made but fail to be translated into real actions or put into practice.

A portfolio manager must be able to deal with resistance to change and maintain their decisions.

10. Humility

From all the previous points in the list, it may seem that a portfolio manager should be a kind of business genius, full of virtues and without any defect. Of course, no one is perfect and even the most brilliant of project experts will make mistakes, again and again. For that reason, a slightly less “brilliant” mind whose decisions can be swayed because of the ability to recognise mistakes is preferable than a superstar of project management that does not change course once the decision has been made.

In fact, the nature of portfolio management consists precisely in rectifying in time; and that sometimes means to undo your own decisions.

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When we think about Project Management Office, a project management software is pretty much a necessity. However, there are many other solutions that can make the life of a project manager easier in several facets from productivity to communication. In our last article on apps for PMOs we introduced the first 7 software applications, today we continue the list by presenting you with another 6 tools that will make your work easier and faster. Thank us later ?

1. Airtable

Combine Excel, Pinterest, Trello and a database management system and you have Airtable. No jokes. Airtable is an extremely powerful solution that enables you to visualize the same data in various ways: table, Kanban, blocks (Pinterest style), calendar and forms. It’s so versatile that it can be used for almost any activity that requires a database.

Pros

Airtable is powerful and flexible. It allows you to manage in a single location the data you probably would have separated into different areas. For example, you can use it for demand management in conjunction with ITM Platform. You can create an internal form for project proposals from employees, a table view for project managers to manage the proposals, and a blocks view accessible to the whole organization to inform of the selected projects. Airtable is also customizable with “blocks”, a premium feature that allows users to add new functionalities to tables.

Cons

While great for managing, Airtable is quite poor on the communication side. While there’s the possibility to comment on each line of the table, that’s the extent of its communication capabilities given that there’s no chat feature .

2.Visio

If you have ever needed to design a flowchart or a diagram you are probably going to love this one. Microsoft Visio is a diagramming and vector graphics application that is used to design charts swiftly and easily.

Pros

Apart from being easy to use, Visio is part of the Microsoft Office family of solutions, which means that it is perfectly integrated with other common solutions like Word or Excel. It also allows users to design 3D map diagrams and to pull information from external sources that can update automatically.

Cons

The main issue of Visio is its compatibility as it only works on Windows. Furthermore, it doesn’t allow for real-time collaboration, without mentioning the hefty price tag (considering that it is unlikely a software you’ll use every day).

3. PMO Value Ring

The PMO Value Ring is the perfect software to use in conjunction with a project management software. The software is designed by PMOs for PMOs and is aimed at providing a consistent framework to manage the PMO across different stages of its life cycle.

An example of a complete cycle in PMO Value Ring:

Pros

The tool forces the user to be consistent in the definition of the PMO and all its elements, such as Functions, Roles, Stakeholders etc. All the data can be accessed in a consolidated dashboard view that scores several different aspects like ROI or maturity.

Cons

The downside of the PMO Value Ring is that it is not integrated with any other solution, which means that all the data should be inputted manually. Furthermore, the software enhances and facilitates the management of the PMO but it is separated from the actual project management activity of the office.

4. ClicData

ClicData is a very powerful data visualization and BI software. It allows users to create and share dashboards that are automatically updated from the data source.

Pros

Clicdata is integrated with almost anything, at least with all the main apps used for business. This is great as it allows to create dashboards that can then be shared with, for example, a director or CxO, that needs to have access to live data. Another strength of ClicData is that it permits cross-evaluation of data or automatic database merge.

Cons

The interface is drag and drop but this does not mean that it is easy to use: the logic behind the interface is not always the most intuitive and the user needs to have a clear understanding of the structure of the data imported, which is not always bvious when importing data directly from a third-party source. Also, more complex dashboards require some time to set up so ensure to allocate enough time when implementing ClicData.

5. Sharepoint

I’m sure many of you are already familiar with SharePoint. For those who don’t know it’s a web-based collaborative platform that is primarily sold as a document management and storage system. But the product is highly flexible and usage varies substantially between organizations. Sharepoint is commonplace in larger organizations where the document management is complex and encompasses several departments.

Pros

The main advantage of SharePoint is in its document management capabilities: given its configuration capability you can create several Site Collections, limit their access, from one single, clean interface.

Cons

The main cons of SharePoint are tied to its main strength: as a consequence of being highly configurable Sharepoint is quite complex to manage in its full capability, meaning that you’ll often need to dedicate human resources or hire a consultant.

6. Risk assessment matrix

Good planning is essential, so that project managers and the respond to the emergence of risks. ITM Platform’s Risk Assessment Matrix evaluates risks depending on their impact and probability, allowing to visualize the level of risk exposure. Thanks to that information, you can prioritize risk management and reduce exposure!

Pros

This matrix allows you to register, quantify and share risks and you can share them collaboratively as well.

Cons

The tool can only be accessed online and only covers the risk management part of a Project manager work routine. However, if you need a more integrated application you can try ITM Platform, where the risk management functionality is integrated with a whole set of their features… What do you think of these 6 tools? Are there any that you’d like to see covered that are not in this list? Let us know

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This article is part of a series on the PMBOK areas of knowledge. You can read the previous articles here:

The last area of knowledge of the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge) covers the best practices to manage the relationship with stakeholders.

Specifically, this area of knowledge focuses on identifying people, groups or organizations that may affect or may be affected by the project and analyze their expectations and its impact on the plan.

Manage project stakeholders in a collaborative environment

It is essential to keep in mind that clients too are stakeholders, as their satisfaction is crucial to the success of a project. This means that projects could re-start from 0 if the client’ expectations are not taken into account early enough.
This problem was so frequent in software development that led to the development of agile methodologies, which seek a fluid communication with customers.

Advice for Stakeholders Management

1. Identify the parties or public interested in the project

In this phase of project management, it is important to focus on identifying the stakeholder from the very beginning, since this will allow us to obtain an overview of the stakeholders map and the problems that some actors may pose at a later moment.

2. Make sure that all interested parties agree and know their roles or responsibilities

Before starting the development of a project, it is essential that all the actors involved know the rules and assume the commitment and responsibility expected of their functions. From the beginning, we will identify team leaders, work teams, and their roles.
Good pre-planning facilitates a smooth development and helps to avoid conflicts in the future. If everyone agrees with the requirements and objectives, he or she will work to keep pace with the events and avoid delays; delays that only will be translated into extra costs and unwanted results.
On the other hand, rules must also ensure fluid communication with customers, so that they have sufficient information to evaluate the project development and express their point of view. If necessary, the circumstances under which a client’s opinions may involve changes in the project can be agreed upon.

3. Get consensus on the application of changes to the project

Changes in a project are inevitable since contingencies always arise that require the modification of some criteria or change in scope. The more complex a plan is, the more susceptible it is of being changed during its development. Therefore, it is important that all participants agree on how to handle the changes.

4. Favor communication

Establishing communication guidelines at the beginning of the project will improve the flow of the same. The team will be able to determine, since the beginning, the frequency of the communication and its content, that should preferably be concise and focused on the progress or issues that affect the project.

5. Give permanent visibility to the project teams

Transparency is a fundamental virtue in all project communication. It does not make sense for a project manager to have secrets.

It is important to define and communicate the vision of the project early on, as teams become more involved and the risk of losing focus on the project is mitigated. This way you make sure that any decision is coherent with the vision and objectives of the project. This point is very important because it helps reduce risks, errors or loss of focus.

6. Involve interested parties in the entire process

Although we assigned functions and teams from the very beginning, interested parties (stakeholders) should be always involved, so that they can participate in the problem solving or the revision of the requirements.

7. Reach an agreement with what has been done

In order to avoid entering a circle of changes and stagnation that could jeopardize the development of the project, it is important to reach agreements on the work done.
In an organization that manages strategic projects and internal transformation, Stakeholders Management goes beyond the project closure, since its delivery enables capacities that could benefit other levels of the organization. Otherwise, the value delivered is not internalized and won’t become a competitive advantage sustainable over time. This approach has been called Benefits Realization Management (BRM) or Benefit Management.

8. Empathize with the other interested parties

All project participants are stakeholders, but the stakeholder map also includes parties that do not actively participate in the development of the project. You should take them into account and empathize with them as the capacity for empathy is a crucial skill for the success or failure of a project.
The analysis of a project should not be limited to the interests and influence of stakeholders but should include how to identify their objectives, circumstances and the way they perceive the project.
Empathic analysis helps us to discover hidden variables that show us the way to solve problems or overcome obstacles that we may encounter.

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Corporate PMO = EPMO

Corporate PMOs are also generally known as Enterprise PMOs or EPMOs. The term has been strengthened over time because it is understood that there are features common to all corporations, regardless of the nature of their products and services, which directly affect the challenges and attributions that the project office should assume.

An EPMO reports directly to one of the highest executives in the organization. Very often, there are other PMOs of lower rank, for example for the coordination of programs or a business unit; but none has the global reach of EPMO.

It has often been said that EPMOs are the most important instrument to ensure that the corporate strategy is truly executed in all areas of the organization. The EPMO would be, then, a catalyst, an engine oriented to promote the constant transformation in an environment whose natural inertia would lead, otherwise, to immobility.

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Responsibilities: start by deciding just initiatives

Every action has associated an opportunity cost. Even when it is clear what is being done, it is clear that many other possible actions are being discarded.

When, in addition, you work in a huge organization, the lack of alignment of the departments to the corporate strategy results in a very voluminous waste of energy.

For that reason, the EPMO approach is twofold:

make sure that the right initiatives are started (doing the right things)
make sure that they are managed properly (doing things right)

It is, therefore, a constant monitoring of the strategic alignment for all the work planned and underway.

Other responsibilities include, of course, traditional areas of the PMOs, such as training and counseling (of the other PMOs); value management, which is easy to lose sight of in highly complex environments; resource planning; Demand management or coordination among PMOs.

You can discover more in the White Paper: Project-Based Management (PBM)

Benefits of an EPMO

The benefits of an EPMO are similar to that of a smaller PMO, but with strategic orientation. The big difference is that the EPMO has the necessary governance structures to navigate and master the bureaucratic complexity and processes that can often become the biggest enemy of change in a corporate organization (from 5,000 employees).

In any case, it is worth reviewing those benefits:

Increase in the number of projects delivered on time and in time
Better strategic alignment between projects and business objectives
Greater support for departmental projects, and with this, greater chances of success for the project, which can gather the required support at critical moments
Less overlap of work between department
Greater interdepartmental collaboration
Greater visibility of corporate initiatives
Higher ROI for the projects implemented, especially in non-financial terms
More efficient delivery of projects –and faster to put new products and services on the market
A better structured approach to the treatment of risks, including risk mitigation

Success factors of an EPMO

Organic location, immediately below the General Management
Change management according to good practices, so that the new EPMO is not perceived as a rival of the existing PMOs and projects managers
Complementation of the managerial function: support in the decision-making, without robbing autonomy or generating political problems
Autonomy with respect to functional areas, so that it does not depend on IT, Financial, Human Resources, etc.
All subordinated PMOs must report, either directly or indirectly, to the EPMO. Otherwise, pockets of information are created that do not flow
The competence profile should combine project management with the business vision: those who are part of the EPMO will advise managers in making critical decisions and train project managers to continue advancing as professionals
No EPMO can work reasonably well if a high degree of standardization is not achieved.

References:

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An IT PMO has control over all the IT projects of an organization. Its focus, therefore, is oriented to everything related to technological architecture, development, and systems.

In addition, it also necessarily focuses on ongoing activities and internal services, not just on projects. The clearest example is the maintenance and operations related to technical services that support the work of the organization. The projects that result from this maintenance are the constant improvements that must be made so that the systems are up to the demands of the users.

In that way, although the responsibilities are similar, the focus of an IT PMO changes, being protected from the CIO initiatives.

Technology selection
Calendar marked by IT (development, operations, and architecture)
Definition of architecture
Technology design
Building technological solutions: hardware selection, development, system integration, testing

To support the work of an IT PMO, it is essential to have a simple, robust and easy-to-use PPM tool, such as ITM Platform.

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Why does a CIO want an IT PMO?

The IT PMO is an independent department that deals with technical and non-political criteria, able to coordinate work and manage the relationship with customers.

In highly technological environments, one of the advantages of a PMO is that it is responsible for facilitating the human aspect, serving as internal diplomats that facilitate understanding among engineers, whose arguments are not up to everyone, the management layers, and the external customers. In this “diplomacy” are integrated responsibilities as strong as the management of calendars and expectations, the prioritization of efforts or the creation of a rational framework for the delivery of projects.

On the other hand, for the CIO, the IT PMO becomes a fundamental instrument for the management of complexity. Through its mission of control, the IT PMO centralizes information, digests it and offers it in formats that make it as easy as possible to make business decisions aimed at making the services of the corporation as efficient as possible.

Some differences with a business PMO

While a business PMO tends to control only projects of strategic importance, usually grouped into programs, the IT PMO has as one of its fundamental missions to control the demand, filter it and prioritize it. For this reason, all work that can be managed as a project belongs to it –it does not matter if it is only a small adjustment or a minor impact: if it belongs to IT, it will be controlled by the IT PMO.

The reason is that there may be hundreds or even thousands of projects of these dimensions, which means that this must also be prioritized.

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Project based management is a widely spread practice in the business world because of its effectiveness in generating competitive advantages. However, it cannot be effective without the support of a strategic project management office (PMO) that actively helps define corporate strategy.

Unfortunately, project management is not applicable in the same way in every organization because companies do not all share the same processes, functions or need for oversight (what we call "maturity" in project management).

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For this reason, we distinguish between different levels of maturity according to the workings of the project office, from the most basic to the true strategic PMO:

Low maturity of a strategic PMO: Inventory and control

In corporate environments it is essential to make an inventory of all the initiatives that are under way. That is the mission of a PMO of low maturity: to gather and consolidate information about all the projects and other relevant activities to report where resources are being invested.

Medium maturity of a strategic PMO: coordination

The next step for a PMO is to have the ability to forecast problems and, consequently, to tackle them. This function is common when the PMO coordinates the resource allocation. For example, during periods when there is a high volume of work, it is the PMO that should be aware that projects are accumulating and identify bottlenecks.

A PMO of medium maturity aims to improve the efficiency of the organization, recognizing possible conflicts in the planning process and proposing solutions.

High maturity of a strategic PMO: strategy and business

The highest maturity of a PMO is achieved through a fit with the corporate structure that makes it the right hand of the Board of Directors. This fit implies a governance model where strict methodologies are followed while the most important practical decisions are taken, precisely, based on the information that the PMO offers.

In these cases, the project office becomes a key element for the corporate strategy to become a reality.

Strategic questions for a high maturity PMO

A strategic PMO should be considered as an internal service that offers practical information, answering questions like:

What is the status of the project portfolio?
Are resources scarce? Does this shortage affect cashflow?
Are we executing projects that are no longer worthwhile?
Which proposals or ideas will improve the current portfolio?
What kind of new processes can be implemented as a result of the experience acquired from past projects?

However, this approach does not allow a PMO to fully develop its potential. Strategic PMOs have a proactive spirit: they collaborate with the management in strategy development and manage all project-based work.

While PMOs should be empowered, at the same time they should leave the most important decisions to management. For example, if a protocol is put in place requiring the cancelation of projects with a budget greater than a certain amount (for example, € 500,000), it makes sense to warn directors beforehand allowing them to authorize or indeed veto the final decision.