Tracking expenditure and revenue flows answers one of the burning questions of every board: “How much are we actually investing in our projects?”. This question often crops up when we are talking about internal, IT or transformative projects. The planning and follow-up model should be agreed with the finance directorate and business units, so that project managers understand the parameters for action, how they should monitor budgets and use of resources.
The PMO should issue clear instructions on:
Which cost elements to monitor, especially in terms of hours and purchasing.
How to incorporate external suppliers: hours or deliverables.
Which metrics to use: hours, cost, profit, earned value, progress etc.
How frequently to measure each parameter.
Standardized periods for reporting working hours.
Measuring income and profit margins.
In the following sections we analyze these topics in greater depth, highlighting their integration into ITM Platform whenever possible.
Cost of working hours
If you require oversight of the estimated hours, actual hours worked and their cost, the module of standard costs and provider rates must be defined. Carrying out the definition in collaboration with the finance and HR departments will ensure that the project’s financial management is line with the organization’s policies and procedures. ITM Platform offers a module to establish the standard cost from an abstract level down to the most detailed one:
General: hourly cost of any task. Useful in the conceptual phase of the project.
Internal and external: whether you use your own people or outside contractors this allows you to define the hourly cost in a generic fashion.
Cost per professional profile: allows you to define the standard cost of the internal personnel for each profile, within different timeframe.
Provider rates: similarly, provider rates can be fed into the system, allowing you to compare costs per person and per provider.
Purchases and acquisitions
Purchasing is one of the key activities in any company. When managed properly it enables easier planning and follow up of cash flow. Normally, purchase management is incorporated in the early stages of maturity, typically before monitoring working hours. Nonetheless, it is important that projects synchronize their purchasing with the organization’s financial management, so that both are in agreement. The purchase flow is a kind of workflow and it must be linked to a procedure previously agreed with the financial and purchasing directorates, ensuring that each project’s purchasing is in line with purchasing practices in general.In addition, budget accounts grouping purchases must be used homogeneously.
Revenue
Similarly to purchasing, the classification and time management of the project revenues should be synchronized with the organization´s regular financial procedures. The system will then be able to create reliable margins and client profitablity.
Choosing which projects to invest in is a strategic decision to be taken based on objective data. In this article, we explore the problem of subjectivity and analyze the solution that allows management to make decisions based on a business plan, in a rigorous and transparent way.
The Problem
In businesses where the source of income comes from making projects for clients, it is easy to decide which ones are to be put in place: (usually) those of greater profitability. And in some cases, all, if sufficient resources are available.
However, internal projects, such as those of transformation, tend to not offer such an obvious criterion as their value to the business is less evident and often more subjective to anticipate.
The fact that an expected value is subjective does not mean that its effects are not going to be real. It means that the benefits are hard to predict, and investment decisions can be based on perceptions.
This is a challenge that managing directors have always tried to address. The most used resource as a solution has been that of the "business case", which requires promoters to express the profitability or value contribution of their initiative in measurable terms, either in sales increase or in cost reduction.
The main difficulty presented by the business case is the human factor: a promoter of an initiative that has a strong motivation to give positive figures and show that their idea is profitable. Though it is desirable to have intrapreneurs on your team it is essential to validate their figures through a homogenous and and objective process.
The second difficulty of requesting profitability to internal projects arises from each promoter having limited vision to their area of competence, defending their plot without considering the overall vision. In turn, management considers these business cases as if they had been generated with the same criteria, which is not usually the case. Each promoter applies with different degree of ingenuity the data to the same template.
The issue at hand is knowing when to recognize, in an objective fashion, what initiatives will bring more value to the business when the projects deliver their expected benefits.
The Approach
When it comes to value, it is not always possible to apply a purely financial standard via project profitability based on forecasts in isolation and in comparison of each other.
The value contribution of a project to a strategic plan may be broader than profitability, even if the savings or earnings have been realistically calculated. For example, a process automation project can throw modest savings, but positively influence a priority target of customer quality perception.
Strategic project planning should not consider initiatives in isolation, as the result of the set may be greater than the sum of the parties. It is common for the result of some projects to enable others, and its set to offer strategic value. This is why program and portfolio management exceeds project management.
The strategic management of projects lies in the competence of the management and must be facilitated by the Project Management Office (PMO) to the extent that their objectives are the maximization of value and not only the transversal coordination.
Thus, the strategic planning approach to the composition of the project portfolio should consider two main elements:
A strategic plan that exposes the objectives of the Organization
A list of project proposals (initiatives)
With these two elements, we can prioritize initiatives that will order them from higher to lower value, generating an orderly list of approved projects (portfolio backlog).
Strategic management of project portfolios
A great advantage that offers prioritization of projects by value is that it supports applying resource constraints as a cut-line to its output. If we have a list ordered by value and – for example-a budgetary limitation, we will be able to establish the approval of projects based on those that contribute more value and that are within the available budget.
The Process
Once we have the two main elements (objectives and demand), we can start two classification processes that can run in parallel or go in sequence. What is important is to isolate each other to ensure objectivity and ease of adaptation to the general standard.
Process 1: Prioritization of Objectives
Participants: Board of Directors Objective: To put some objectives in front of others, with specific weight of each one on the total.
Sometimes strategic plans already specify priorities, but in others they do not give explicit weight by objective. For example, how much more important is "to grow in sales by 20%" than "to increase operating efficiency by 15%"?
There are several techniques that can be employed to achieve a table like the one above. From something as simple as an agreement amongst the Board of Directors to the most sophisticated such as an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The latter could be considered more rigourous, though its execution could be simple if you have a Pairwise Comparison Tool, like the one provided by ITM Platform.
This simple table will generate an orderly and quantified list of objectives.
As an added feature, ITM Platform calculates a "consistency ratio" that indicates how logical and objective the prioritization is. In this article, you will find an explanation of how this index is calculated.
It is possible to make different sets of the same objectives through scenarios, and even use different objectives for different programs. The reality is complex and there is not always a single combination or scenario.
Process 2: Contribution of project value to objectives
Participants: The Project committee and promoters
Objective: To determine how much each project contributes to each objective
Ignoring for now the relevance of each objective on the strategic plan, this step will assign a weight to the contribution of each initiative to each objective. This weight will be translated to a number base on 100, but if you use ITM Platform you can also use the comparison by pairs previously used or use a qualitative methodology based on ideograms such as the image (Harvey balls), providing a visual support.
Process 3: Analysis of the optimal selection of the Portfolio
The two previous phases provide the necessary parameters for the system to calculate the value of each project, based on 100 and depending on the value of each objective.
List of initiatives orders by value
If money wasn't a problem, then we would probably carry out all “reasonable" projects. But in a real organization, the resources available are finite and the previous list of initiatives is not enough to make a good selection of project portfolios.
Thus, it is not only enough to select the most valuable projects, but it is also necessary to filter those that fall within the constraints, be it economic, technical and human resources, or temporary.
In this article, we will use the available budget as an example of a main constraint because this is the most frequent case. Imagine that we should select a portfolio of projects that does not exceed $900.000. Taking the previous list into account, the "New Star Product" ($ 1.5 M) exceeds that amount and also provides a similar value to other more economical projects.
So, with the data we have, we choose the combination of projects that are closer to the available budget: a total of $885.400 and a value of 61% accumulated in three projects.
With this selection achieve the given criteria. But note that the efficient central border graph is indicating the selection is not optimal (value/cost) and that there are better combinations: similar value for less money or greater value for the same sum.
And, indeed, with a portfolio of a total of $528.840 we achieved a contribution of value very similar for 35% less in cost.
It is possible to apply rigorous standards in the selection of a portfolio of projects, basing the selection on the value they bring to the business strategy. Key points to consider:
A separation of work between the management team that defines and prioritizes objectives, and the teams that analyze the benefits by project.
A process sponsored by management requiring rigorous standards when making investment decisions and implementing transparency between teams.
An integrative platform that combines information and exposes the results.
If you want to know more about the management of organizations by projects, download the white paper, where you will learn to: - Connect management of your Organization with that of projects - Manage portfolio of projects to create competitive advantage - Agile Portfolio Management
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Everyone´s starting point is different, but we can all agree you need a steady foundation when building anything and your PMO´s framework is no exception. It should be clear and shared by the entire organization. We’ll guide you through planning, implementing and disseminating your PMO. Whether you´re familiar with ITM Platform or not, our examples are a ¨one-size-fits-all¨. This design assists in highlighting situations that you may encounter along the way and applicable to most cases.
So, let´s dive in to the 6 essential elements you need to consider in order launch your PMO framework.
First, decide what kind of projects you’re running; the type of project will also govern its lifespan.
As you implement (or relaunch) the PMO it’s a good moment to reflect on the variety of projects in the portfolio and possibly take time to redesign them. A PMO can also manage operations if they consist of specific tasks that are assigned to different teams. Managing projects and operations together from the PMO is especially useful when the resources and clients involved are the same.
This is the case with software development projects, or products that require maintenance by the same team that developed the original project. The Kanban methodology is useful for managing services because it offers an organized structure in which you can see the status of tasks at a glance. More importantly it allows you to limit the flow of work according to your resources.
The service concept is also incorporated into ITM Platform – you can create entities for the sole purpose of managing operations.
2. Workflows
A workflow allows you to map out all the possible statuses that a project goes through. Make sure it is based on the business’s procedures – don’t be tempted to invent statuses that do not reflect the reality of the company.
The workflow is defined by two main components:
The changing status of a project For example, we can decide that when the status of a project is designated as ‘draft’ that can only be changed to ‘started’ or ‘discarded’.
The conditions for changing the status and who is authorized to grant permission for that change.
Make the conditions for changing statuses as simple as possible; you can always increase the complexity later, and you may even find that there is no need to do so.
A word of advice: do not replace the work of defining organizational procedures with a workflow. The workflow should be a conveyor belt, not a control mechanism.
3. Priorities
It's very easy to configure the different degrees of priority, but the work of a PMO starts way before this: you have to agree what each priority means. It should be extremely clear what “high priority” or “medium priority” means. Obviously, medium is higher than high, but does that mean that you shouldn’t start with the medium priority ones until the high priority ones are finished? Should we put twice as many resources into high priority versus medium priority?
The PMO should know the actions associated with each priority and make this clear to everyone else so that the organization makes homogenous decisions.
4. Risks
Good project management is in essence risk management and a PMO ensures that this function happens consistently throughout the decision-making process.
The formula impact x probability = exposure level is only useful if it leads to consistent decisions by project managers.
Identifying risks is a tricky business as it’s often subjective and affected by personal bias. The PMO standardizes procedures using criteria and tools approved by the board, backed by the project managers.
5. Waterfall or agile methodologies?
Both of these methodologies can co-exist in one integrated portfolio as long as the PMO establishes criteria to decide on the appropriate methodology for each project.
Some organizations make all decisions – waterfall or agile – based on politics. This kind of decision making can lead to patchy results.
If your organization decides on agile methodologies for all projects – while at the same time demanding medium and long-term deadlines – the methodology probably hasn't been chosen on the basis of solid criteria.
To determine which methodology to use the PMO should ask:
Is the result of the project relatively uncertain or are we well aware of the outcomes?
Is the project subject to deadlines which govern the date of deliverables or is a short-term vision of all the tasks enough?
Are sponsors and clients willing to have continual involvement in the project without knowing the final outcome? Or will they happy to be less involved and just accept the final outcome?
If your organization decides on agile methodologies for all projects – while at the same time demanding medium and long-term deadlines – the methodology probably hasn’t been chosen based on solid criteria.
6. Project templates
One of the major benefits of a PMO is that it allows you to capitalize on knowledge accumulated from previous projects. Be sure to put mechanisms in place to recover the lessons that have been learned. That way the know how isn’t lost when the project ends but can be applied later on.
Creating project-specific templates means the contents can be re-used in future projects. Another benefit of templates is to re-use frequently used structures just by changing dates and figures. It’s similar to those cooking programs when the chef says ‘here’s one I prepared earlier’.
A good PMO ensures that the knowledge stays within an organization, and not only at the level of the individuals involved.
Planning and implementing a PMO has a rhythm of its own. Don’t be tempted to rush. You risk chaos if the process rushes ahead of the organization’s own maturity by trying to tackle all the stages at once.
So what can businesses and project managers do to ensure essential components of projects are being completed in time and on budget? In this article we develop the 5 main keys of success.
Keys to success
A good plan is only useful if it can be implemented in the field. For that you need adequate resources and a favorable environment. Before creating a PMO:
1. Make sure you have the right skill set
Ensure that your people have the right skill set. If you have neither the team nor the required skill set, it’s a good idea to limit the scope of the PMO so that it can be set up without the risk of failure. Embarking on a PMO without the appropriate know how is like setting sail on a ship without skilled sailors, the enterprise will unravel at the first ill wind.
2. Start with high-visibility, high-impact projects
Like every other business unit, the PMO must prove its worth from the very beginning to win over naysayers. A smart PMO manager will look to deliver early wins on to the scoreboard. This is not always easy because of its cross-functional – and according to detractors – unnecessary nature. Tackle the most widely acknowledged problems first.
3. Identify the needs of the business clearly
The organization and the business have needs that may or may not have been explicitly identified. Meeting these needs should be your starting point. That way you’ll start off on the right foot, giving you enormous leverage when it comes to defending your decisions in the future. Do your research.
For example, as a PMO expert you may consider it vital to set up a document template repository. But maybe what your stakeholders actually need is a way to decide how progress on projects is measured.
4. Have a solid framework
And which is integrated intothe business. A PMO that acts as a lone wolf is destined to fail. It is important that there are simple, fluid communication channels to ensure that everyone is working in the right direction. Put these in place from the outset.
5. Draw up clear key performance indicators
Having a lot of indicators does not necessarily mean having lots of information. Make sure that you not only have the right tools but also that the KPIs are relevant to your business.
What to consider for a consistent roadmap
To create a consistent roadmap, you should take into account:
The maturity of the organization.
The goals suggested by the Board of Directors.
The available resources.
Positive and negative environmental factors.
With these parameters, we know our start and end points, the resources available and the pace at which we should go.
An example of a roadmap
Let’s take as an example Booksy360, a mid-sized publishing company. This is their roadmap divided into four stages, starting from a tactical PMO and moving towards a strategic one.
Period 1
Booksy360’s PMO steering group decides to establish a basic communication system, using a common language. In this system planning is based only on timeframes and deliverables. Document templates are created for each project type. Stakeholders will receive reports about the status of their individual projects and Booksy360’s board will be kept up to date via a regular portfolio report.
Period 2
All communication channels are now established. The PMO encourages collaboration between units and projects. Inventory and purchasing are added as extra elements to plan, manage and control. Resource management is now based on professional profiles, such as editors, writers and production engineers.
Period 3
Formal risk management starts, agreed by all departments. Alongside this Booksy360 initiates change and quality management. Even if these were taking place informally before, now they are at the heart of the process.
Period 4
The final stage is when the actual strategic contribution starts. But it is long way down the line so for now Booksy360’s steering committee predicts it will include portfolio planning, benefit realization management and governance
Introduction: About the use of Zapier for portfolio management
Zapier is a web service that allows you to integrate cloud applications with each other without the need of programming them. A few weeks ago, the Zapier team announced that they had exceeded 1000 applications in their directory, so you can find any service you need.
If you are an ITM Platform user, the integration with Zapier is very simple. You just have to choose the app you want to connect and follow the step-by-step guide that Zapier offers on its website.
Our clients use integration to connect teams without methodological knowledge of project management using task managers such as Trello. These applications help to collect tasks in project initiation meetings or to manage the demand.
In this article, we will focus on this last case: how to manage demand taking advantage of the possibilities offered by the integration of ITM Platform with Gmail through Zapier. But let’s review the demand problem first.
The problem of demand
One of the common features of any IT department or, more generally, an organization that manages internal and transformation projects, is that the demand for work is always greater that the capacity of the team. This problem cannot be solved on the satisfaction side: resources will always be a “short blanket” that can only cover part of the demand.
As is well known, the most important thing is prioritizing the really important work instead of finishing the maximum number of task. If you were to complete the largest number of requests, the result would be that resources are allocated only to those small tasks, simple to solve. And projects of greater dimensions and with greater transforming potential would be relegated to oblivion.
The centralization of demand
One of the reasons why it is so difficult to prioritize is that, often, requests are processed informally and addressed to different interlocutors, so they are difficult to measure in their entirely. It is possible that nobody knows with certainty what is the totality of the work that is being developed. And without having that complete catalog, it is not feasible to prioritize the demand in an orderly manner.
The problem is even more complicated when requests come from managers or influential people with a great capacity for persuasion, pressure and negotiation.
Therefore, a necessary condition to prioritize the work is to centralize it in a single repository.
This centralization should comply with the following aspects:
It is important that this centralization is communicated very clearly to the entire organization, noting that no one in the IT department can devote efforts to proposals, incidents or projects that have not been completed through the chosen channel.
Of course, the formalization should be clear to all concerned: IT experts should be well aware that their work cannot be extended to projects and tasks not approved; but this restriction will be really difficult to implement if the middle managers do not respect the system. It is, after all, to transform the work culture.
For the cultural change and the formalization to be successful, it is fundamental that the communication channel chosen to filter the demand is not difficult to use. For example, the most practical thing is to allow existing channels to be used, without the need to use complex forms or other bureaucratic formulas.
Centralize the demand in ITM Platform with Zapier
As we said at the beginning of the article, an example of communication channel for demand management that covers all the conditions just listed is the connection of ITM Platform with email through Zapier.
The Gmail zap to ITM Platform meets all the necessary conditions. In particular, it perfectly fulfills the need to combine formalization and simplicity. What could be easier than sending an email?
These are the advantages that make several of our clients already taking advantage of this way of working:
The channel gives access to all the users of the organization, without necessarily being members of the projects or having ITM Platform licenses. Simply send an email to an email address created on purpose (for example: demand@globalborpo360.com) and follow the nomenclature that has been decided in the subject. The simplest thing is to put “[proposal]” followed by a brief description.
It allows to formalize the review process through a Kanban panel, which brings together the advantages of the operations work with the one based on projects (DevOps). In this way, there is no problem in bringing together in the same channel maintenance work and updating, along with larger projects that deserve to appear in the portfolio of the organization.
The portfolio manager (CIO/portfolio manager /PMO) has a unique dashboard to receive all the suggestions and can check the availability of the team to assign them to an analysis as part of the same project.
In this way, for example:
1.The first column contains the received proposals;
2.A second column may include those that are pending analysis, already assigned to someone who has the capacity for this work
3.Third column for the analyzed proposals, with an estimate of hours and a breakdown of additional tasks
4.Fourth column for the approved tasks, distinguishing in swimlanes:
If they are assigned to a project manager, it will be to create the corresponding project
If they are simple maintenance tasks, they will be assigned to another expert to develop then.
Conclusion
Thanks to ITM Platform, you can manage all the work of your teams in one place, no matter who asks for it and to whom it will be assigned.
This method of demand management is also compatible with some departments in your organization sending their tasks from other tools, such as customer service with Zendesk.
In this way, the management of internal demand and the demand for change of customers can be unified in the same environment. This solution would allow:
Having indicators on the number of hours dedicated to each demand management project.
Treating with simplicity the maintenance of applications and technology in a support that coordinates it with the management of the projects: pure philosophy DevOps.
Dealing with the most scheduled maintenance work through the services sections of ITM Platform.
If the problem of demand management has no place in your company, there are other ways to collect tasks that can be interesting. For example, you can use this Google Sheets template for your project meetings and leave the meeting with a fairly complete draft project, from which the project manager’s work will be much simpler.
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.
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.
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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Tracking expenditure and revenue flows answers one of the burning questions of every board: “How much are we actually investing in our projects?”. This question often crops up when we are talking about internal, IT or transformative projects. The planning and follow-up model should be agreed with the finance directorate and business units, so that project managers understand the parameters for action, how they should monitor budgets and use of resources.
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.