Having explored the foundational aspects of Project Portfolio Management (PPM)—from core governance structures and minimal stage gates to basic resource planning and risk management—you are now equipped with a strong baseline for early adoption. These fundamental elements form the bedrock on which more sophisticated portfolio practices can be built. As you look to extend your knowledge and evolve your organization’s maturity, Volume 2: PPM in Practice will provide deeper insights, more advanced methodologies, and comprehensive guidance on scaling PPM for broader and more complex environments.
Below, we outline key activities and considerations to help you capitalize on the lessons learned in Volume 1 while laying the groundwork for the more advanced topics awaiting you in Volume 2.
12.4.1 Recap of Core Concepts in Volume 1
- Strategic Alignment
- Ensuring that each project directly supports broader organizational goals and KPIs.
- Emphasizing the importance of a “line of sight” between project deliverables and enterprise strategies.
- Governance Essentials
- Establishing basic structures like steering committees, PMOs, or EPMOs.
- Incorporating stage gates and business case reviews to maintain oversight without overwhelming project teams.
- Resource and Risk Management
- Tracking resource availability—even via simple spreadsheets—to avoid bottlenecks and conflict.
- Initiating fundamental risk assessments to surface critical issues at the portfolio level.
- Early Agile Adoption
- Introducing lightweight Agile practices, such as short sprints or backlog prioritization, to foster adaptability in select projects.
- Balancing traditional gate reviews with iterative feedback loops.
- Quick Wins and Cultural Shifts
- Demonstrating early value through small successes to build support for further PPM adoption.
- Recognizing that stakeholder engagement and cultural buy-in are as important as the processes themselves.
These foundational practices have set the stage for more sophisticated PPM applications. With them, your organization has a structured approach to handling an initial wave of projects, forging alignment, and building confidence in portfolio-level oversight.
12.4.2 Conducting a Readiness Assessment
Before diving into the advanced techniques in Volume 2, it is beneficial to gauge how well your organization has internalized the fundamentals:
- Governance Maturity Check
- Do you have a functioning steering committee or similar governance body?
- Are decision-making processes clearly defined, with transparent criteria for selecting and approving projects?
- Basic Metrics and Dashboards
- Are you consistently tracking key metrics like project spend, resource utilization, and strategic alignment?
- Do executives receive timely updates that inform portfolio-level decisions?
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Do business units and IT teams collaborate effectively under the current governance model?
- Are there still recurring issues with project visibility, duplicate efforts, or unclear priorities?
- Cultural Acceptance
- Are teams embracing stage gates, business cases, and rudimentary Agile concepts, or do they view them as barriers?
- Has the organization begun to see value in a unified approach to project selection and management?
These questions help you identify any gaps or areas needing reinforcement before you introduce more advanced PPM methodologies. Addressing these areas now will smooth the transition into the additional complexity and rigor of Volume 2.
12.4.3 Laying the Groundwork for Advanced PPM
As you prepare to explore Volume 2: PPM in Practice, consider initiating or strengthening the following foundational elements:
- Refined Governance Processes
- Expand or formalize your review cadence. For instance, consider quarterly strategic reviews for alignment and monthly operational reviews for issue escalation.
- Introduce tiered governance—where high-risk, high-cost projects undergo more rigorous scrutiny than smaller, lower-risk efforts.
- Enhanced Financial Oversight
- Begin incorporating more robust cost tracking, such as delineating between CapEx and OpEx.
- Experiment with simplified earned value management (EVM) or rolling forecasts to gain a more accurate picture of financial health.
- Resource Capacity and Demand Management
- Move from ad hoc resource tracking to a more systematic capacity planning approach, even if you still rely on spreadsheets.
- Identify critical skill shortages and plan proactive hiring or upskilling strategies.
- Early Portfolio Prioritization Techniques
- Introduce basic scoring models or rubrics to weigh and rank project proposals, factoring in strategic value, risk, and financial return.
- Consider pilot programs that test more sophisticated prioritization methods on a subset of initiatives.
- Scaled Agile Mindset
- If you have small Agile teams, explore how incremental funding or rolling-wave planning could be applied at a broader portfolio level.
- Promote shared language around Agile concepts so steering committees, PMOs, and project teams can coordinate more seamlessly.
12.4.4 What to Expect in Volume 2: PPM in Practice
Volume 2 transitions you from foundational knowledge into a hands-on, practitioner’s perspective. Here are some of the topics you can anticipate:
- Detailed Portfolio Selection and Prioritization
- Deeper dives into scoring mechanisms, comparative analysis techniques, and financial modeling (ROI, NPV, IRR) to evaluate competing projects.
- Resource and Capacity Management at Scale
- Advanced methods for balancing workloads across large, distributed teams.
- Practical ways to incorporate skill inventories, real-time capacity dashboards, and scenario planning.
- Agile PPM in Action
- Frameworks like Scrum of Scrums, SAFe®, or LeSS for managing complex Agile portfolios.
- Hybrid models that blend stage gates with iterative releases, bridging the gap between traditional governance and Agile autonomy.
- Financial Management and Cost Tracking
- More comprehensive cost controls, including earned value management (EVM), and the shift from annual budgets to continuous funding cycles.
- CapEx vs. OpEx considerations in a cloud-centric world.
- Deeper Governance and Enterprise Architecture (EA) Integration
- Aligning portfolio decisions with enterprise architecture roadmaps and standards.
- Ensuring that large-scale initiatives meet both technical and strategic requirements.
- Risk and Change Management
- Systematic risk analysis methods, from consolidated risk registers to scenario planning.
- Structured approaches for guiding organizational change in PPM transformations.
- Performance Management and Dashboards
- Designing multi-layer dashboards that track real-time performance, strategic alignment, and resource metrics at the portfolio level.
- Incorporating leading and lagging indicators to enable proactive decision-making.
- Scaling Up and Continuous Improvement
- Evolving from a single governance framework to multi-portfolio governance.
- Ongoing refinement processes, retrospectives, and communities of practice to sustain long-term success.
12.4.5 Action Items to Accelerate Your PPM Journey
- Consolidate Wins and Lessons
- Document the successes you’ve achieved with foundational PPM—like project consolidation, better stakeholder visibility, or improved risk controls—and share them with executive sponsors.
- Identify Key Focus Areas
- Pinpoint 2–3 areas that require immediate attention (e.g., resource bottlenecks, lack of strategic alignment, insufficient stakeholder engagement). Create short-term action plans to address them.
- Engage Stakeholders
- Facilitate workshops or roundtables to gather feedback on the current PPM process. This helps refine your roadmap for scaling and secures buy-in for future enhancements.
- Invest in Training
- Encourage practitioners to pursue relevant certifications or workshops (e.g., PMP, Agile foundations, Lean).
- Offer internal lunch-and-learns or “PPM 101” sessions for broader awareness and support.
- Establish a Continuous Improvement Mindset
- Schedule regular retrospectives at the portfolio level to capture lessons from each project’s stage gate.
- Encourage cross-team knowledge sharing and resource pooling to break down silos.
Summary of Section 12.4
By completing Volume 1, you have equipped your organization with the essential building blocks of Project Portfolio Management. The next phase is about refining and scaling these basics into a robust, sustainable PPM practice that delivers real, strategic value to the enterprise. Whether you are refining governance structures, adopting more advanced financial oversight, or preparing to scale Agile practices, each incremental improvement sets the stage for a more cohesive and impactful portfolio.
As you look ahead to Volume 2: PPM in Practice, keep in mind that the journey to PPM excellence is iterative. The stronger your foundational processes and cultural acceptance, the more seamless your transition into advanced portfolio selection, prioritization, and governance will be. With clear goals, engaged stakeholders, and a commitment to continuous improvement, your organization will be well-positioned to leverage the full power of Project Portfolio Management—driving innovation, optimizing resources, and achieving strategic outcomes that make a tangible difference.
