Project and Programme Portfolio Management

In almost all organisations, change is managed using the traditional vehicles of programmes and projects. It is important, however, for an organisation to understand the entirety of its resource commitment to these initiatives and to manage that commitment in a fully co-ordinated manner. Portfolio Management provides for this. Among other advantages, it enables:

• all programmes and projects to be monitored so as to ensure continued alignment with corporate objectives;
• the allocation of resources to be optimised;
• new requirements to be assessed against current commitments and priorities;
• programme/project demands on operational business to be managed;
• resource contention between programmes and/or projects to be identified and resolved.

Course Content

Context

• What are programmes and projects? How are they inter-related? How should they be managed?
• What is Portfolio Management? How does it relate to Programme and Project Management?

Prerequisites

• Obtaining management buy-in to the principles and practices of Portfolio Management
• Establishing a common approach to be used by all programmes and projects
• Standardising programme/project reporting
• Ensuring effective programme/project start-up and initiation
• Understanding dependencies between programmes/projects

Key Portfolio Management Process Steps

• Collection of information
• Establishing organisational capability and capacity
• Establishing a common set of information about all programmes/projects
• Categorisation & Analysis
• Determining the nature of individual programmes/projects and clarifying their alignment to corporate goals
• Assessing the complexity and achievability of the overall portfolio given the organisation’s capability and capacity
• Evaluating the relative benefits of each programme/project
• Collection of information
• Establishing organisational capability and capacity
• Establishing a common set of information about all programmes/projects
• Prioritisation & Decision Making
• Establishing the relative importance of both proposed and current programmes/projects
• On-going re-assessment of priorities resulting from changed circumstances, such as new initiatives, revised corporate goals, amended business cases, etc.
• Tracking Progress and Taking Action
• Monitoring the passage and effectiveness of progress across the full portfolio, using criteria such as achievement of milestones, timeliness and quality of deliverables, utilisation of resources, accuracy of estimates, realisation of benefits, etc.
• Tackling actual and potential adverse outcomes by taking and/or recommending actions, such as re-scoping of projects, re-allocation of resources, revision of budgets, modification of business cases, cancellation of programmes/projects, etc.
• Re-shaping the portfolio as a result of the actions taken

Stakeholder Management

• Analysing the stakeholder profile for the complete portfolio
• Assessing necessary levels of engagement
• Ensuring effective communication

Delegate Profile

The course is designed for anyone involved in the direction, management, support and administration of programmes and/or projects. No experience of specific approaches or methodologies is assumed.

Course Length

This course is ideally run over two days, but may be condensed into a single day when required.