Get Started With IT Project Portfolio Management

Projects, portfolio, and OCM are the foundation of strong PPM.
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Major Business Pain Points

  • Most companies are struggling to get their project work done. This is due in part to the fact that many prescribed remedies are confusing, disruptive, costly, or ineffective.
  • While struggling to find a solution, within the organization, project requests never stop and all projects continue to all be treated the same. Resources are requested for multiple projects without any visibility into their project capacity. Projects lack proper handoffs from closure to ongoing operational work. And the benefits are never tracked.
  • If you have too many projects, limited resources, ineffective communications, or low post-project adoption, keep reading. Perhaps you should spend a bit more on project, portfolio, and organizational change management.

Recommendations

Key Points

  • Successful project outcomes are not built by rigorous project processes: Projects may be the problem, but project management rigor is not the solution.
  • Don’t fall into the common trap of thinking high-rigor project management should be every organization’s end goal.
  • Instead, understand that it is better to spend time assessing the portfolio to determine what projects should be prioritized.

Approach

Begin by establishing a few foundational practices that will work to drive project throughput.

  • Capacity Estimation: Understand what your capacity is to do projects by determining how much time is allocated to doing other things.
  • Book of Record: Establish a basic but sustainable book of record so there is an official list of projects in flight and those waiting in a backlog or funnel.
  • Simple Project Management Processes: Align the rigor of your project management process with what is required, not what is prescribed by the PMP designation.
  • Impact Assessment: Address the impact of change at the beginning of the project and prepare stakeholders with the right level of communication.
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Methodology and Tools

Executive Brief

Begin by establishing a few foundational practices that will work to drive project throughput. Most project management problems are resolved with portfolio level solutions. This blueprint will address the eco-system of project, portfolio, and organizational change management.

  • Get Started With IT Project Portfolio Management – Executive Brief
  • Get Started With IT Project Portfolio Management Storyboard

1. Project portfolio management

Estimate project capacity, determine what needs to be tracked on an ongoing basis, and determine what criteria is necessary for prioritizing projects.

  • Project Portfolio Supply-Demand Analysis Tool
  • Project Value Scorecard Development Tool
  • Project Portfolio Book of Record

2. Project management

Develop a process to inform the portfolio of the project status, create a plan that can be maintained throughout the project lifecycle, and manage the scope through a change request process.

  • Light Project Change Request Form Template

3. Organizational change management

Perform a change impact assessment and identify the obvious and non-obvious stakeholders to develop a message canvas accordingly.

  • Organizational Change Management Triage Tool

4. Develop an action plan

Develop a roadmap for how to move from the current state to the target state.

  • PPM Wireframe
  • Project Portfolio Management Foundations Stakeholder Communication Deck

All resources on this page are provided to Cyber Leadership Hub members under license from third parties including Info-Tech Research Group Inc, a global leader in providing IT research and advice.