Portfolio Management Articles

1. Do More with Less: How to Align Projects and Strategy

   Do more with less! Project portfolio management (PPM) allows you to select the projects that will deliver maximum business value.  PPM is not project management on steroids.  It is fundamentally different from project management and requires completely different techniques and perspectives. This session will show you what portfolio management is, how it complements project management, and why it is vital for business success. It will summarize current portfolio management techniques and best practices and will show you how to select, prioritize, and coordinate projects to increase their value to your organization.

   (October 2024)

2. Portfolio Management at Community Hospital

   In the past, Community Hospital has made poor choices about which projects to do and when to start them.  The CEO is determined to avoid a repeat of painful experiences like this.    This is a vignette about implementing a disciplined approach to project selection and initiation, including thought questions about how to implement portfolio management in a healthcare environment.

   (October 2024)

3. What Should a PMO Be? – The Sequel

   Several years ago, I wrote an article on the various forms that a Project Management Office (PMO) can take. Since then I have continued to work with new clients to implement PMO’s. The time seems ripe for an update. (November 2017)

4. How to Connect Projects to Strategic Objectives

   Connecting the dots is surprisingly hard, especially the strategy and execution dots. Writing a causal hierarchy while chartering a new project forces you to think through specific and measurable cause and effect relationships that explicitly show how your project will deliver results with strategic impact.

   (October 2017)

5. A Program is Not a Project on Steroids

   Large, complicated projects frequently fail to deliver an integrated solution that satisfy their customers. Here’s how a program can overcome this challenge. (August 2011)

6. What Should a Project Management Office (PMO) Be?

   Project Management Offices have been all the rage for several years, because they can coordinate project activity across an organization, thus increasing efficiency, project success rates, and bottom line results. But the “PMO in a box” approach doesn’t work. (December 2010)

7. Portfolio Monitoring and Governance (Part 5/5 of Project Portfolio Management: The Art of Saying “No”)

   Monitor the portfolio, manage changes and tradeoffs across projects, and ensure that a governance framework clearly establishes responsibilities. (January 2010)

8. Keeping Your Portfolio Balanced (Part 4/5 of Project Portfolio Management: The Art of Saying “No”)

   Check balance and feasibility before initiating the portfolio. (August 2009)

9. Maximizing the Portfolio (Part 3/5 of Project Portfolio Management: The Art of Saying “No”)

   Select the highest impact projects and maximize the value of the portfolio. (August 2009)

10. Strategic Alignment (Part 2/5 of Project Portfolio Management: The Art of Saying “No”)

    Agree on a critical few criteria that your organization will use to evaluate projects for inclusion in its portfolio. (June 2009)

11. Overview of Project Portfolio Management (Part 1/5 of The Art of Saying “No”)

    When an organization tries to do too much, all projects suffer from delays, cost overruns, or poor quality. (April 2009)

12. Project Portfolio Management: How to Do the Right Projects at the Right Time (Proceedings of the 2008 PMI Global Congress)

    Project and program management are about execution and delivery – doing projects right. Project portfolio management is fundamentally different. It focuses on doing the right projects at the right time by selecting and managing projects as a portfolio of investments. (October 2008)

13. Project Portfolio Management – The Art of Saying “No”

    Nearly all organizations have more project work to do than they have people and money to do the work. Frequently they try to fix this problem by cramming more work onto the calendars of already overworked project teams or by cutting corners during the project. These short-term fixes mask the underlying problem and don’t work for long. (March 2006)