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Effective Project Portfolio Management (PPM) in 5 Steps

PPM

The project portfolio management process (PPM) is a strategic approach that helps organizations prioritize and effectively manage projects to achieve business goals. It involves a structured PPM process consisting of five key steps. These steps allow companies to align their project initiatives with their overall goals and resources, ensuring optimal use and maximizing return on investment. By implementing PPM, companies can improve decision-making, minimize risk, and improve project outcomes.

Each stage of the PPM process is critical in ensuring that the organization’s project portfolio is aligned with its strategic direction and adapts to changing circumstances. Thanks to a systematic approach, PPM enables enterprises to optimize their investments in projects, increase competitiveness, and stimulate sustainable growth. Let’s take a closer look at each step of project portfolio management to understand how PPM can benefit organizations in effectively managing their project portfolios.

Step 1. Initiation and planning

How to make a project portfolio? In the dynamic landscape of project portfolio management, the first crucial step is initiation and planning. This foundational phase sets the stage for effective project selection and resource allocation, ensuring that organizational objectives remain at the forefront. During initiation and planning, clear guidelines are established to shape the path ahead. This promotes a structured and strategic approach. Let’s delve into this pivotal step, breaking it down into key components:

  • Objective Definition: Clearly define the purpose and goals of the project portfolio.
  • Criteria Establishment: Set criteria for project evaluation, aligning them with organizational strategies.
  • Resource Assessment: Evaluate the availability of resources, understanding constraints and potential risks.
  • Prioritization Protocols: Develop protocols for prioritizing projects based on their strategic significance.
  • Choosing the right tools: Software plays a crucial role in supporting project portfolio management processes. Completix empowers your team to navigate and succeed effortlessly in even the most intricate projects.
  • Evaluation Framework: Create a framework for continuous assessment, allowing for adjustments as needed.

Initiation and planning lay the groundwork for a strong project portfolio management process, facilitating informed decision-making and effective project execution.

Step 2. Portfolio analysis

The next critical step in project portfolio management is portfolio analysis. This stage involves a comprehensive assessment of the project portfolio to ensure alignment with organizational objectives and optimal resource utilization. Portfolio analysis plays a pivotal role in guiding decision-making and maximizing the value of the project portfolio. What does it include:
  • Strategic Alignment: Evaluate the extent to which projects align with organizational goals and objectives.
  • Risk Assessment: Identify and assess potential risks associated with each project within the portfolio.
  • Resource Optimization: Analyze resource allocation across projects to ensure efficient utilization and minimize conflicts.
  • Performance Evaluation: Monitor and evaluate the performance of individual projects against predefined criteria and key performance indicators (KPIs).
  • Alignment Adjustment: Adjust the project portfolio as necessary to realign with changing organizational priorities and market conditions.
Portfolio analysis empowers organizations to make informed decisions, prioritize projects effectively, and optimize resource allocation for maximum impact and success.
ppm

Step 3. Resource allocation

Resource allocation in project portfolio management ensures the efficient distribution of resources across various projects within the portfolio. This phase is crucial in optimizing project execution and maximizing organizational outcomes. The key components are:

  • Resource Assessment: Evaluate the availability of resources, including personnel, finances, and equipment.
  • Prioritization: Determine the priority of projects based on strategic importance and resource requirements.
  • Balancing Act: Strike a balance between competing project demands and resource constraints.
  • Optimization Strategies: Employ strategies to optimize resource allocation, such as resource leveling and resource smoothing.
  • Continuous Monitoring: Regularly monitor resource usage and adjust allocations as needed to ensure optimal utilization and project success.

Resource allocation helps resources to be allocated effectively to projects that align with organizational goals. It enhances overall project portfolio performance and drives success.

Step 4. Execution and monitoring

In the project portfolio management process, execution and monitoring stand as a pivotal phase, where projects are implemented and closely monitored to ensure they stay on track. This stage is crucial in translating plans into action and maintaining project alignment with organizational objectives. Here are the key aspects:

  • Implementation: Execute projects according to predefined plans, ensuring tasks are completed on time and within budget.
  • Milestone Tracking: Monitor project progress against predefined milestones and timelines to gauge performance.
  • Risk Management: Identify and mitigate risks that may arise during project execution to prevent delays or budget overruns.
  • Communication: Maintain open communication channels to keep stakeholders informed of project status and address any concerns or issues promptly.

Execution and monitoring ensure projects are executed efficiently, risks are managed effectively, and stakeholders are kept informed throughout the project lifecycle, ultimately contributing to the success of the project portfolio.

Step 5. Review and adaptation

In the final step of project portfolio management – Review and Adaptation – organizations critically evaluate the performance of their project portfolio and make necessary adjustments to enhance future outcomes. This phase emphasizes continuous improvement and agility, ensuring that the portfolio remains aligned with evolving organizational goals and market dynamics. Let’s explore the key components of review and adaptation:

  • Performance Assessment: Conduct a comprehensive review of project portfolio performance against predefined objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs).
  • Lesson Learning: Identify lessons learned from project successes and failures to inform the future decision-making and improve PPM processes.
  • Feedback Incorporation: Incorporate feedback from stakeholders and project teams to refine portfolio strategies and project execution methodologies.
  • Strategy Adjustment: Adjust portfolio strategies and priorities based on insights gained from the review process to better align with organizational goals.
  • Continuous Improvement: Implement ongoing monitoring and adaptation mechanisms to ensure the portfolio remains dynamic and responsive to changing circumstances.

This step fosters a culture of learning and adaptability, enabling organizations to optimize their project management practices and achieve sustained success.

In conclusion, effective project portfolio management is crucial for organizations to achieve their strategic objectives and maximize project success. Organizations can optimize resource allocation, mitigate risks, and ensure alignment with overarching goals by following the structured approach outlined in the five-step project portfolio management process. These steps enable organizations to enhance decision-making, improve project outcomes, and drive sustainable growth.

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Changelog

Dec 14, 2024

  • New – Warning Center
  • Improved –  Portfolios – Added ability to create a portfolio of Programs
  • Improved – All Projects list now includes programs
  • Improved – Trigger settings page is better organized
  • New – Project rating triggers
  • Improved – Outlook Integration now has the ability to sync your Out of Office Availability
  • Improved – My Availability can be set in hours as well as days
  • Fix – Various bug fixes and UI tune-ups

Nov 18, 2024

  • New – Task Templates
  • Improved –  Search can find checklist items in tasks
  • Improved – Budget. Cell-assignment has, for each resource, an added total and total to date field.
  • Improved – Adding user to project  has a new interface where multiple team member can be added by selecting form a list
  • New – Timesheet report export has an added option to export all months on record.
  • Improved – Outlook Integration now has the ability to sync your Out of Office Availability
  • Improved – My Availability can be set in hours as well as days
  • Fix – Various bug fixes and UI tune-ups

Oct 16, 2024

  • New – Outlook 2-way Integration
  • Improved –  Forecast calculation
  • Improved – Allocation. When effort-driven is enabled, Task s in allocation now show start/end dates
  • Improved – Timesheet functionalities
  • Fix – Various bug fixes

Aug 29, 2024

  • New – Users Calendar. Unified view of all user’s calendar
  • New – Vacation calendar. Visualize your resources’ vacations in a searchable centralized calendar
  • New – Allocation Gantt. A new view that represent resources’ allocation in a Gannt chart
  • New – My Availability. Each user can set their own working time and days off. The availability is fully automated with the schedule, forecast and allocation
  • New – Effort based schedule. You can now assign effort to tasks in the schedule and report them in the Timesheet. Timesheet entries are automatically calculated and pre-populated.
  • New – Task based Timesheet. You can now report time against assigned schedule’s tasks. This functionality is tied to Effort based schedule.
  • New   Each project has a dedicated general chat
  • New –  Timesheet custom entries. Add non-billable hours to the timesheet and visualize reports. For example you can track a resource’s vacation days.
  • New   Added new interactive resources’ effort reports with time/cost views
  • New – Multi-Language support
  • Improved –  Timesheet reports now include “To Date” tally
  • Improved – In the resource view, actuals and forecast are now displayed side-by-side
  • Improved – Vendors logos are now automatically added to the vendor component.
  • Improved – New schedule, forecast and actuals triggers have been added to improve the warning engine
  • Improved – Search functionality now includes RAID items
  • Improved – Gantt charts have a new rounded look and have the resource(s) assigned visible in the bar
  • Improved – Raid. You can now hide all RAID items, while in list view, that are closed with the click of a button.
  • Change – Allocation calculation are no longer tied to the project end, and instead rely on the allocation calendar
  • UI tune-up– All dashboards have bigger graphic counters and a new coloring scheme to clearly separate the budget data from the rest.
  • Fix – Various bug fixes

Jun 7, 2024

  • New – Change Request impacting the schedule are now automatically updating the “Approved end date” of the project and are clearly flagged. 
  • New – Project duration (in days) is now displayed in the overview page and in the status report. 
  • Improved – Schedule and RAID filters have been improved
  • New – Baseline capability has been added to the schedule
  • New – Schedule history is now available. The schedule automatically save itself and provides multipole restore points
  • Improved – New triggers have been added to the warning engine to better support more use cases
  • New – Search is now available across the entire site  and covers multiple items
  • Improved: project search now includes RAID items
  • New: In the Simplified view, we have added the Tasks Kanban view. The Kanban view is now the default one

Apr 20, 2024

  • New – Document search is indexed and fully integrated with external drives (OD. GD. etc).
  • Improved – Schedule and RAID filters have been improved 
  • Improved – Milestones in gantt chart are placed in different level when colliding
  • Improved – CSV exports data improvement
  • Improved – Dashboards columns are also customizable “per user” and can be set directly in the dashboard.
  • Fix – Fixed bugs in schedule and RAID where resources couldn’t be copied via context menu

Mar 16, 2024

  • New – OneDrive Integration (2-way) 
  • New – Google Drive Integration (2-way)
  • New – Schedule Kanban view
  • New – Tracking and Operational initiatives have been simplified and add the ability to migrate to a full project
  • Improved – Document templates can now be organized into folders

Jan 29, 2024

  • Improved – Site Settings’ UI has a new look with explanation and guide
  • New – Portfolio status can now be exported unified 
  • New – Jira Integration (2-way)
  • New– MS Project Integration (2-way)
  • New– Simplified view – Record is committed automatically

Dec 22, 2023

  • New – Introduced a FREE plan
  • New – Introduced a new trigger-based Warning engine
  • New – Added charts for budget’s status
  • New– Added Portfolio Manager role
  • New– Added Portfolio view in My Dash for assigned Portfolio Managers
  • New – Project type can be hidden if not in use
  • Improved – Status reports now export in PDF landscape for better readability

Nov 25, 2023

  • Fix – Bugs and UI tune-ups
  • New – RAID Cards in Kanban mode have an updated look
  • New – Added 5 custom budget fields. You can track your own custom financial targets and display them in the various dashboards and status reports
  • New – Budget templates can now be created by importing directly from MS Excel
  • New– When, in a project, components are hidden, all related options are also hidden
  • New– Added a Resource view for Portfolios

Nov 5, 2023

  • Fix – Bugs and UI tune-ups
  • New – Introduced Operational and Task Tracking as type of initiatives
  • New – Project type tags are now colored differently for a better experience
  • New – Project types are now tracked in the Dashboards
  • New– Added ability to show/hide all details’ components separately in the Overview page 
  • New – Added a “Note” field in vendor expenses.

Oct 5, 2023

  • Fix – Bugs and UI tune-ups
  • New – Introduced Financials lock
  • New – Dashboards: added alert icons for values over the baseline 

Sep 6, 2023

  • Fix – Fixed FY calculation in PM Dashboard
  • New – Introduced a new Trial start Welcome guided setup
  • New – Table’s headers have a new and improved look
  • New – Added option to include/exclude any given project in the overall Budget and/or Financials calculations
  • New – Added option to enable/disable the budget fiscal on a per project basis

Aug 25, 2023

  • Fix – Bugs and UI tune-ups
  • Update – We updated all internal libraries to the latest version 
  • New – Introduced a Simplified project type to be used for task tracking type activities
  • New – Increased the number of components that can be turned off separately
  • New – Tasks can now be added directly from the dashboards
  • New – The Trial plan has been simplified by turning off, by default, all advanced components. All features can be turn back on in the Site settings
  • New – Individual users can now customize their dashboards by show/hide columns of data. Go to “My Account” to customize it.

Aug 10, 2023

  • Fix – Bugs and UI tune-ups
  • New – Grouping of resources in MyTeams
  • New – Pre-built budget “Estimates vs Actuals”
  • New – Status report now has a new widget: Summary bar
  • New – More components can be turned off separately
  • New – New tasks can be added directly from the dashboard

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