In this article we present the PMO guide to project portfolio management charts and dashboards. In our data-driven age of project and portfolio management, having the right project portfolio management charts, dashboards, reports, and analytics are important for successfully managing projects and portfolios. The challenge comes from communicating the right set of information in the right format at the right time to make better strategic decisions. In many cases, there is no shortage of data, and therefore it is easy to create a lot of noise by having too many reports. Project Management Offic ..read more

A project portfolio decision gate framework is a governance structure to evaluate, authorize, and monitor projects as they pass through the project lifecycle and is a critical component of project selection and portfolio oversight. In the previous post we discussed the work intake process which brings new project proposals to the portfolio governance team. In this post we will cover the basics of how a project portfolio decision framework further enhances portfolio management. A winning portfolio must contain winning projects, therefore the PMO and portfolio governance team must be able to di ..read more

Does your organization have a “single entry” for new project requests? Or rather, does your organization have a front door, a side door, a back door, and many other ways to receive requests? Having multiple ways to submit requests is a common problem for many companies and highlights the need for a standard work intake process. Without a common work intake process, it can be nearly impossible to track all of the work being done because there is no “single source of truth”. Even worse, a lot of shadow work may be going on in the organization which consumes valuable resources time from higher p ..read more

In this post we will cover what a priority matrix is and how to use a prioritization matrix in the context of project portfolio management. What is a Priority Matrix? A priority matrix is a tool used to categorically prioritize types of work. It has three primary strengths: simplicity, speed, and applicability to all types of work (projects and operational work). A priority matrix is easy to understand and simple to use because calculations are not required. The most simplistic prioritization matrix has three choices, the classic low/medium/high, but some organizations may utilize “must do ..read more

Project Prioritization is About Maximizing Value Project prioritization (and by extension, portfolio management) is about delivering the maximum value possible through programs and projects. In order to maximize value delivery, governance teams that approve work need to share a common view of “value” in order to select the most valuable work and assign the right resources to that work. Understanding the relative “value” of each program and project in the portfolio is at the heart of portfolio management and determines what work is selected, how it is prioritized, where resources are allocated ..read more

Managing project dependencies (or interdependencies) is an often-missed tactical capability of project portfolio management (PPM). Yet, managing project dependencies is an important part of portfolio planning so as to tactically coordinate project execution. Successful management of project dependencies can reduce the risk of delayed projects, friction between projects, and the duplication of effort. In our article on portfolio planning, we briefly covered that in order to optimize project execution we need the right sequence of projects. In order to properly sequence the projects in the port ..read more

Work Intake (Demand Management) Overview and WHY it is important Work Intake (also known as demand management) is perhaps the most critical component of project portfolio management because it determines the composition of the portfolio (in terms of quality, value, balance, and resource utilization).  Organizations with a broken work intake process will have a compromised project portfolio and likely suffer from poor project execution. In a previous article we provided a holistic overview of the topic of work intake and in this article we will share our best practices for implementing an ..read more

There is no question that we are in the midst of radical changes to our workplace and society due to the mainstream emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).  Experts have been predicting for several years how AI will change the way we work. With the public arrival of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, these changes are accelerating and organizations need to be ready sooner (not later) to begin utilizing this technology to improve work. While there has been some research into how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will change project management, th ..read more

In this guide we will break down in detail the difference between a PMO and an EPMO. In order to do this, we will go in-depth to review what a PMO is, what it does, what the benefits are, and the different types of PMO’s. From there we will cover what an Enterprise PMO is and does and provide an organizational structure between PMO’s and EPMO’s. What is a PMO? Organizations that rely on project and program management to deliver critical products and services often set up what is referred to as a PMO. The acronym PMO is typically used for a “Project Management Office”, but as we will see, the ..read more

A common but misunderstood question related to project portfolio management is “what is a Project Portfolio Manager?” and “what does a Project Portfolio Manager do”? Most articles get this wrong because it is discussed from a theoretical point of view, not based on actual practice. As we will see, we cannot make the simple translation that because Project Managers manage projects, Portfolio Managers must manage portfolios – it’s not that simple. In the world of project and portfolio management, several roles are involved. The Project Manager role has been analyzed in depth, and we will briefl ..read more