{"id":830,"date":"2016-12-01T00:01:46","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T08:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b-spoke.net\/?p=830"},"modified":"2026-06-29T22:00:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T22:00:30","slug":"portfolio-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/2016\/12\/01\/portfolio-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Balancing Project Portfolios"},"content":{"rendered":"
A Five Minute Read<\/h6>\n
\n

Pop Quiz!<\/h4>\n

Your organization\u2019s consolidated project calendar looks like:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. An organized Gantt-style chart of projects threading their way to scheduled completion<\/li>\n
  2. Air Traffic Control over the Northeast during a blizzard \u2013 hundreds of projects circling, with few places to land<\/li>\n
  3. What\u2019s a project calendar?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Projects get chartered when:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The organization identifies a gap between current practice and future needs, and the work requires a diverse cross-section of skills and responsibilities<\/li>\n
    2. We need IT to do something for us<\/li>\n
    3. Somebody has an idea<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      A project is \u201cstrategic\u201d because:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Its objectives accomplish documented long-term operational goals that translates \u201cmission\u201d and \u201cvision\u201d into action<\/li>\n
      2. Someone from upstairs said it was \u201cstrategic\u201d<\/li>\n
      3. It is really expensive, will take a really long time, or just seems really big<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        When the work required to accomplish current projects is greater than the total amount of resources we have:<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. We take a critical look at the portfolio, and either bring in additional help or shut down projects<\/li>\n
        2. Tell people to \u201cwork smarter\u201d<\/li>\n
        3. Silently suffer through subpar performance reviews, sneaking home K-Cups to make up for lost bonus<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n

           <\/p>\n

          If you answered \u201cA\u201d for any question, go back to work. You are either lying to me (or yourself), or you don\u2019t work on projects. If you answered \u201cC\u201d to all the questions, go work on your resume. For everyone else, here is a way to streamline your project portfolio.<\/h3>\n

          A common complaint from project managers of all stripes is \u201ctoo many projects, not enough resources\u201d. \u201cResources\u201d usually refers to people to do the work, but lack of time, money, equipment, materials all compound \"projects\"<\/a>the problem. Organizations need discipline to control the flow of projects and ensure they accomplish strategic goals, and do not become resource-wasting, soul-sucking distractions.<\/p>\n

          Creating a \u201cProject Management Office\u201d is not necessarily enough \u2013 or even the right alternative. Without solid portfolio management techniques in place, odds are good that mission-critical projects are struggling while unimportant initiatives fill peoples\u2019 days.<\/p>\n

          To best balance a project portfolio, there are two separate and distinct analyses that must be completed: The first is a strategic review of all projects, and the second is a resource appraisal. An easy mistake is to try to save time by combining the evaluations, but each answers a very different question. The first analysis asks, \u201cShould<\/em> we attempt this project?\u201d and the second, \u201cCan<\/em> we do it?\u201d<\/p>\n

          Strategic Project Review<\/h4>\n

          A strategic review determines if the organization should even think about spending resources in pursuit of the project. \u201cStrategic\u201d is a hard-and-fast criterion, not a political judgment. A project is \u201cstrategic\u201d because it aligns with the overarching goals of the organization.<\/p>\n

          At the most basic, managers should review the strategy and match at least one project dedicated to accomplishing each of its objectives; then, they should look at each project and see which strategic objectives it will achieve. If there are holes in that first check, then there are strategic objectives that are not being worked on; failing the second check means people are wasting time and money on non-critical projects.<\/p>\n

          A more structured approach involves scoring projects against multiple criteria. Independent of the individual projects (and their managers or sponsors), leadership should identify the key measures of strategic success. Think in terms of production, finance, marketing, and risk (For example, \u201cMaximize market share\u201d, \u201cMaximize revenue\u201d, \u201cMinimize product cannibalization\u201d, \u201cMinimize business risk\u201d), but do not worry about minimizing constraints at this point<\/u> (such as whether there are enough database engineers or brand analysts to do the job).<\/p>\n

          Here is a list of objectives and projects from the client discussed in this post<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

          \"together\"
          \nOnce those objectives have been articulated and agreed upon, prioritize them. A great way to do this is to weigh them on a relative scale between one and ten; be careful not to make everything a ten, and that the different weights truly reflect relative priority (e.g., a \u201c10\u201d vs. an \u201c8\u201d vs. a \u201c2\u201d).<\/p>\n

          \"weighted-objectives\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Now, leaders should evaluate the projects against each criterion: Best practice tells us to take each strategic objective individually, and judge every project against it, before moving on to the next. It is a little more time consuming, but it provides for a cleaner analysis, and is ultimately far more accurate. (As a consultant, I am professionally required to suggest creating a matrix).<\/p>\n

          \"blank-strategic-grid\"<\/a>
          A matrix with objectives along the left (Y) axis and projects across the top (X). (Click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
          \"Starting<\/a>
          Starting with the first objective, find the relative value of each project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

          \"partial-strategic-grid\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Fair warning: Here comes some math.<\/p>\n

          Every project should have a score for how it performs on every strategic objective, each of which is weighted. Multiply those two numbers, and add them up for each project. This gives every project a combined, relative priority. An honest analysis should show a fair spread between the high performers and the low performers. Egos are sure to be bruised.<\/p>\n

          \"finished-strategic-grid\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Now that it is clear what the most important projects are, it\u2019s time to determine which ones can be achieved.<\/p>\n

          Resource Review<\/h4>\n

          While the high-priority projects may not be fully defined at this point, project managers should make a determined effort to identify the types<\/u> of resources needed. Additionally, the organization should already know its capacity \u2013 not just by skill set or experience, but also in full-time, part-time, contract, or consultative roles.<\/p>\n

          Completing the resource review simply becomes a matter of loading resources against the highest priority project; if there are still resources left, move on to the next. Once a pool of resources is spent, the constraint becomes evident. This doesn\u2019t mean the project is dead in the water \u2013 it can be delayed until resources are freed, or the decision can be made to bring in additional resources \u2013 but now an intelligent, rational discussion can be held around this.<\/p>\n

          \"A<\/a>
          A completed resource scorecard. The projects that introduce a resource constraint have been highlighted.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

           <\/p>\n

          This all may feel like a dry exercise, when more exciting \u201cwork\u201d could be done. Careful, periodic scrutiny of projects \u2013 first for strategic fit, then for resource ability – ensures that people are working on things that matter, and that resources are available to keep the work moving forward. Having a robust, objective process for evaluating projects in the portfolio will maintain a focus on actively supporting the strategy, to identify the projects that don\u2019t belong \u2013 and an objective way to say \u201cNo\u201d to those projects.<\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Think you have more projects than people? Take this handy quiz to check!<\/p>\n

          If you are overstretched, here is a two-step analysis to identify the bottlenecks in your organization’s project portfolio. Continue reading Balancing Project Portfolios<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[44,58,64,69],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-managing-projects","tag-james-bond","tag-portfolio-management","tag-project-management","tag-reporting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/portfolio-featured.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2454,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions\/2454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}