Projects and portfolio management has been a key focus to manage and implement business change in organisations for many years. Yet delivery is only one portion in terms of overall success. If we aren’t selecting the “right” initiatives in the first place and hopefully achieving the so-called return on investment, are we really doing things “right”?
Although less than one-third of PMOs offer portfolio management as a service (PMO Trends, 2011-2012, PM-Partners group), the need to prioritise and balance investment to deliver an organisation’s strategic goals, given global economic challenges, has never been so vital.
Portfolio management enables informed decision making and optimisation of benefits realisation, redirecting funds and other resources if initiatives are not contributing to strategic objectives – it is not just passive monitoring of a group of projects and programmes.
Have you considered lately if your projects and programmes are the “right” ones for long term success? Are they co-ordinated with strategic, financial and performance management for the organisation as a whole?
It’s time; portfolio management as a discipline has come of age.
PM-Partners group offer training workshops in the APMG’s Management of Portfolios (MoP®). See our website for further details. MoP is a registered trademark of the Cabinet Office.