Project management portfolio offices have a tough job of figuring out how to create a portfolio of projects that provide the most value to an organization. There are bunches of obstacles to creating and maintaining a set of projects that can deliver the most benefits to the enterprise.
Project Management Portfolio Office Challenges:
– Chaos in the external environment
– Clashes in the executive suite
– Competency in the portfolio office
Portfolio offices are staffed by senior project management professionals assisting business leaders in steering the funding of the organization to respond to the chaos in the external environment, politics and personalities in the C-suite, and they may not be prepared to understand the details of the content of the projects or the mechanics of portfolio data analysis. Whew.
We can help by understanding business needs, ensuring those needs are included in the business case for portfolio selection, and creating forums for portfolio alignment. Yup – I’ve done these things.
But what is really the answer to surviving a job in a project management portfolio office? I believe that in large part it is a focus on outcome management. This is a phrase coined by my peer in the industry, Russ McDowell. We need to help an organization identify the key measurements that drive the health of the organization. Next, we identify how projects support improvement of those metrics.
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Copyright 2009 PM Perspectives LLC Rosemary Hossenlopp PMP
