Portfolio Planning Whitepaper

Take It to the Bank: Four Ways to Create Strategic Value with Portfolio Planning

Poor project performance is often directly linked to bad strategic planning. Even well-performing projects can lead to poor profit margins for the enterprise. But if assessing projects across the enterprise against the strategic plan is critically important, why isn’t it happening? There are many fundamental challenges with traditional planning methods including the fact that most organizations plan annually and iterate quarterly or monthly. They measure projects based on delivery, on time/on budget, and being productive, but often get too wrapped up in the details and forget the strategic mission.

What's in this whitepaper?

  • How the nitty gritty, day-to-day “good” becomes the enemy of “the best”

  • Why PMOs thrive in the environment of constant change

  • 4 best practices to unlocking your planning potential

  • Checklist for change
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Introduction: 

In monetary policy, aggressively printing more money, even though it can cover specific short-term financial obligations, is often a poor long-term strategic economic decision. The practice historically proves unwise because it increases inflation yet rarely improves quality or output ultimately decaying the value of the currency.

Likewise, in the project management world this practice is equivalent to adding more and more projects to portfolio without focusing on value, output and stakeholder satisfaction. When projects come along, they typically come into a queue and get funnelled into the portfolio when there is time/resources available.

Sometimes, even, projects jump to the front of the line if they are high priority (or at least perceived as high priority). This can either bulk up the portfolio taking time and resources off of other work or build up the backlog. A clear vision, well defined intake processes and a strong commitment to quality delivery will help your company avoid this trap and reverse the damage of the status quo.

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