Practice: Portfolio Management |
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The objectives of this practice are to capture, define, prioritize, and manage work requests for new and existing products by using a standardized portfolio management framework. |
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Purpose
Organizations define goals and set targets that are part of an overall
organizational strategy. The achievement of the defined strategy is constrained
by the available resources, funding, infrastructure, regulatory environment,
and other factors. Resources and funding are finite; there is only so much
of each available. The challenge is to maximize the potential benefits and contributions in
achieving the goals and targets, while being the most effective in applying
(and monitoring the consumption of) the limited resources and funding. Moreover, the
executive leadership of the organization must make a determination that their
policies and processes followed to meet the challenge identified above
is effective, somewhat effective, or not effective at all.
This practice provides the process guidance and governance needed
to manage and overcome the challenges and limitations imposed by the
constraints and limiting factors faced by organizations while trying to achieve
their strategic goals. It also provides guidance and a process reference
model for organizations to make selections, provide oversight, and make decisions
among all initiatives that compete for the same group of resources and funding.
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How to read this practice
The best way to read this practice is to first familiarize yourself with its
overall structure and the Portfolio Management reference model: what it
is in it and how it is organized.
- Begin by making sure that the teams, including stakeholders, understand
what the key concepts are:
- Work pipelines
- Value analysis
- Next, understand how the various participants in a portfolio collaborate
on an ongoing and cyclical manner, for example:
- The portfolio analyst facilitates the processing or requests within the
portfolio work pipelines, coordinates with the portfolio stakeholders, and
keeps all requests within the portfolio current, complete, and relevant.
- Portfolio stakeholders provide timely input, decisions. and actions to
guide prioritization and optimal balancing of the portfolios, while ensuring
that resources and capacities are available to execute on the work of
the portfolio. Their direct involvement and ongoing commitment help focus
the operational teams toward the accomplishment of the goals most beneficial
to the organization.
- The operational teams (project, product, and development) commit to completing
the work in a manner consistent with the approved priorities and to avoid
working on components not formally sponsored and authorized within the portfolios.
- Then understand how these groups collaborate when they perform the following
activities:
- Define and prioritize portfolio
- Balance and authorize portfolio
- Monitor and control portfolio
- Also, understand what work products are used as input to and output from various
tasks, such as the business case, component list, product roadmap, and
so on.
- Last, understand the various guidelines that explain how to define, prioritize,
authorize, and monitor the portfolio components.
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Additional Information
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