Project Portfolio Management

Project Portfolio Management helps to look at projects not only individually, but also in relation to one another. The aim is to compare projects based on consistent criteria, make priorities transparent, and take available resources into account when planning.

Project Portfolio Management in companies

While project management focuses on the successful execution of individual projects, Project Portfolio Management considers the entirety of projects within a company or a specific area of responsibility.

The aim is to create a balanced project portfolio while taking into account strategic objectives, ongoing and planned projects, available resources, and necessary investments.

Two different questions are particularly important:

• Are we doing the right projects? – Which projects support the strategic objectives and should therefore be considered or prioritized?
• Are we doing the projects right? – How are ongoing projects developing in terms of status, progress, schedules, costs, and resources?

Further questions may concern available resources, existing risks, necessary investments, or optimization potential within the project portfolio.

Structure projects in the portfolio

In the smenso portfolio view, projects can be viewed together and structured based on different project information. This includes, for example, status information, project manager, project type, progress, labels, budget, as well as project start and end dates.

Filters, sorting, and grouping can be used to focus the view on the relevant projects and information. In addition, Flavors and labels can be used to structure projects by portfolio, strategy, project category, or other company-specific criteria.

View projects over time

In addition to the structured portfolio view, it is also important to consider projects and their planning over time. In the Timeline, dates, tasks, and milestones can be displayed along a time axis.

This makes it possible to understand schedules and important transitions. Milestones can, for example, mark important approvals, phase transitions, or other key dates within a project.

This time-based perspective complements the other information in the project portfolio and helps to take schedules and dependencies over time into account during planning.

Compare and analyze projects

For cross-project evaluation, consistent criteria can be maintained in the project master data and then compared with one another in the portfolio analysis.

In the Bubble Chart, criteria such as Urgency and Strategy contribution can be compared. An additional metric, such as Plan effort, can be represented by the size of the bubbles. This makes differences between projects visible at a glance.

For more information on evaluating and comparing projects, see the Best Practice article Project Analysis.

Consider resources and workload

An essential aspect when designing the project portfolio is the availability of the required resources. In Team workload, capacities and planned workloads of people can be viewed across projects.

This makes it possible to identify which resources are already fully utilized and which people still have capacity for additional tasks or projects. Workload therefore complements the portfolio evaluation by showing whether sufficient capacity is available for planned and ongoing initiatives.

Best Practice

• Use consistent criteria for projects so that they can be compared meaningfully.
• Use filters, grouping, and views to represent different perspectives on the project portfolio.
• In addition to strategic criteria, consider the status, schedules, costs, progress, and risks of ongoing and planned projects when planning the portfolio.
• Use the time-based view to include important dates, milestones, and scheduling relationships in your planning.
• Consider available resources and their workload before planning additional initiatives.
• Review the project portfolio regularly, as priorities, conditions, and available capacities can change.