A Practical Insight Into IT Project Portfolio Management

 

What Is IT Project Portfolio Management? 

Project portfolio management (PPM) involves various processes utilised by portfolio managers and project management organisations (PMOs) to understand, evaluate and interpret the potential return on undertaking a project. 

By segmenting and analysing every piece of data pertaining to the proposed and current projects, the IT project portfolio management system offers organisations forecasting and business analysis before investing in new projects. 

In simple words, IT Project portfolio management allows organisations and managers to clearly visualise the big picture. With the correct PPM tool and practical implementation: 

• Executives will know which project/portfolio managers they need to reach out to. 
• Project managers get easy access to communicate with team members. 
• Team members enjoy better communication channels with the leadership team and their peers.
• Stakeholders are involved in the project process for reliable and consistent feedback.

How Can Project Portfolio Management Benefit Your Organisation? 

Informed Risk Management

Taking risks is an inherent component of any business. However, there’s a massive difference between taking a calculated and an uncalculated risk. 

Calculated risk is necessary to expand your business operations, acquire a larger customer base, and fulfil your company’s goal. And that’s where the application IT project portfolio management tools come into the picture.

Risk Understanding 

The correct project portfolio management strategy helps you predict the outcomes and choose projects that will yield the best results and drive you towards your organisational goal. It outlines various questions, including: 

• Do I have the necessary IT resources and budgets to venture into this new project? 
• Will this project help me model other similar projects in the future? 
• Which current projects can become an obstacle to completing this project? 
• Are the stakeholders demanding realistic outcomes? Which are the areas that we can afford to compromise? 
• Does this project help our company to reach its goals and objectives?

Risk Mitigation

Risk mitigation in IT project portfolio management include: 

• Ensuring the new/proposed project aligns with the comprehensive organisational goals. 
• Providing measurable datasets to compare risks and rewards associated with the project. 
• Determining potential roadblocks, bottlenecks, and strategy design flaws at multiple levels. 
• Coordinate team and resource availability and capability with the amount of work to be done.

Refines Project Management

Many people confuse project management with portfolio management. These two are independent terms having different meanings and different roles in an enterprise. 

Project management specifically deals with a single project’s development, delivery, and deployment. IT portfolio management focuses on every ongoing project or potential project within the entire organisation (small companies) or in a particular portfolio (e.g. healthcare IT application and automobile IT applications can be two separate portfolios in a large enterprise)

IT project portfolio management is critical for meeting overall business goals. 

A well-devised and structured project portfolio management system lays the cornerstone for more efficient and streamlined project management. 

The role of PPM include: 

• Prevents project management blunders by determining good and bad projects through expected ROI and the projected value analysis. 
• Provides a precise understanding of project prioritisation enabling project managers to develop flexible timetables 
• Create a comprehensive list of which team members and project managers are available 
• Assists in assigning a financial value to a project, making project budgets firm

Empowers You To Visualise The Big Picture

IT project portfolio management offers you a comprehensive, panoramic view of ongoing, upcoming, and past projects. 

You can make a better-informed decision by envisioning the big picture of how an upcoming or proposed project will affect the goals of your enterprise. You can determine what projects to choose and which initiatives will generate the maximum return.

What Should You Consider While Incorporating A PPM Tool Into Your Workflow? 

With the emerging importance of portfolio management, various IT project portfolio management tools are available. Look for the following factors before you incorporate any PPM tool or methodology into your existing workflow: 

• The tools should accommodate project portfolio management at the enterprise level. 
• Offer interfaces and functionality that are easy to use and understand for everyone across the organisation. 
• Deliver improved online elements to support remote collaboration and communication. 
• Provide comprehensive reporting and project workflow analytics.