Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi, my name is Martina, and I wanted to help you achieve your first steps in project
portfolio management. If you want to know more
about my background, you can visit my website. But I can tell you product portfolio
management may be tricky, but it's not exactly
a rocket science. If it is, don't worry. I also have background in
aerospace engineering. You are in good hands. You don't need any special
tools to take this class. Just an open mind. I will explain you what are the project portfolio really is? What are its elements and how many projects can be
gathered in a project portfolio. I will show you that
sometimes managers are already managing portfolio
without noticing it, we will see what are
the best ways to report portfolio and to whom it
should be really reported. I will give you some tips
with practical aspects like how often report
portfolio report, how to organize your team to get information for the report, I will explain what the differences between
handling project, program and portfolio are and what most important why
portfolio matters and how portfolio report
will help you a lot with managing the
portfolio in practice. At the end, you will get your hands dirty with
a final project, you will resume situation
in MMS portfolio. This will be an
excellent warm-up before taking care of your own
portfolio situation. So let's get started.
2. What is Project Portfolio in practice? : What is Project
Portfolio in practice, product portfolio is
usually understood as group of products that
are executed in one company. They don't need to
concern only one topic. They don't need to be connected. Sometimes all of them are
managed by one person. Sometimes they are managed
by different people. So there is no one and
only exact definition. What are elements of
products portfolio? Portfolio is usually understood as all projects in the company. In big companies you may have many projects concerning
similar topic. Projects concerning similar area are usually gathered
in one program. As companies may have different
sectors that they are addressing with their products and services in one company, they may be many programs. We can have high-tech
company that specializes in making
navigation equipment. They address defense and severe industry
which differ a lot, especially concerning
requirements, quality standards,
and procedures. It is understandable that projects are divided
into two programs, defense and severe one, how many projects are
in Project Portfolio? Number of projects
in the portfolio may have very wide range. Even a few projects
can be a portfolio. In small companies, they may be just a few projects and still they are
considered as portfolio. For some of you, it is
not really a portfolio, just a few projects. It is not worth to
name it like this. But remember that for the ulnar
and her or his employees, it is what they are making
profit and needs to manage it. In that case there, it must gain control and have
a bigger picture. Portfolio approach is
very important to them. Why? So? If you have portfolio
of 100 projects in us, assume profitable on
almost the same level and you must false or
terminate the project. What did then if it is not
the most profitable one, you can manage and cope
with that situation. It is 1% of projects after all. If you have five projects, it makes a huge difference. And it can be a game changer
for the whole company. It's 20% of all
your projects then.
3. Who manage Project Portfolio?: We'll manage project portfolio. Product portfolio is usually managed by portfolio
project manager. You don't really need this job title to
manage the portfolio. Imagine that you have
a big pot of soup. This is your
portfolio inside it. There are all kinds
of ingredients. Those are company projects. But to make a tasty soup, you cannot just put anything
inside and mix it together. You need to have
proper ingredients in appropriate amounts. Additionally, every company has different vision, mission, and strategy, which makes every company a
soup intent crime. The key role of product portfolio manager is
to translate the zoo name coming from the company's
strategic goals to right mix and amounts
of ingredients. In short, make a dedicated
recipe for the soup. We've carefully
selected projects. Every project has project
manager assigned. The program has additionally
program manager who is responsible for projects
in her or his program. And there is a portfolio
project manager who is coordinating
the whole portfolio. In bigger companies
where there are many projects in one program, managers has specialization and the projects are from
the same business area. In many companies, there is a project management team and project managers are assigned to few projects as each
of that project is not a full-time job from
management point of view, also, desk civilizations
are not so evident as the whole company
is quite focused on particular part of the
sector and gatherers, people with good knowledge
of this area to begin with. But portfolio management
approach is to some point, a way to see things
and handle them. Taking into account
also bigger picture. In practice, it proved to
be very useful also in case of managing one
quite complex project. It may include many
smaller teams and so many additional
initiatives that are directly connected
to this single project. Getting the bigger
picture and monitoring the overall process can
be very challenging. And that's the moment when portfolio approach
can help a lot. Product portfolio is
not exclusive thing for corporations in startups
and small companies, you start with 12 initiatives, but you grow quickly
in a single moment. You have many initiatives, some smaller, some
bigger. In no time. You can easily have
a portfolio to handle without
really realizing it. Let's sum up situations in which portfolio approach is
very useful in practice. We can have project
managers who manage more than one project
at the same time. Let's name it case, a project managers who
manage very complex project, which may be divided
into sub-projects. It will be case B, project managers who wants to be or are being promoted
for program, maybe portfolio managers,
we will gather in case see, startups and SME owners also managerial staff
are making case D.
4. How to report Project Portfolio?: How to report project portfolio. Your portfolio maybe reported in many ways verbally
using Office software, using dedicated
management software. But the most
convenient is having a portfolio report
prepared as just one file, for example, in PDF form. Make it easy to come
back to it using as many devices as possible without additional
software required. In many cases, especially
in smaller companies, the verbal form is used, but to be more
exact and to really know what is going
on in projects, you should have raw data, analyze them, have your own conclusions
on the basis of data, then combine them with your unique knowledge
about the company. In many cases, it is not so easy to put it all in
exact parametric form. Also present those
data together with your conclusions
and unique insights in form of a portfolio report, maybe a tricky task,
especially verbally. The crucial aspect is making your report easy to understand. For others, there are many
techniques to achieve that, but mostly you will see that
they are convenient for a written reporting and for example, additional
verbal explanation. Here are some of them. We can use color
codes for projects. Stick to simple criteria, provide clear definition
of all parameters. Have additional data
to backup our report. As you need only office tools, which are usually available
for every project manager. You can use them for
your own purpose of product monitoring in line
with your management style. It does not exclude using different company
management tools. It may happen that they are both very useful and data from company management
tool are making very nice input to
your own portfolio. Report. It a common practice to
have a brief kind of sum up portfolio report
for the board that highlights only main points, but simultaneously also
prepare the extended version for day-to-day management of the portfolio to easier life. As a portfolio manager.
5. To whom report Project Portfolio?: To whom report
project portfolio. Product portfolio is usually reported to higher
management of the company. In the bigger companies, it will be reported to the board many times to
one of Vice-President. In small companies. It can be reported directly
to the ulnar or owners. Companies may have different
organizational structure. It will have direct impact to whom the portfolio
is reported. If the company is project
oriented organization, the report will go to higher management in
a vertical manner, simply because the
whole company has products rather than department. If the company has
matrix structure, which is more common, there will be departments
in vertical and projects that builds the whole portfolio
in horizontal manner. In that case, the
portfolio will be usually reported directly to the
board by portfolio manager, not to departments management.
6. How often should the Portfolio be reported?: How often should the
portfolio be reported? Project status
changes all the time from one hour to another. We want to monitor
the progress and those changes to some
level of detail. That end, we need the portfolio report that
is a visualization and presentation of
data that changes as often as there are changes
in the whole project. So we may say that
the portfolio report, if very detailed, will change every day, almost every hour. We must realize that if
we generate it hourly, nobody even we don't have
time for analyzing tip. Also gathering current data, it may take some time of
ourselves and other people involved from our management
team arises a question, how often should we
send the report? In case of project managers of many projects and
startups or SME owners, the report may be
sent every two weeks. It takes some time to gather up-to-date data
and to prepare it. And then we need the
time to analyze it properly and get the bird's
eye view of the portfolio. Project managers of
one complex projects. And those of you who
want to be promoted for portfolio managers
needed the report every week for their purpose. And in case of portfolio project managers
for reporting to the board. I think it over maybe in your case will be some special circumstances
that you know of. This timing should be different. If you are not sure yet, started from the frequency
that I propose for your case. And as always, it will
come out in practice. You can adopt as you
gather more experience in that matter and recognize
specific of your company.
7. One problem- I have no Project Management Team: One problem, I have not
project management team. You think you have no product management team in practice. Sometimes you will not need the real PMs team to
handle your portfolio. In practice, you need to kind of team leaders or just a
person who will help you, especially with gathering
data about project progress. It will be very useful during monitoring of your portfolio. And in particular, portfolio
report preparation. Project managers who manage
more than one project at the same time
may look into tasks of each project and try to distinguish smaller teams
inside each project. They may gather people
from similar area of expertise or handling
similar tasks. Mechanical engineers, electronic engineers,
software engineers. Sometimes it is
good to look from the product of your
project perspective. The products tree will
be very helpful here. And your smaller teams
will make people who work on the same
module or system, even though they have different backgrounds
and area of expertise. Next, you must name a leader
of each of small team. You distinguish project managers who manage very complex project. First, you must
define sub-projects. Divide your project,
and identify people who will be
leaders of smaller team. Like in case of HPMC
of many projects, that smaller teams may gather people of similar
area of expertise. For example, mechanical
engineers or people who work on the same
subsystem of the device. Project managers who
want to be or are being promoted for program
or portfolio managers, you must analyze your future
project management team, identify PMs responsible for each project in the program or the whole
component portfolio. How about start-up or a semi owners and managerial
staff there? You must identify or separate initiatives
inside your company. Try to be open-minded
and look for tasks that has quite
clear duration. You can easily set
start and end of it. You must identify leaders
of such initiatives. Many times you've
already have them, but you don't consider
them as project managers. Now you can finally define
your whole management team.
8. Differences between Project Management and Portfolio Management: Differences between project management and
portfolio management. Management concerns
one project and management within
limits of that project. While portfolio management
concerns management of many projects and
maintain balance between them with limitations coming from company strategy. The difference is very well reflected during initiation
phase of the project. You prefer the project charter
or some similar documents. We've very reasonable and
the bus schedule, budget, and resources from
their perspective of this one project alone entity, it is well-balanced and
everything looks perfect. Then it comes to
just a formality, receiving a green light from the higher management
to start the project. And then bam, you're
perfectly prepared. Project receives a red light. You cannot see by yourself The reasonable
explanation for that. Having everything
so well-prepared, know what you are doing. You will know you have
done your job well. So what happens? Your project is one of many
projects in the company. And all those projects
bills, company portfolio. The green light is not
just a signature from the higher management added
to your very valuable work. It is or should be, guarantee that this project is in line with the
company's strategy, strategic goals, states within Operational Land and brings important added value
to the company. And sometimes, unfortunately, when you assess your project
with dogs new parameters, the outcome is a red line.
9. Differences between managing Portfolio and Program: Differences between managing
portfolio and programs. Programs are mostly mid-level between projects and portfolio. Portfolio is all
projects in the company. Those projects may vary a
lot in their specific topic. Especially in bigger companies, there are some more specific strategic areas for the company. Those defined programs that
gathers project of one area. The portfolio gathers programs. And programs gather
projects of similar topic. How the management works. When we have in grams
usually that means we have many projects in the same area and we need to gather them. We need to have a program
manager assigned to them to get the bigger
picture inside the program. The program management has many similarities with
portfolio management. However, in that pace, program managers report to the Portfolio Manager to find the balance on this
additional program level. Portfolio manager has
a few program managers to be in close contact with.
10. Why Portfolio matters?: Why portfolio matters? Let us assume that we have perfect project,
perfect progress. Everything is prepared on time. Product stick strictly
to their budget, schedule, and yet no
risk are realized. I believe that many managers
are laughing a lot now. This will be our ideal world, and now let's take
off our pink glasses. We will see that in almost every project
we have problems cost exceeding those estimated delays in the tasks
foreseeing new risks, unidentified, and new materializing
team members that are changing their jobs or having some unexpected for employer
Personal extent that leaves. Now, most of you is nodding and phases one or more of
those problems every day. If not, please tell
me where you work. You will have a lot of
volunteer, severe new staff. Those of you who are
nodding can easily see that having many products lead
to issues on many levels. But still the finances and the resources of the whole
component are limited. If you want to succeed in
many projects or initiatives, we must juggle them
to make it happen. That is why we want to know what is going on on project level and then try to manage some problems not only
within the project, but across the whole
portfolio sharing human and financial resources. At the same time, we must make sure
that every project in the component is part of a
puzzle that's at the end, makes a whole component
shaped according to its vision, mission,
and strategy.
11. How Portfolio Report helps?: How portfolio report helps? The portfolio report a lot of important data to monitor
products progress is presented later and intuitive
visualization of data connected to the project
from financial timing and risk site guarantee a
better understanding of current status of the project in the portfolio and the
portfolio as a whole. The portfolio report analyses enabled better understanding
of the project, enable following brands and predicting future
statuses of each project, AS well as the
portfolio as a whole. For you, it is
crucial information to see your projects from
the bird's eye view, not the day to day
management perspective. Sometimes we must make the tough decision
about some projects. We can usually see
that coming quite early if we properly
monitor the data. In early stage, when we see disturbing tendencies in
the project progress, we have time to identify the real problem and put the
product on the right path. The portfolio
report is important also for our supervisors. In the case of project manager
and portfolio managers, or for other owners in
case of our own SME, it is crucial to be
transparent and present real up-to-date data with
our recommendations. Having portfolio project report prepared and sent with
proper frequency. It is also easier to identify
the crucial moment of the product to make
a tough decision about closing or
terminating the project. Sometimes those are the best
solutions for the company. And as managers, we
must remember that the success of the whole
company is our goal. Summing up, the portfolio
report is about current and the real data analyses and
intuitive visualization, expression, giving
recommendations and making aware of
business decisions, which together builds up to the success of the
whole portfolio.
12. Emma’s Portfolio – exercise: Now I have a short
exercise for you. It will help you before handing your own portfolio situation. Mo Bianca is a portfolio
project manager in unmanned invasion company. She would really use
your help right now, the unmanned invasion
company specializing in unmanned vehicles and
systems dedicated for them, it's main pillars are
dedicated software solutions for unmanned Arabic equals navigation and control
systems mostly. And the other our simulators for unmanned air and
ground vehicles. The market segments are
security and education. The Coleman has engineering
department with software, together with Gateway
and middleware, hardware and mechanical teams. The logistics,
administration, finances, sales and marketing
department, made it simple. Let's assume that we have five projects from
different programs in our portfolio project or one navigation system
of medium-sized, mid-range tetra unmanned
area of a heap project to simulation software of
robot arm manipulator, project free simulator
of medium-sized, short-range way
replying information, predict for control system
for a large size endurance UAV of innovative structural
design project or five, immobile robot separate
training simulator. Mr. Bianco is a portfolio
product manager in unmanned invasion company. She reports to the
board of the company, the board, Alex,
owner, and Kate. You all relay mostly on the MMR recommendations
and they just want a method gets her job
done the best way it is possible considering all
circumstances in return, they are supporting corrections
when it is required, and they wanted to be informed. They are monitoring the
situation and they want to have more or less up-to-date
status of the portfolio. They like to have it in a form
that enabled them to come back to it when they need it for making strategic
component decisions. Let's begin. Now imagine that you
are among some of your portfolio situation by filling in the form
from the resources, you will find also
all information about elementary invasion
company gathered in separate file to make it
easier to come back to them. Good luck.
13. Emma’s Portfolio - exercise solution: I hope you already managed
to help him, Matt, We've her portfolio
by solving exercise. Now it is good time to
discuss our solutions. If you haven't got time
to do an exercise, don't pick out answers here. I can see you do
exercise first please. The first page of
our exercise file, we find out that now we
are playing the role of MR. Bianco in the fundamental
invasion the company. We also have a tip that we can use general information file and we will have gathered information about aliment
invasion company there. Let's back in. My situation as a map,
Bianco suits best. And we have four
cases to pick from. Pays a project managers who manage more than one
project at the same time. Ksp project managers who
manage very complex project, which may be divided
into sub-projects. Den case C, project
managers who want to be or are being promoted for
program or portfolio manager. And finally, case D, startup and SME owners and managerial staff who are
looking for low-cost tools and expect them most
important knowledge about condition of their
project oriented organization. Let's refresh our
memory about Emma. In general information file, we can see on the first page, short component description,
company structure, section about project managers. On the second page, we have information
about company portfolio. Here we have clearly
indicated that the portfolio project
manager is Emma Bianco. You can see from the scheme that the company
has two programs. Program one devoted to
simulators and program too, devoted to vehicles and systems. Within those programs
are gathered project. I believe that our
situation is quite clear. Emma is managing
product portfolio and M mass situation is closest
to the described in case C, project manager
who want to be or are being promoted for
program portfolio manager. It's like in practice, every situation is different. And here we just want
to try to fit in our special case to one
of provided categories. That's why we can pick Casey. Next, we are asked about
project managers team. We have a tip that they may be not named as project
managers in the company. But for example, they are team leaders you have
identified before. It depends on our exact case. So let's see. Here we have clear indication that Emma is Portfolio Manager. We can see in general
information on page one that each product has
project manager assigned. That is perfect. But just to be sure, on the second page of general information in this scheme with
company portfolio, there are clear to
programs in the portfolio. In those programs,
we have projects. However, there are no
indication that those programs, even though they exist, have additional
program managers. We have situation of Portfolio
Manager with projects in her portfolio and
project management team of managers of those projects. But there was no need to have program managers are
assigned to each program. It may be the case that those
programs are newly defined, the compound the portfolio
is not so extensive now, there is no need for adding managers if it is
not required yet. Now I believe that it is
clear and we can rewrite names from the project
manager's column of the general information. First page. Perfect. Now we are asked about recipients of our
portfolio report. Remember that we had discussed the different
cases of reporting. It will differ if you have
your own company or you are manager of complex project that may be divided
into sub-projects. In our case, Emma is portfolio project manager
with a so-called job title. We can see from the
general information page one where we have
company structure, that the company has
matrix structure. There are departments in vertical and projects
in horizontal axis. Let's refresh our memory. We know that in case of portfolio project managers
and matrix structure, Emma will be reporting
to the board. And we can see that
the company board is represented by Alex will not. And K24. We have answered that we
were searching for yes. We have first page behind us. Now, on the second page
of our exercise file, we are asked how often we, being in masseuse will
send the portfolio report. The easiest way is to
come back to our lessons. We were discussing that
it may really be first and it depends on
situation in our company. But we can see that in case of portfolio and program managers, every week was being proposed, there is a lot going on. Usually during the week, it is good to have a summary
of portfolio and its status every week for a
portfolio manager and for people we
are reporting to. We can also see in the portfolio
project management part of general information
page to that the board, Alex and Kate wants
to be updated. I believe that in this case, sending portfolio report every
week to dam is reasonable. Now, we are asked to list
initiatives in MS portfolio. In case of M map, she has portfolio and projects that are from the beginning
named as projects. On the second page of
general information, there are names of projects that are inside a
math portfolio. We must rewrite them. Finally, we must decide in which version am I should
send portfolio report. But here we have four
different options. They differ in type
of the report. We have a brief and
extended version propose. Let's refresh our memory. We discussed that brief
version is kind of a sum up. We've only main
points highlighted. And extended version of the report is usually
more comprehensive. It is a good idea to
have brief version for the board if they
prefer just essence and have also extended
version for portfolio manager for a more
comprehensive analyses of data and better monitoring. And of course, it
depends on the case the Board members in MS
company really rely on her. So hopefully they are not
performing micromanagement. They wanted to be more
or less informed. Thus, our approach
seems to suit the case. While I hope that you proposed similar answers and this lesson clear to your
eventual doubts.
14. Your own Portfolio – Final project: Emma's case was a good warm-up. Now, it is a perfect moments to handle your own portfolio. Think about your
situation and define your portfolio using PDF
file prepared in resources. Let's get started and good luck.
15. Summary: Yes, you made it. You really have
your first steps in Project Portfolio
Management ahead of you. Now you know what project portfolio in
practice really is? What are elements of products portfolio and how
many projects are there? You also know who manage the portfolio and how
to report it to home. It should be reported. And how often you've helped
Emma with her portfolio. You've also managed to wrap
up the most important aspects about your own portfolio in your final project grades job, I am looking forward to
seeing you in my next course. It was a great pleasure to have this course with you soon.
Martyna Ulinowicz
