The most difficult challenge for organisations as they grow is aligning projects with their high-level business goals. Executives and managers struggle while prioritising projects and allocating resources to achieve optimal efficiency. Project portfolio management is key to unlocking these difficulties.
What is Project Portfolio Management?
Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is the process utilised by organisations to plan their schedules and allocate resources to make sure that the project portfolio is a success. It is the system that helps analyse the potential returns, performance, and risks of undertaking a project so that the right work can be prioritised.
It is a data-driven process that helps executives and managers to prioritise projects effectively. This involves reviewing project portfolios regularly to determine which projects to cut, how the budget is spent, and what ROI each project portfolio delivers to ensure that resources are effectively used.
What are your objectives in Project Portfolio Management?
Business is built on taking risks. While it is important to take a risk, remember that higher risks don’t always mean higher rewards. Smart decision-making is what determines risk versus reward. PPM aims to identify what’s working and what’s not, and how organisations can streamline their efforts to measure overall effectiveness in line with the business strategy. However, organisations that engage in project portfolio management are typically bombarded with some common challenges like effective execution, resource allocation, and so on.
Some of the biggest challenges of project portfolio management revolve around;
Project Execution:
While some projects might survive with a simple structure, the entire portfolio needs complex governance, which can lead to oversight conflicts. The projects running in the organisation may not run under a defined governance process due to the lack of a central tool.
Resource Allocation:
When an overwhelming number of projects are executed in parallel, a lack of insights leads to resource conflicts, bottlenecks, and delays.
Risk Management:
Risks are known in advance. But the lack of impact analysis and unawareness about the leading indicators like impact on time, resources, etc. often delay the projects, negatively impacting the revenue and ROI.
Project portfolio management can be complex and challenging. Therefore, executives utilise Project Portfolio Management solutions to review and monitor data and increase work productivity. Once the process is streamlined and infused properly, projects align better with organisation goals and overcome these obstacles.
Microsoft Project is one of the best project management solutions for managing small to large projects. Microsoft Project is a robust PPM tool that manages all aspects of Project Portfolio Management. Using Microsoft Project for Portfolio Management tools can help you accelerate your work and make smart data-driven decisions to improve project performance and resource management.
Key capabilities:
Safe and efficient resource management:
PPM solutions allow for resource sharing to improve efficiency and management. It provides centralised storage that can be accessible to all users. This allows you to see who is working on which projects now and in the future and helps you plan and distribute your portfolios wisely.
Reduce turnaround time:
Another significant advantage of PPM is the decreased turnaround time. With PPM tools, managers can keep track of all work by scheduling them in a precise manner. It allows companies to complete projects in a shorter amount of time and also helps them avoid making mistakes and wasting time.
Better collaboration:
Sometimes project teams include members from different departments. They also have to manage day-to-day responsibilities, making it difficult for other stakeholders to attend meetings and keep up-to-date. PPM software gives teams greater project portfolio visibility and transparency by making the whole project visible to the company leading to reduced communication gaps and improved collaboration.
Robust Reporting:
Monitoring the work progress is crucial to long-term success. PPM software is crucial in monitoring project stages and can give insights that will keep you informed about what’s going on at the portfolio level and with available drill down to specific project and activity levels.
If you want to invest in a PPM Solution and would like more advice, reach out to our Biz Apps Team who will guide you through the process. In the meantime, view our Customer Success Story where we helped Gas Networks Ireland enhance project portfolio analysis over a 5-year planning horizon.
Deirdre Lysaght - Head of Marketing
Deirdre Lysaght is Head of Marketing at Aspira. With a professional background in Digital Marketing, Deirdre develops strategies and tactics to boost the company’s reputation and drive qualified traffic. Deploying successful marketing campaigns from ideation to execution while building and maintaining a strong and consistent brand through a wide range of online marketing channels.
