Discover how to link portfolio management to successful strategic execution.

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Datasheet

Managing a portfolio of projects involves much more than just watching all the pieces. If your organization relies on project work to achieve its strategic and business objectives, you need to be sure that you’re investing in the right projects, giving those projects the right resources, and getting them completed at the right time.

Mastering the Project Portfolio provides a complete methodology for project selection, prioritization, and oversight—plus mentoring in how to resolve real-world implementation concerns. You’ll examine how a strategic framework and metrics are vital to success, and you’ll learn to align your projects with your business strategies. You’ll also apply the portfolio management process through a dynamic multi-part case study.

Developed by IPS and the Stanford Center for Professional Development at Stanford University, this three-day core course in the Stanford APM curriculum teaches proven, process-based portfolio management tools and techniques. Concepts are presented and reinforced through lectures, demonstrations, structured exercises, and group laboratories.

Benefits to the Organization

As a result of Mastering the Project Portfolio, your organization will benefit from:

• Developing the ability to make fact-based portfolio management decisions
• Understanding how to align projects and staff with strategic objectives
• Effectively prioritizing projects and managing associated resource capacity and demand challenges
• Promoting organization-wide consistency with regard to portfolio management objectives, processes, roles, and responsibilities
• Cost-effectively educating and engaging staff around a common process and vision

Learning Objectives

After attending Mastering the Project Portfolio, you will be able to:

• Implement portfolio management from the ground up
• Link portfolio management to successful strategic execution
• Organize and charter a team for overseeing the portfolio management process
• Extract strategic intent from business documents
• Apply a step-by-step process for selecting projects based on their ability to advance the organization's strategies
• Recognize the role that effective team dynamics plays in making important project selection decisions
• Graphically organize complex project information to assist in the portfolio optimization process
• Apply practical skills using off-the-shelf software tools to begin implementing Project Portfolio Management

Target Audience

Project and program managers whose efforts are linked with strategically critical initiatives will benefit from attending this course. In addition, Mastering the Project Portfolio is designed for middle- and senior-level managers who are involved in organizational strategic planning and the subsequent launching of programs and projects to implement strategic decisions.

Prerequisites. A basic understanding of project and program management, as well as the management of multiple projects and programs, establishes a solid foundation for understanding the concepts taught in this course. However, anyone faced with the challenges of implementing strategic business decisions through projects and programs will benefit tremendously.

Course Topics

Portfolio Challenge and Introduction

• Resource management complexities
• Course content and materials overview
• Project portfolio management (PPM) models
• Basic terminology and portfolio management concepts
• Surfacing expectations
• LaserCon case study

A Primer on Strategy

• “Five forces” strategic framework
• Two fundamental strategies
• How IT has changed the rules of strategy

Creating the Right Environment

• Launching a new initiative
• Portfolio management team roles and responsibilities
• Funding hierarchy
• Relationship between portfolio management processes and key business processes
• Portfolio risk

Strategic Metrics

• Why strategic metrics are critical
• Basics of measurement and metrics
• Understanding strategic value

Aligning Projects with Business Strategies

• Portfolios vs. domains
• Identifying strategies
• Aligning projects to business strategies

The Right Resources on the Right Projects

• Resource capacity guidelines
• Organization breakdown structure and resource pool
• Assessing resource demand
• Estimation: techniques, psychology, and pitfalls

The Optimized Project Portfolio

• Detailed resource estimates
• Resource utilization analysis
• Adjusting the portfolio with respect to alignment, value, and balance to realize business strategies

Managing Innovation as Part of an Overall Portfolio Strategy

• MTC case study
• Aggregate project matrix: breakthroughs, platforms, and derivatives
• Multitasking

Mastering the Portfolio Management Process

• Overview of portfolio management at a major corporation

Implementation Action Lab

• Pulling all the concepts together