Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Jon Lewis - Director, Ninth Wave

2Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Agenda To discuss a number techniques for Project Portfolio Management: Achieving strategic alignment Evaluating ‘what if’ scenarios Resourcing the projects portfolio To explain how Ninth Wave works to deliver these for our customers, and explore and discuss the key issues.

3Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management AGREED PROJECTS PORTFOLIO IDEAS AGREED STRATEGIC PRIORITIES RESOURCES AVAILABLE CHANGING PRIORITIES CHANGING RESOURCES PROPOSED PROJECTS PORTFOLIOS

4Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Strategic Alignment The alignment of project activity to support the organisation’s strategy. To achieve this strategic alignment we need to know: the elements of the strategy what importance (weight) each element has what projects we might do which elements of the strategy each project supports what each project will cost to deliver what limits there are on expenditure (budgets) Some of these elements may not be fixed and we may wish to look at alternative scenarios. There may be different views on the importance of different elements of the strategy across the organisation – we’ll need to achieve a consolidated view.

5Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Strategic Alignment Issues in achieving strategic alignment: Unable to agree clear strategic priorities Strategic priorities change too often Priorities are agreed in departmental ‘silos’ It may be hard to align projects to strategy Too many projects are mandatory What other issues have you encountered?

6Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Strategic Alignment Pairwise comparison of strategic drivers: Technique used to determine the ranking and weighting of a set of strategic drivers. Different rankings and weights may be created to reflect different scenarios.

7Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Strategic Alignment Questionnaire based analysis and scoring of Projects: Provides an objective and auditable analysis of the importance of a given project to the achievement of a given strategic objective.

8Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management ‘What if?’ Scenarios Issues in evaluating ‘What if?’ scenarios: These could arise at any time There may be multiple scenarios They may involve changing existing projects, or adding new projects They may involve changes to resources, either human or financial We’ll need to evaluate the different scenarios rapidly What other scenarios have you encountered?

9Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management ‘What if?’ Scenarios Evaluate scenarios against specific strategic drivers and capital and different revenue and capital expenditure limits:

10Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management ‘What if?’ Scenarios The Efficient Frontier: Calculates the cost and benefit for every possible combination of projects in a portfolio and shows the best value portfolios for a given cost – the “efficient frontier”.

11Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Portfolio Resource Management Strategic Alignment will have determined which projects we wish to do and with which priority, allowing for budgetary constraints. We can now evaluate our ability to deliver these projects given the resources available to our organisation. These resources may: be internal or external belong to different departments have different skills have a specific level of availability for project work be unable to do project work at certain times of the year There may be options or plans to grow or downsize specific teams and these should be considered.

12Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Portfolio Resource Management Issues with applying resource pools to project portfolios: We need an accurate high level view of the resources available We need an accurate high level view of existing commitments We need an accurate high level view of possible commitments We may be looking at different project scenarios and different resourcing scenarios ‘Bottleneck’ resources – we should focus on these What other issues have you encountered?

13Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Portfolio Resource Management Estimate project resource demands: The SmartCore API to PRICE Systems’ TruePlanning® software can be used to calculate the effort and cost of developing different types of application using different development languages.

14Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Portfolio Resource Management It’s important to understand the availability of project staff, taking into account changes in legislation and HR management: Flexible working patterns Home working 9-day fortnight Outsourcing/ Offshoring The EC working time directive Another factor, often overlooked, is the need to carefully track annual leave. Legislation now restricts staff and employers from carrying forward annual leave. Annual leave which has yet to be taken can have a significant impact on resource availability as the year end approaches.

15Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Portfolio Resource Management Evaluate scenarios against the resource and skills pool:

16Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Portfolio Resource Management Managing the pipeline of demand: Possible work Definite work Virtual resource Potential resource Definite resource Possible workNo resource Possible workVirtual resource Work planned Resource (type) requested Work approved Resource offered Resource agreed NOW FUTURE

17Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Portfolio Resource Management Monitor the availability of teams and individual resources:

18Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Ninth Wave and SmartCore Ninth Wave is an independent UK-based software and services firm established in 1995 Our main software product is SmartCore, a proven web-based management support tool The product has been developed from practical experience of project and programme management SmartCore is unique - it is entirely configurable via the web browser to meet a wide range of organisational and individual information needs.

19Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management SmartCore - Major Functional Components Programme & Project Management Resource Management Strategic Alignment Strategic Alignment Budgets & Financial Management Timesheets Document Management Workflow & Business Rules Workflow & Business Rules Benefits Management Portfolio Management Dashboards & Reporting Dashboards & Reporting Governance/ Change Management Governance/ Change Management Risk & Issue Management

20Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management SmartCore Customers:

21Tools and Techniques for Project Portfolio Management Project Portfolio Management from Ninth Wave SmartCore