IT managers, especially in medium-sized and larger companies, are often faced with the problem that they have to manage a large number of IT projects at the same time and all their IT staff are more than busy. Everything has to happen at the same time and the specialist departments are breathing down their necks. How do you get to grips with this? What has proven successful in practice is the introduction of project portfolio management (PPM), combined with the involvement of the specialist departments in the decision-making process. The best way to do this is with the help of consultants who can contribute their experience from their own corporate practice.

The solution to a lost overview: Project portfolio management

Are all projects really projects in line with the corporate strategy? Do those responsible have an overview of time, budget and quality? Do they already know which IT projects they want to start in the coming year and which of their current projects will still need budget in the coming year?

The list of questions goes on and on. Anyone who has asked themselves these or similar questions and has not received a satisfactory answer needs project portfolio management.

Project portfolio management: that's what it's all about!

In the following, we present a guide to PPM. This provides a basic orientation for our customers.

1. define criteria for projects and establish demand management.

Not everything that is carried out as a project is really a project that should be controlled by a PPM. Many things can be done on the line. You should therefore decide for yourself when an activity constitutes a project to be managed. You can use one or more criteria for this:

• Strategic importance for corporate goals
• From a fixed project budget (for example € 100,000)
• Positive business case
• Number of departments involved
• Duration
• Size of the Project teams
• Complexity.

It is helpful to establish demand management (as part of the strategic PMO). Here, all new project requests (demands) are evaluated directly according to the above criteria (see point 5).

2. record and evaluate your current projects.

Have Demand Management also record your current projects and evaluate them according to the above criteria. You will then have an initial, complete overview.

3. the project portfolio roadmap.

Use the information you have gathered so far to create your first roadmap for your project portfolio. This also includes the start and end dates, resources, risks and dependencies. This roadmap is not a one-off, but an ongoing activity: the roadmap must be adapted every time there is a change.

4. define processes for your projects.

Create transparency and clear guidelines. What requirements must be met for inclusion in the roadmap? How are small projects handled? How are projects started and completed? How does the evaluation process work? What happens in the event of resource conflicts? What does risk management look like?

5. build up a strategic PMO.

Why do you need a strategic project management office, or rather a portfolio management office? As already mentioned, PPM is an ongoing process. The PMO manages your roadmap, keeps a constant eye on the current status of the projects, adds controlling information, reports on the projects to the portfolio steering committee and much more.

More about project portfolio management

This approach is far from exhausted. A detailed article on this topic will therefore appear on this blog shortly. Stay up to date!

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