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PPM 101: Support Work
Tom Mochal, PgMP, PMP, TSPM is the president of TenStep, Inc., a methodology development, consulting and training company. Tom won the Distinguished Contribution Award from the Project Management Institute for his work spreading knowledge of project management around the world. He is a speaker, lecturer, instructor and consultant to companies and organizations around the world.
Many organizations make the mistake of not including support work in their portfolio management process. By prioritizing non-project work in the same way you do projects, additional resources can often be freed up for those important, transforming initiatives.
Done right, project portfolio management can do a lot of good for any organization. But it’s not easy, as many companies, large and small, have discovered. In PPM 101, an ongoing series by veteran project management consultant and author Tom Mochal, we focus on the fundamentals for organizations that are just getting started on the PPM path.
Many organizations think of portfolio management as only applying to projects (and programs). This more narrow definition should more accurately be called “project portfolio management.” And projects are the first place companies look to try to create portfolios of work, as all projects are new and lend themselves more easily to a process of prioritization of scare resources.
A broader model for portfolio management includes projects but also other aspects of work such as maintenance support, operations, management and marketing.
Some industry practitioners scoff at the notion of including support work in the portfolio. The logic for excluding support work is that it is mandatory and “just needs to happen.” …
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