Can Your Portfolio Pivot?

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.

  Agile   Portfolio Management   ProjectsAtWork  

How quickly does your organization respond to new critical needs? Does it cancel projects or move resources from others, causing delays? Optimizing the portfolio based on when projects end as opposed to when they start allows for a more agile response to change.

There is a lot of talk these days about "agile." Much of it is about agile IT development processes. However, the term is also used to apply to agile business processes, agile portfolio management, and other areas where "agility" is required.

Let’s use the term to refer to an agile portfolio of work. An agile portfolio is one that uses a light set of processes to prioritize, allocate and manage work. It is also a portfolio that can respond quickly to changes in business needs. This ability to change directions quickly is what I am referring to as the "pivot.” You might remember that pivoting is also a basketball term. It refers to planting your foot (the pivot foot) and then quickly changing directions.

Think about your portfolio of work. Let's imagine that everyone is busy working on important business projects. All of the sudden you are informed of a new critical project (or set of projects). Perhaps it is the result of an acquisition. Perhaps it is a legal requirement. Perhaps it is a competitive opportunity. It does not matter. The question now is how quickly can …

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