A Portfolio of One

Mike Donoghue is a member of a multinational information technology corporation where he collaborates on the communications guidelines and customer relationship strategies affecting the interactions with internal and external clients. He has analyzed, defined, designed and overseen processes for various engagements including product usability and customer satisfaction, best practice enterprise standardization, relationship/branding structures, and distribution effectiveness and direction. He has also established corporate library solutions to provide frameworks for sales, marketing, training, and support divisions.

  Portfolio Management  

Manage, manage, manage. It’s all you can do with everything you’ve got on your plate. The unlucky project manager is one who has too much, while the unluckier project manager is one who has too little. Having too little means not enough work, and not having enough work can be job threatening. While having one project may be easier to control, it demonstrates a lackluster portfolio.

When a PM has more than enough work, it requires a lot of negotiation and planning. As a result, ranking and prioritizing a group of projects is vital when trying to focus project team efforts and not have them stretched in a number of directions, unable to accomplish tasks. That said, the luxury of having totally devoted resources is an idea from a long-gone age--and it becomes increasingly important for PMs to massage, juggle and manipulate schedules to keep everyone busy (but not distracted).

Part of keeping everyone engaged and moving projects along involves reviewing your portfolio and making alterations as needed. This might mean taking time to go over your projects when release dates are amended, when clients add or change features, when there might be some new industry fixes or component changes on the horizon or when rivals are readying themselves for “new and improved” products that could threaten your projects. These kinds of unforeseens may require you …

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