Portfolio Processes for Project Managers

Kenneth has 14 years of healthcare experience in government and private industry. Over eight years of experience managing healthcare IT projects, operations, contracts, and personnel. His work experience includes project management, contracts and procurements, data analysis, claims adjudication, business writing, and business process modeling. Kenneth was certified in 2006 as a Project Management Professional.

  Governance   Portfolio Management  

Many of the processes used for project management are also used in project portfolio management. After all, a risk is still a risk whether it is for a project or an entire portfolio; you will probably manage it just the same, or if there are differences in the process, they will be minor.

But there are some processes that are unique for portfolio management, and if you are a project manager easing into the role of a portfolio manager--or if you are interacting with a portfolio--then you need to be aware of those processes and how they will interact with the projects and programs that are in execution phase (or about to be in an execution phase). Understanding the portfolio processes will lead to a better performing organization that can execute projects well.

Project Analysis
One of the first processes that should be developed for a portfolio is a way to analyze projects. Some care must be taken to consider what criteria will be used in order to do this analysis and which criteria should take the priority.

For criteria, there are the usual suspects such as timeline, budget and resource constraints, but there are some less-tangible items that should be taken into account such as how a project will impact the organization overall and if the organization is mature enough to handle a project. There are many other criteria that could be used to analyze a project as …

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