The document discusses managing a project portfolio through transparency. It emphasizes ranking projects based on business value and qualitative factors like strategic fit and waste reduction. The project portfolio shows all current work and allows prioritizing the most important projects. Techniques like points ranking and iterations help facilitate discussions to decide which projects to fund and staff. The goal is optimizing at the organizational level by focusing on finishing valuable work to deliver business outcomes.

1. Transparent Decisions:
Managing the Project Portfolio
Johanna Rothman
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@johannarothman
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What DoYour Customers Care About?
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ProductsThatWork
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Products are comprised of
running, tested features that
are put together into a
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What DoWe Do in Organizations?
A little of this
A little of that
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What AreYou Supposed to Do First?
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What’s the Problem?
Too many simultaneous
projects
Too much interrupting
work
Technical work and
multitasking is invisible
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What Some Project Portfolios Look
Like
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WhatThese Portfolios Are Missing
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CombinationView:
Low and Mid Level
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What is the Project Portfolio?
Organization of all the projects (and all the work) the
organization is attempting to manage
When they start
When they end
Which one is #1
Decide when projects are done--or done enough
Decide when to stop, kill, or cancel projects
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SoWhat?
The portfolio of work-in-
progress tells you what is
happening and when you can
change it
Similar to a product
backlog
Requires cross-
organizational commitment
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Use the Portfolio to Make
Decisions,Tradeoffs, and Assignments
Move between the strategic
view to the tactical view
Create a rolling wave plan
Provide transparency into
the organization’s work
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Consider Lean
Iterate on value, redefining
it over and over...
You have more choices if
you can see demos as the
projects proceed
If you can see the work in
progress, you can manage it
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Project Portfolio Flow
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CanYou Use Cost?
Maybe. How long and big is
your project?
You know about the Cone of
Uncertainty in phased projects.
That says the longer and bigger,
the harder it is to predict.
I’m from Boston, the home of
the Big Dig...
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CanYou Use ROI?
Now you need cost and
return
Don’t get me started...
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When Matters Most
Estimation is tempting: Cost and
Date are two sides of the same
coin
Both are tempered by the
business value of when you
deliver the feature
Features lose/gain value
depending on when you deliver
them
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Rank by BusinessValue
Business value is key
It is influenced by cost and
return and size
Biggest influence is the
zeroth question
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Zeroth Question:
ShouldWe DoThis Project At All?
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Let’sTake a Step Back
What projects are you comparing?
Are they comparable or are
they across the organization?
First, bucket so they are
comparable
Frogs with frogs
Apples with apples
IT with IT
Engineering with Engineering
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What CanThis Project do forYour
Organization?
Transform the business
Grow the business
Keep the lights on
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How to Make Decisions
Qualitative questions
Quantitative questions
Only do work that’s currently valuable
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Qualitative Questions
Should we do this project at all?
How does this project fit in with all the others?
What is the strategic reason for this project?
Is there a tactical gain from completing this project?
To make this project successful, are we ready to adequately fund it?
To make this project successful, are we ready to adequately staff it?
Do we know what success looks like for this project?
Is there waste associated with the lack of this project?
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Quantitative Questions
When will we see any monetary return from this project?
What's the expected revenue curve for this project?
What's the expected customer acquisition curve for this project?
When will we see retention of current customers from this project?
What's the expected customer growth curve?
When will we see reduction in operating costs from this project?
What's the expected operating cost curve?
How will this project move the organization forward?
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Your Project Portfolio is
WhereYour Strategy MeetsYour
Execution
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TechniquesYou May Find Useful
Rank with business value points
Waste
Single and double elimination
All of these approaches
facilitate the conversation,
which is the most important
part
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Rank with Points
Start with many many
points. Each person assigns
each project a unique
number of points. Now
discuss.
The conversation is key
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WhenYou Cannot Agree
You have two #1 projects and only
one project team
Flip a coin, start them in 1- or 2-
week iterations
Alternate iterations
They must achieve done
OR
Forget iterations and use kanban
Now you only have to fight about
which feature is next
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WhatWill the Lack of This Project
Do?
If you don’t do this project, what
will happen?
Will it prevent you from being able
to undertake certain types of
projects?
For those of you transitioning to
agile, don’t underestimate paying
down technical debt projects.
Agile makes many things
transparent
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Waste
Who has waste based on not having
this project?
Qualitative questions you might ask:
What kinds of workarounds are
you using now?
After this project is complete,
what changes?
Do we know what success looks
like for this project?
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Take a Systems-Thinking Approach
Project portfolio
management is about the
organization’s well-being, not
a project’s winning or a
manager’s winning
This is why I have these
guidelines for the project
portfolio decisions
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Guidelines for PPM Decisions
PPM decisions reflect the
organization’s strategy, so make
sure the people making the
decisions know the strategy
Make sure a small (3-5 people)
cross-functional team decides
When in doubt, optimize up at
the organizational level
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Why Does Agile/LeanWork?
Agile helps:
Finishing running, tested features
Have release-able product
periodically (every timebox)
Lean helps
Creating a culture of not having
a lot of work in process
Instead, finish things and move
on to the next one
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Why Manage the Project Portfolio?
People can only work on one
project at a time
Know what people work on
Makes it possible for the
organization to optimize at the
organization level
Staff the most important work
Flow work through teams
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100% Utilization is for Machines
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It does not matter how many projects
you start.
It matters how many projects you
finish.
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References and Resources
ManageYour Project Portfolio: IncreaseYour Capacity and
Finish More Projects, Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2009.
Tons more on jrothman.com
Let’s stay in touch: The Pragmatic Manager, jrothman.com/
pragmaticmanager/
LinkedIn group:Agile Project and Program Management
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