What constitutes a portfolio?<\/h2>\n
Portfolios serve to group projects from an organization\u2019s roster of current or potential initiatives into a folder of projects that align with that organization\u2019s financial goals.<\/p>\n
Still with me?<\/p>\n
In layman\u2019s terms, PPM is used to identify and prioritize projects that mitigate risk while providing potentials for high profitability.<\/p>\n
If we consider a project as a collection of tasks to be executed by people that further the project\u2019s progress through milestones, portfolios identify these initiatives in the higher order context of the organization\u2019s goals of profitability.<\/p>\n
The point of portfolios is to maximize profit by deducing the way and order in which resources should be devoted to each project.<\/p>\n
How is portfolio management different than project management?<\/h2>\n
Project management orchestrates the process of completing the goals of a set initiative, whereas portfolio management sees this initiative, along with the others in the organization, in a wholistic picture.<\/p>\n
A project manager is devoted to maintaining timelines and order within their project, where a portfolio manager devotes resources across projects in the portfolio to maximize profit while minimizing risk.<\/p>\n
Benefits of portfolio project management<\/h3>\n
Instituting PPM in your organization comes with benefits such as:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Allowing management to observe clustered project health as a microcosm of the organization\u2019s performance<\/li>\n
- Facilitating decision making and resource prioritization<\/li>\n
- Aligning individual projects with organizational goals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Instituting a portfolio<\/h2>\n
Begin by identifying goals and establishing a strategy.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Portfolios are backboned by purpose, and so if the goal of the portfolio is unclear, so too will be the results. Here are three ways to institute the successful implementation of a portfolio:<\/p>\n
1. Defining KPIs
\n<\/strong>Now that you have your goals in place, determine the best ways to calculate success, risk, and profitability within that portfolio by defining your top KPIs.<\/p>\n2. Creating a team
\n<\/strong>Recognize the people and other resources that are required to effectively execute the projects in the portfolio.<\/p>\n3. Strategizing project plans
\n<\/strong>Create a prioritization of the initiatives within the portfolio based on the required resources to complete versus the net gain of completion using sprints or milestones.<\/p>\nStructuring your portfolio<\/h2>\n
Tools such as Nifty<\/a> bring projects and members of a portfolio into one place where they can track each project\u2019s health, assess previous project performance, and proactively avoid upcoming bottlenecks.<\/p>\n
1. Portfolio Dashboards<\/h4>\n
Portfolio Dashboards give insights into project members and statuses at a quick glance to get project managers up to speed on where exactly they stand across the projects that are part of their management responsibility.<\/p>\n
![\"Portfolio](\"https:\/\/niftypm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Portfolio-Dashboards.png\")
<\/figure>\nPortfolio Dashboards<\/em><\/p>\n
2. Portfolio Overviews<\/h4>\n
Portfolio Overviews provide detailed analyses of portfolio project progress, timelines, and statuses as well as overdue, upcoming, and completed tasks that fall within each initiate or milestone of the projects.<\/p>\n
![\"Portfolio](\"https:\/\/niftypm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Portfolio-Overviews.png\")
<\/p>\nPortfolio Overviews<\/p>\n
3. Portfolio Management<\/h4>\n
Portfolio members and projects can be updated to ensure that the latest members and initiatives are in line with each portfolio\u2019s goal. Members that are part of a portfolio will be automatically invited to all projects that are created public. Additionally, projects can be moved between portfolios if and when workloads broken up into teams.<\/p>\n
![\"Portfolio](\"https:\/\/niftypm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Portfolio-Management.png\")
<\/p>\nPortfolio Management<\/p>\n
The outcome of project portfolio management<\/h2>\n
In the way that project milestones<\/a> add context to daily tasks, portfolio management allows upper management to observe a collection of initiatives through the lens of organizational goals<\/a>.<\/p>\n