APM event sponsored by the Northern Ireland branch on 27 April 2023. Speaker: Petula Allison This presentation by the APM Portfolio Management Specific Interest Group (SiG) focussed on bringing to life Portfolio management through case study of delivering and managing a transformation portfolio in the Financial Services and shares the theory on Portfolio Management (reference ‘The Guide to Portfolio Management’ written by the PfM SiG). This event was held on 27 April 2023. The APM Portfolio Management SiG (PfM) aims to support everyone interested in PfM by promoting awareness of latest practices, researching new ideas, developing new approaches, and providing ways to share experiences and debate challenges. The SiG’s intention is to be a major contributor to the future development of PfM through sharing knowledge and best practice and delivering the theory and case study of portfolio management in practice – collaborating with APM professionals in APM Branches and SiGs. Case Study – Delivering a Transformation Portfolio at YBS Q&A – Open Session Portfolio Management – The Theory (From APM and Best Practice) https://www.apm.org.uk/news/portfolio-management-and-how-it-can-deliver-organisations-strategy-and-value-1/

1. Portfolio Management
And how it can deliver Organisations
Strategy and Value
Belfast Branch Event – 27th April 2023
Petula Allison
Chair - Portfolio Management SiG

2. Confidential
Portfolio Management
- The Theory
Ref: PfM SiG ‘A Guide to Portfolio Management’

3. Confidential
Contents
© 2022 Association for Project Management 3
Portfolio Management
• What is a portfolio & what is portfolio
management?
• Why do we need portfolio
management?
• Overview and what’s involved
• How should it be governed?
• Key roles – who does what?
• Meeting the goals, achieving the
strategy.
• What makes portfolio management a
success
• Meeting the goals, achieving the
strategy.
• What makes portfolio management a
success
Portfolio Management SiG
• Introduction to the SIG
• Aims and strategic themes
• Perspectives – our customers
• Themes - and achieving our aims
• Events, publications
• The committee

4. Confidential
What is a Portfolio?
Portfolio - ‘A collection of projects and/or programmes used to
structure and manage investments at an organisational or functional
level to optimise strategic benefits or operational efficiency’
Portfolio Management – ‘The selection, prioritisation and
control of an organisation’s projects and programmes in line with its
strategic objectives and capacity to deliver’
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Portfolio
Definitions
APM BoK v.7

5. Confidential
Drive Organisational Success
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 Provide a focal point for strategic goals.
 Ensure the goals are prioritised and prioritisation rules for projects are
clear and unambiguous.
 Ensure the whole Board and Executives are fully behind the approach,
are sponsoring the portfolio and are actively championing portfolio
management and empowering a capable team.
 Consider in flight projects and programmes and business as usual (BAU)
in the same way and ensure full alignment to the strategic goals.
 Ensure ‘tactical’ projects contribute to the strategic goals, if they don’t,
don’t do them.
 Embed portfolio governance into the organisation’s governance and make
it robust.
 Critically assess what information is really needed to make portfolio
decisions.
 Be consistent and fair across the portfolio, irrespective of the programme
or project sponsor’s influence

6. Confidential
Why do we need Portfolio Management?
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• Provides senior executives with a strategic view across the portfolio and
with information to make informed decisions
• Gives visibility and articulation of the corporate vision, goals and strategy
throughout the organisation
o and enables their adaptation or changes to better accommodate new
or amended business priorities
o focuses day to day decisions by project sponsors, project managers
& team leaders on the corporate goals not just the project
• Provides the capability for projects and programmes and BAU to deliver
the corporate strategy and goals
o provides a clear ‘line of sight’, links strategic goals to delivery and
execution within the portfolio enabling direct support of
organisational priorities
• Creates justifiable & rational prioritisation of investment allocations
o allowing an organisation to prioritise the “right” projects that deliver
the strategic goals and provide the greatest value
o removing unnecessary, unaligned, and poorly performing projects

7. Confidential
Why do we need Portfolio Management?
© 2022 Association for Project Management 7
• Allows for a more coordinated view to track benefits delivered and to help
validate the corporate strategy/goals
• Optimises the balance between change and BAU operations, whether
BAU is within the portfolio or not.
o maximises the value of investments while balancing risk and allowing
flexibility to adapt to external pressures & internal change
• Defines a consistent governance framework, enabling holistic assurance
and risk management
o consistency ensures information is available for comparison, for
analysis and to support portfolio decisions
• Facilitates improved communication and cooperation between business
and functional leaders, delivery teams and staff
o gains commitment of staff to the corporate goals and strategy and
relevant change programmes
o leads to improved resource deployment and utilization
o increases effectiveness and collaboration across different part of the
business and the portfolio(s)

8. Confidential
Portfolio Maturity and Construction
Assessment Model
Portfolio Maturity Assessment Model – will help understand an
organisation maturity and used to determine the level of maturity the
organisation aspires to achieve
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Framework Overview
Determine the right governance framework, normally aligned to
existing governance (Corporate Governance) already in place in the
Organisation

9. Confidential
Construct and Prioritise the Portfolio
© 2022 Association for Project Management 9
Portfolio exit criteria
Feedback to inform decisions
Portfolio entry criteria
1.
2.
3.
4.
….
Prioritisation
Delivery
Benefits realisation
Managed using the standard
stage gate process.
Progress/outlook v goal.
‘Lead’ v ‘lag’ metrics.
What currently exists in terms
of projects and programmes
and are there gaps where
new ones need to be started?
Defined & agreed jointly with the whole Exec team
Applied rigorously by the portfolio manager
Rules defined & agreed jointly
with the whole Exec team
Applied rigorously by Pf Mgr
Outcomes & achievements /
shortfalls inform future prioritisation
List of projects
in the portfolio,
Includes BAU &
projects in
progress
Prioritised &
sequenced
list
Projects
delivered
Value &
benefits
tracked
Goal
contribution
Projects
started
Ideas
Draft initiatives
Feasibility studies
Unformed projects
Outline plans……

10. Confidential
Entry and Prioritisation Criteria
Entry criteria
1. Must have an outline business case
o Must make a significant direct
contribution to a strategic goal
o Must not contain elements that do not
contribute to a strategic goal
o Must have an ROI > target
2. Must have an active Executive sponsor
3. Must have a project brief or equivalent
Examples of metrics for prioritisation
A. Contribution to strategic goals v risk
B. Value v feasibility matrix
C. Benefits v cost v risk matrix
D. Plus ability of the business to absorb the change
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Value v Feasibility
(easy) Feasibility score (difficult)

11. Confidential
Governance
‘the Portfolio Board (or equivalent) meets regularly, eg monthly or quarterly, to review whether the goals will be
met and decide which projects will be stopped, started, continued and whether resources will be reallocated.
The results from previous projects in terms of delivery and achievement of the goals and benefits inform the
decisions’
© 2022 Association for Project Management 11
Regular, recurring portfolio boards
Start an
initiative
Stop an
initiative
Continue an
initiative
Reallocate
resources
Reprioritise &
realign to strategy
Start an
initiative
Stop an
initiative
Continue an
initiative
Reallocate
resources
Reprioritise &
realign to strategy
Start an
initiative
Stop an
initiative
Continue an
initiative
Reallocate
resources
Reprioritise &
realign to strategy
Start an
initiative
Stop an
initiative
Continue an
initiative
Reallocate
resources
Reprioritise &
realign to strategy
Start an
initiative
Stop an
initiative
Continue an
initiative
Reallocate
resources
Reprioritise &
realign to strategy
Start an
initiative
Stop an
initiative
Continue an
initiative
Reallocate
resources
Reprioritise &
realign to strategy
Start an
initiative
Stop an
initiative
Continue an
initiative
Reallocate
resources
Reprioritise &
realign to strategy
The true value of Portfolio management is to help keep the organisation focussed on achieving the strategic goals,
thereby delivering them in a timely fashion.
Resources are finite, optimising them is key.

12. Confidential
Who does what?
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Sets the organisational strategy
Board
BU director BU director
Portfolio
manager
Portfolio Exec
Project
Mgrs
Programme
Mgrs
Portfolio
Mgt Office
Determines how
to deliver the
strategy
Accountable for delivering
the business unit strategy
Coordination of demand, portfolio entry and exit
mgt., prioritisation support, change management,
status, progress & outlook, reporting and facilitates
cross-portfolio matters
Ensures integrity of
PfM process and
manages delivery of
the overall portfolio
Business Change Managers
Implement & Manage Delivery
Business unit
(BU) director
Portfolio Board or Committee
Portfolio governance
Often a sub-set of the Board

13. Confidential
Meeting the Strategic Goals and Ambitions
 The goals and strategy drive the changes
 The portfolio manager/function works with the management and planning teams to ensure that goals
and objectives and the required strategies are understood and can be achieved
 The portfolio represents the organisational changes necessary to meet the strategic goals, and hence
will include how various programmes, projects, and business unit plans contribute to those goals
 The portfolio will be managed to meet these strategic goals and optimise the overall ROI and benefits,
and therefore ensure that the objectives of the business unit’s and function’s projects and programmes
are directly contributing to, and are fully aligned with, those strategic goals
 The projects and programmes will themselves be planned and managed in the usual way using
‘standard’ project and programme controls
 Although the portfolio management function does not manage the individual projects and programmes, it
will influence areas such as resource allocation, dependency management and timeline planning
 Operational targets will usually be set to align with the portfolio outcomes as well as business as usual
activities
© 2022 Association for Project Management 13

14. Confidential
What makes Portfolio Management a Success
 Ensure the Board and Execs are effectively sponsoring the portfolio and are actively championing
portfolio management
If they’re not, decisions made away from the Board will not be effective
 Work towards an honest, collaborative approach, build & engender trust within the Exec & staff
across the organisation
 Don’t underestimate the cultural impact and change management needed
 Focus on the strategic goals - If there are no goals, or if they are unclear, sort the goals out first.
They need to be unambiguous, ‘smart’, communicated & emphasised throughout the
organisation to ensure focus
 Ensure prioritisation of the goals and prioritisation rules are clear and unambiguous - these are
the basis for decisions
 Align ‘tactical’ projects to the strategic goals. If they don’t align and don’t contribute, don’t do
them.
 Fully embed the portfolio governance into the organisation’s governance, make it robust.
© 2022 Association for Project Management 14

15. Confidential
What makes Portfolio Management a Success
 Critically assess what information is really needed to make portfolio decisions.
‘Just enough’ information to make decisions. Don’t wait for all data’
 Demonstrate the value by showing improvements in alignment and ROI through the use of good
metrics
 Be seen to be consistent and fair across the portfolio, irrespective of individual programme or
sponsor’s influence.
Favouritism’ undermines the whole approach and rigour
 Consider in flight projects & programmes & BAU the same way, and ensure full alignment to the
strategic goals.
 Managing project managers whose projects are being stopped needs care, driven by the situation
that the organisation/system is facing, not the individual.
© 2022 Association for Project Management 15

16. Confidential
© 2022 Association for Project Management 16
Petula Allison
PfM SiG Chair & Portfolio Manager – YBS
prallison@ybs.co.uk