Portfolio management creates a competitive advantage through efficient execution on strategy. Mastering it starts with the definition of business drivers.

1. Mastering Portfolio
Management with Project
Online
Jakub Marciniak
Solution Consultant, DeltaBahn, LLC
Part 1/5: Define Business Drivers

2. Define Business
Drivers
Create Driver
Prioritizations
Create Portfolio
Analysis
Perform
Scenario
Portfolio Analysis
Adjust Project
Portfolio
Portfolio Management with Project Online Framework
What are business drivers, how to derive them from the
strategy and how to define and prioritize them in Project
Online
How to prioritize business
drivers to achieve the desired
portfolio allocation; how to
create sets of business driver
prioritizations for different
organizational entities of
portfolio analyses
How to associate projects with business
drivers; how to create a portfolio analysis
based on resources and cost
How to analyze cost and resources
based on multiple scenarios of portfolio
analyses in Project Online
How to improve the project
portfolio continuously to
achieve the desired results for
project resource allocations
and to control portfolio
performance and cost with
Project Online

3. Define Business
Drivers
Create Driver
Prioritizations
Create Portfolio
Analysis
Perform
Scenario
Portfolio Analysis
Adjust Project
Portfolio
Mastering Portfolio Management with Project Online: Define Business Drivers
A “Business Driver” is a brief statement that defines
clearly and specifically the desired business
outcomes of the organization along with the
necessary activities to reach them.
For example:
Improve Product Quality of
Luxury Brands

4. Corporate
Strategy Organizational
Structure /
Integration
Business Strategy
and Short-term
Operating
Objectives
Business
Structure
Integration
Incentives and
Controls
Executing Strategy: Key Decisions and Actions
 Structure follows strategy
 Business Drivers are short-
term objectives defined for
business units and
downwards
 Incentives must reinforce
strategic and short-term
objectives
 Controls provide feedback
Source: Executing Strategy: Key Decisions and Actions, adapted from: Hrebiniak, Lawrence G. "Overview and Model: Making Strategy Work." Making Strategy Work. First ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2013. 42. Print.

5. Questions to support identifying current business drivers or creating new ones
Corporate Strategy
 What is our corporate strategy?
 What are the major strategic initiatives and what stage are they
in? (in progress, succeeded, failed, on hold, …)
 How do we measure the extent to which we achieve our strategic
goals for the years defined? (for example five, three, one year)
 Why did our strategy change? How did it change?
My organizational entity
 What is the strategy of my organizational entity?
 What are the major strategic projects in my immediate
environment?
 How do we measure the extent to which we achieve the desired
benefits from those projects?

6. Vision Strategy
Business Drivers
Portfolio KPIs
Corporate Level
Business Unit
Department
KPIsProjects
Levels of Business Driver Definitions, Portfolios and Projects
Projects Projects

7. Clarify and communicate the strategic direction
Explicitly align projects to strategic objectives
Establish strategic priorities
Measure outputs and outcomes
Purpose and goals of Business Drivers

8. Balanced Scorecard
 With a balanced
scorecard approach,
business drivers are
 Grouped logically
 Quantifiable
 Precise
 A balanced scorecard
diversifies the portfolio
design
Balanced Scorecard Framing, adapted from: Emett, Scott A., and William B. Tayler. "Is Your Strategy Evaluation Biased?" Strategic Finance November (2013): 27-34. Print. (Diagram: 28)

9. 60%
50%
60%
15%
20%
20%
10%
5%
5%
10%
5%
10%
5%
20%
5%
Design Allocation Actual Allocation: Previous Year Actual Allocation: This Year
Financial Customer Internal Process Employee Learning / Growth Other
Balanced Scorecard percent allocations
Portfolio Performance over multiple periods can be compared based on the
allocations of the design
Adapted from: Kodukula, Prasad. Organizational Project Portfolio Management: A Practitioner's Guide. Plantation, FL: J. Ross, 2014. Print. (Page 96, Figure 8-1: Percent allocations and project categories base on
balanced scorecard domains)

10. Element to
measure
Focus or area
of emphasis+Verb
 Maintain
 Conserve
 Align
 Assure
 Reduce
 Eliminate
 Diminish
 Avoid
 Improve
 Increase
 Augment
 Accelerate
The verbs used to define the
Business Driver should
promote an action…
Suggested verbs are 
Examples: Increase sales in the metropolitan areas
Reduce the annual cost of operations
Good Practice for Naming Business Drivers
+

11. Leading questions to define the impact levels of the business driver
 How many organizational elements (business units,
departments, functions) are affected?
 What is the range of percentage that is appropriate according
to our goals?
 Is efficiency involved? (measures from the ITIL service portfolio
catalogue or six sigma)
 Can the business driver levels be defined by an index that
consists of different qualitative elements based on a scoring
model (1-5, 1-10, 1-100, stepwise, …)?

12. 90%
High-maturity
organizations
47%
Low-maturity
organizations
Strong C-Level support for Project Portfolio Management (PPM)
Project Portfolio Management enjoys strong C-Level support in high-maturity organizations.
Adapted from: "The Practitioner's Perspective: Winning through Project Portfolio Management." PMI Thought Leadership Series (2015): 1-16. Project Management Institute (PMI). Project Management Institute (PMI),
Inc., Nov. 2015. Web. 19Dec.2016.(Page 11)

13. How to define Business
Drivers in Project Online

14. Navigate to Driver Library

15. Driver Library

16. Create a new Business Driver

17. Summary
 Business drivers are specific for each organizational entity and
derive from its strategy.
 By using a balanced scorecard approach, business drivers can
be defined precisely.
 A Business driver needs to be broken down into various levels
that measure the expected impact of individual projects.

18. Q & A

19. Q: I don’t see the “Driver Library” on the left side. What can I do?
A: Edit Links in the Quick Launch navigation

20. A: Set up departments  Assign user to departments  Assign Business Drivers to Departments
Q: How do I show/hide specific business drivers from Project Online roles?

21. A: Set up departments  Assign user to departments  Assign Business Drivers to Departments
Q: How do I show/hide specific business drivers from Project Online roles?

22. A: Set up departments  Assign user to departments  Assign Business Drivers to Departments
Q: How do I show/hide specific business drivers from Project Online roles?

23. A: Set up departments  Assign user to departments  Assign Business Drivers to Departments
Q: How do I show/hide specific business drivers from Project Online roles?

24. A: Set up departments  Assign user to departments  Assign Business Drivers to Departments
Q: How do I show/hide specific business drivers from Project Online roles?

25. A: Set up departments  Assign user to departments  Assign Business Drivers to Departments
Q: How do I show/hide specific business drivers from Project Online roles?

26. success@deltabahn.com
(281) 344-0437
www.deltabahn.com