This document discusses strategies for successfully implementing enterprise project and portfolio management (EPPM) frameworks in large, global organizations. It identifies common challenges such as scale, incomplete solutions, political governance issues, and lack of standardized metrics. The document recommends 12 principles for EPPM implementation, including securing senior management sponsorship, identifying clear objectives, employing a phased approach, leveraging pilots, implementing change management, including financial analysis, consolidating systems, and conducting ongoing analysis. Case studies and examples are provided for each principle to illustrate proven strategies. The overall goal is to provide guidance for organizations navigating the complexities of implementing comprehensive EPPM on an enterprise-wide scale.

1. Enterprise Project & Portfolio Management:
Managing the Revolution
12 Strategies for Success in Global Organizations
A UMT White Paper
Daniel Theander, Partner
and
Brian Feder, Vice President

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Overview
Portfolio Management was a relatively unknown, niche market until about the mid 1990’s.
Over the past decade and typically lead by the Information Technology leadership teams, there
has been a revolution in the comprehensive Project & Portfolio Management marketplace.
Methodologies such as Project Portfolio Management (PPM), Application Portfolio
Management (APM), and Enterprise Project Management (EPM) have started to crystallize and
are becoming part of the common office vocabulary. Today, the value and benefits of
implementing these established frameworks are well documented and almost “obvious” to
most CIOs.
Yet, the roadmap to success is far from straightforward and it is often difficult to derive the magic recipe to unleash the
full potential of these frameworks. The issues are compounded and exacerbated by the shear global nature of today’s
large companies, with stakeholders in multiple locations, adhering to local cultures, and aligned to dissimilar standards.
In addition to the geographic hurdles, most large organizations routinely need to balance the need for centralized
control and local autonomy. Different lines of business may have unique objectives, and it’s often difficult to envision
implementing standardized processes. Dispersed companies tend to slowly gravitate away from homogenous practices
and this leads to fragmented policies and the use of disparate systems. In more extreme circumstances, merger and
acquisition activity may attempt to quickly assimilate entirely distinct organizations. However, implementing the
Comprehensive EPM methodologies and frameworks in a systematic manner will yield predictable results that include
savings, improved transparency and better alignment with company strategies.
Organizations implementing any component of Comprehensive EPM must identify the key challenges specific to their
organization and should use the twelve principles in this article to respond to them.
Challenges
Scale and Globalization - Each of the various Portfolio Management disciplines can be difficult to implement even in
small companies; the magnitude and complexity of typical, large global organizations compounds this challenge. It is
commonplace to witness disparate processes and strategic directions within each line of business, functional area, or
country. Many large companies have not conducted thorough analysis to understand the current state of affairs across
the enterprise, and the desired mid/long term goals are typically not known or considered universal.
Incomplete Solutions - Many large companies are beginning to realize the lack of consistent processes is hindering
successful portfolio management practices, which results in less than optimal usage of scarce resources. To combat
this realization, various standards, systems and tool-kits are deployed. Homegrown tools are developed and COTS
applications are experimented with. Yet, without the desired end result articulated and enforced, these seemingly
altruistic advances may be fostering and promulgating the disarray they are trying to alleviate.
Political Governance - In some instances, there is a constant power struggle in play. A strong central portfolio and
governance organization may be construed as designing an “ivory tower” solution, while individual centers of
excellence may only have authority in the local market or functional area. Another dynamic is the competing efforts of
establishing a comprehensive solution and the natural desire to get actual project work done. The individual lines of
business may “know what work must get done,” but may have difficulty understanding the larger picture and realizing
the impact of less-than-ideal local decisions. Often, it comes down to the seemingly endless struggle over budgetary
control.
Metrics & Standards - At the same time, most companies and individuals do realize the self-inflicted challenges that
dissimilar portfolio management standards and practices introduce. An enterprise-wide analysis is often difficult if data

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is not standardized and dissimilar processes and templates are employed to budget, forecast and track financials.
Similarly, companies will have difficulty enabling and realizing the benefits of Comprehensive EPM without agreed
upon standards for risk assessments, approaches to resource management, methods to monitor status, and techniques
to identify and mitigate issues and risks.
Sourcing – Companies typically desire to leverage best-of-breed services from different parts of the organization and
the result is generally large widespread efforts that are challenging to manage. In some cases, there is a bifurcation of
work among individual internal shared services groups; in other extremes, some of the workload may be outsourced or
even off-shored to seek the expertise of SMEs that may be able to provide comparatively low-cost solutions. A side
effect of relinquishing control of some of the work is that resource management, workload estimation and other
aspects of portfolio management become increasingly difficult to manage.
Guiding Principles and Success Factors
Aspects of the twelve guiding principles listed below will apply to most implementations of Comprehensive EPM
initiatives. Each piece of the puzzle is introduced and explained, and key success factors are presented as examples of
proven solutions. Obviously, every company is unique and strategies are dynamic; as such, the components listed
below will be applicable in varying degrees to each specific situation:
 Solicit Dedicated Sponsorship and Commitment from Senior Management.
 Identify the Primary Objectives of the Comprehensive EPM Initiatives.
 Don’t Attempt to Boil the Ocean.
 Employ a Phased Implementation with an Iterative Approach.
 Leverage Pilots and Best Practices.
 Implement and Guide Change Management and Harmonization.
 Include Financial Analysis.
 Consolidate Systems & Leverage Unique Strengths of Related Applications.
 Share Relevant Information with Stakeholders.
 Restrict Access to Sensitive Information.
 Communicate Strategies & Objectives; Provide Training & Support.
 Conduct Analyses & Seek Optimal Solutions.
Solicit Dedicated Sponsorship and Commitment from Senior Management
To achieve a successful enterprise-wide Comprehensive EPM implementation requires
commitment from senior management. A strong sponsor at the C-level who is willing to
personally endorse the portfolio management disciplines is suggested. This formal
sponsorship should be coupled with an active Steering Committee with cross-portfolio
representation. However, when designing the solution, do not allow the team to be
entirely top-heavy; rather, be sure to solicit the input from the groups and individuals that
will be most directly impacted and that may have more intimate knowledge of the projects, applications, financial
systems, etc. Attempt to strike the right balance of strategic vision with necessary mechanical, transaction-level
stakeholders.
Key Success Factors:
 A company-wide (or IT-wide) communication from the CIO/CTO announcing the Comprehensive EPM
implementations will help promote the importance of the initiatives and will announce the Executive
Leadership Team’s endorsement.

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 Establish a Steering Committee with cross-portfolio/geographic representation.
 Schedule routine meetings with to the broader impacted community; invite participation and/or feedback
from all levels of the organization. This can effectively be accomplished by hosting Comprehensive EPM
Town Halls meetings, launching a Comprehensive EPM blog or other collaborative forums.
 A senior-level Sponsor or Champion will help alleviate some of the negative push-back that is often
encountered with culture or system changes.
Identify the Primary Objectives of the Comprehensive EPM Initiative
What are the problems we are trying to solve? If the organization historically executes the project
work flawlessly, but the portfolio as a whole is still deemed unsuccessful, the solution may be to start
with PPM to facilitate a more advanced project selection process. If identifying high value projects is
unproblematic or a non-issue (perhaps the business is setting the direction of the IT project work),
then perhaps facets of EPM are more ideal to begin with. For example, the organization may want to
focus on budgeting resource demands and quantifying overall resource availability. Or, perhaps the
business lacks a centralized repository of the systems running the business and should start with
APM. Articulating the problems to be solved strengthens the call to action.
Key Success Factors:
 Too often, companies attempt to implement the latest “IT trend” without understanding the fundamental
problem or desired end-state. To address the underlying issues, articulate the problem statement(s) and
understand the intentions of the framework being deployed; solicit the unbiased perspective of external
subject matter experts to compliment the internal leadership teams’ perceptions.
 Adopting any of the Comprehensive EPM solutions without articulating the problem statement(s) or
understanding the framework being deployed will lead to failure, or will not address the real, underlying
issues.
 Conduct a gap analysis related to the various potential initiatives, and explicitly document the objectives,
milestones and deliverables.
 Large organizations typically have unique problem statements and desired results for each department or
region, so perform this analysis at the sub-portfolio level and then aggregate the results for transparency
across the enterprise.
Don’t Attempt to Boil the Ocean
Determining that “all of the above” is necessary is quite typical, but don’t attempt to boil the
ocean by spreading the focus too thin. Start with realistic, incremental “baby steps” to avoid
overwhelming the organization. This is increasingly significant and relevant for large
organizations. Do not necessarily start with the areas that are the most problematic or
require the most attention; there are advantages to identifying and realizing the quick wins
to gain momentum. For example, if there are only a few project approval processes in
practice across the enterprise, perhaps mapping all groups to the best (or blended) solution is an appropriate starting
point. Introduce risk assessment, project categorization and advanced financial tracking over time. Then, perhaps,
revisit the sole project lifecycle and potentially expand it to acknowledge the different treatment required for projects
of various types or thresholds.
Key Success Factors:
 Smaller companies are typically afforded the luxury of agility, while larger/global enterprises are often
hampered by slow reaction times and reluctance to change. To combat this “trying to turn the battleship”
dilemma, establish the common Comprehensive EPM framework in small, achievable steps.

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 Instituting a common vocabulary of terms will help spread the desired nomenclature and syntax.
Something as simple as a unified Comprehensive EPM-related language will help foster adoption.
Employ a Phased Implementation with an Iterative Approach
Identify and enforce the mandatory components and gradually introduce the lower priority modules.
For example, it is typical to require that accurate project budgets are determined prior to beginning
work, but it may be advantageous to progressively require re-forecasting throughout the project’s
execution lifecycle. This will help reduce the potentially overwhelming introduction of too much too
quickly, and will help foster adoption of each component. Also, the ideal end result is often impossible
to identify on the first pass, so implementing an iterative approach to deploying the framework and
system configuration is advantageous.
Key Success Factors:
 For a large organization, merely having a standardized, central repository of projects is a tremendous
accomplishment. This requires that the entire enterprise “projectizes” the work efforts and can collect
standardized information. To accomplish this, provide a name, duration and definition to all work, ideas,
initiatives, projects, etc. and compile this information into the portfolio repository.
 Agreeing to the common Comprehensive EPM framework is not trivial, and in some organizations this will
be impractical. Typically, standardization is advantageous to leverage a common language and will provide
transparency across the enterprise.
 Start with the basics, either the commonalities across all portfolios or other necessities (for example, a
common financial hierarchy), and work to adopt other components gradually.
 Any Comprehensive EPM initiative will develop over time, and the process and tools should intentionally be
structured to be dynamic. While the battleship will turn slowly, it is not restricted to running on rails!
Leverage Pilots and Best Practices
Piloting certain aspects of the Comprehensive EPM initiatives is advantageous to fine-tune
the desired/ideal solution and a showcase portfolio will make the desired end-state more
tangible. Then, attempt to implement the short-term/intermediate solution enterprise-wide
to the largest extent possible. This will promote universal adoption and will help avoid
multiple layers of maturity within pockets of the organization. Standardize as much as
possible, and minimize the amount of autonomy each LOB is allowed. At the onset of any
Comprehensive EPM initiative, each portfolio will appear unique and will claim individuality. Yet, by leveraging best
practices across the organization, a common-ground is usually achievable and standardized templates and practices are
extremely desirable. Establishing this common portfolio management framework will help the overall company
progress.
Key Success Factors:
 Avoid the “lowest common denominator” phenomenon. By tailoring the solution to the aspects common
to all LOBs or portfolios, the result will be so high-level and diluted that the desired Comprehensive EPM
end-results will not be realized. Instead, agree to an ideal, common solution to begin with and establish a
plan to mature.
 Each group will have individual strengths; leverage these to devise the initial solution and ultimate desired
goals. For example, one group might have a bullet-proof approval workflow, while another group may
have advanced resource management processes.

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 Begin by testing the implementation with one group/portfolio, learn from and fix the mistakes, and then
work to assimilate the harmonized process and tools to the entire organization.
Implement and Guide Change Management and Harmonization
Human nature and force of habit are typically not aligned with innovation and change, so be cognizant
of potential resistance as the new solutions are implemented. Gradually integrate the new processes
and tools into the work environment to progressively harmonize the change with existing conventions
and systems. Also, while staying focused on the early implementation solutions, do not get tunnel
vision. Always seek and exploit related efforts, and gradually introduce additional elements. For
example, during application data collection exercises, the need for a robust document management
system may arise. Establishing standards and templates for a company-wide file collaboration solution
may be a necessary interim step in the APM deployment. Aggressively attempting to change too much too quickly may
boomerang early positive results, especially if the changes are conducted in isolation from other related efforts.
Key Success Factors:
 Introducing new processes and systems is a significant challenge; attempting to change habits/routines and
retiring legacy systems is generally received with tremendous resistance. Explain the value of these
initiatives and provide justification for altering the status quo.
 Always try to see the Comprehensive EPM initiative from the various stakeholder perspectives, and assess
the changes required and potential value received from all levels of the organization. Tailor
communication of the changes to the specific target audience.
 Balance and intermingle the use of both the “carrot and stick” techniques when trying to implement
change in the organization. Both methods of persuasion are effective if wielded correctly.
Include Financial Analysis
At the core of many Comprehensive EPM initiatives is a desire to streamline operations, increase
efficiencies, improve agility, etc. There is typically a financial motivator driving many of these “buzz
word” strategies. Embrace the financial component and attempt to quantify the costs and savings/
benefits. Regardless of the depth of the Comprehensive EPM implementation, include some element of
finance. Determining the proposed project’s budget, or the ongoing cost of the application, should help
stakeholders at all levels of the organization use a common language. By standardizing how costs are
identified, there will be a universal framework to quantify costs. This may involve categorizing the use
of the requested funds, acknowledging the available funding sources, and helping to forecast the timing
of the proposed spending.
Key Success Factors:
 While financial analysis certainly isn’t the only benefit of Comprehensive EPM initiatives, it is an important
one. Standardize the cost categories and funding sources, and assess all projects, applications, resources,
assets, etc. using the common framework.
 To the largest extent possible, associate linked entities to show Total Cost of Ownership and group related
items into programs or portfolios for an aggregate budget perspective.
 Establish a framework to optimize the selection process taking various potential budget constraints into
account. Recognize that the cost estimates of a project or application will change over time and track the
original budget, frequently changing forecasts and, of course, actual spending.
 Over time and with proper hindsight analysis, the variance between proposed and actual costs should be
reduced as the managers become better estimators.

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Consolidate Systems & Leverage Unique Strengths of Related Applications
Determine who will be accountable for budgeting the costs, who has the authority to approve
the budgets and subsequent change requests, and who may reforecast during the life of the
project or application. In tandem with identifying the roles and responsibilities of the human
resources, recognize which systems are used to track and analyze this information. One of the
typical benefits of enterprise Comprehensive EPM is the ability to consolidate disparate portfolio
systems. However, be cautious when attempting to eliminate financial systems. While most
portfolio tools have comprehensive financial budgeting and tracking capabilities, they are not intended to wholly
replace robust, transactional financial systems. Instead, look to integrate the portfolio tools with the financial systems;
this will enforce the singular source-of-truth system for the various components, reduce redundant data entry, and
leverage the individual strengths of each application while still achieving a comprehensive analysis.
Key Success Factors:
 Every organization is unique, and it is often difficult to find COTS portfolio management applications that
satisfy every requirement. At the same time, custom development is time consuming and expensive, and
may be far from the company’s core competency.
 Any Comprehensive EPM implementation will require sophisticated tools, and the ideal solution will
integrate projects, applications, resources, and financials. The Microsoft Office Enterprise Project
Management (EPM) Suite offers a configurable solution for managing projects, applications, resources,
documents, etc.
 When implementing a Comprehensive EPM system, work to integrate it with existing financial tools.
Consolidate output requirements and standardize the format and content of reports and analysis that
combine portfolio management and financial systems.
 Acknowledge the overlap between related initiatives, and proactively reduce/eliminate the amount of
redundant data entry required. For example, there is an intentional gray area between PPM and EPM, and
the granularity and intended usage of the data is different. PPM tends to focus on high-level Phase and
Milestone schedule information while EPM tracks individual tasks; PPM estimates the resource types and
quantities necessary, while EPM assigns named level individuals to specific tasks in the work breakdown
structure.
Share Relevant Information with Stakeholders
Recognize the various needs of the assorted stakeholders and cater the dissemination of information
appropriately. Once all this valuable data is collected don’t hoard it, share it! Typically, the executive
leadership team members will want dashboard type reports with drill-down functionality. At this
level, the health of entire portfolios may be the most granular detail necessary. The other extreme is
the individual project or application manager, or team member, who may only be interested in
information regarding specific items of interest. Other recipients of information may be focused on
various types of data, such as resource demands and availability, financial components, or risk
assessments. It is impossible to anticipate all the resultant uses of the data that Comprehensive EPM
initiatives will yield, so make conscientious efforts to compile and organize the information as the efforts mature and
build open architecture that can easily integrate data not included in early iterations. Through analysis and access to
the different slices of information, the various stakeholders will come to appreciate and rely on the data stemming
from Comprehensive EPM.
Key Success Factors:
 Expand the reach and usefulness of the collected data to encourage participants from all levels of the
organization to realize the value of the new frameworks and not think of them as mere overhead or “Big
Brother” policies.

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 Create standardized reports and analyses and make the relevant information available to all stakeholder
groups. Document and communicate the data being collected and explain how the information will be
used.
 Socializing the value of Comprehensive EPM to the appropriate groups will foster adoption and may yield
unforeseen value. For example, the business may have better visibility to the benefits of IT operations, or
compliance, risk management or financial teams may be empowered to conduct more thorough and
quantitative analyses.
Restrict Access to Sensitive Information
There is also the potential for releasing too much information. Ensure the appropriate data is
only available to individuals who should have access. For example, external resources or part
time staffers may only need limited views to the full data set. In certain merger and acquisition
“quiet period” situations, the portfolio data may need to be restricted to certain executives in
each company. Striking this balance between the desire for transparency and the need to
restrict access should be planned from the beginning. Determine appropriate user groups and
assign necessary access permissions, then allocate these rights to specific individuals. Even if
data is not universally available, the central management team may want to showcase ideal projects or applications to
foster cross-portfolio knowledge transfer, sharing best practices, documenting lessons learned, allowing template
reuse and even sharing of scarce resources across seemingly disparate groups.
Key Success Factors:
 Assign sets of permissions to each person or group that has access to the collected information.
 Disseminating “need to know” data to the constituents will protect sensitive records and will alleviate
overloading individuals with irrelevant information. For example, leadership may not want to prematurely
communicate strategies to decommission sites or outsource certain functions to the entire organization.
 Structure the data and access to it in a way that will secure and protect it, while still providing decision-
making capabilities to the portfolio management team.
Communicate Strategies & Objectives; Provide Training & Support
Dedicate energy towards communications, process and tool training, and ongoing support.
Encourage and enable feedback forums, which may include routine face-to-face meetings, online
blogs and user communities, and access to a Comprehensive EPM “help desk” infrastructure. In
global organizations, try to leverage webinars and/or dedicate training efforts to region champions
who can introduce the framework to local constituents and provide a liaison role to the central
implementation teams. Empower individual users with online FAQs, self-help training materials,
continuously released quick reference guides and refresher training. To the extent possible,
communicate the overall roadmap for the intended implementation strategy, which may involve the
introduction of new components, advances in maturity, deployment to new LOBs, etc.
Key Success Factors:
 Establish accessible communication channels to all impacted stakeholders and over-communicate the
intentions and anticipated benefits of the Comprehensive EPM initiatives. Develop the overall solution
with enterprise-wide representation to avoid designing an “ivory tower” solution.
 Use e-mails, newsletters or online venues to continuously update the organization on progress. Leverage
internal champions to present best practices and provide ongoing support.

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 Most components of Comprehensive EPM initiatives in large organizations will take considerable time to
implement and adopt, and training material retention may fade over time. Leverage “train the trainer”
solutions to continuously reach all levels of the global enterprise.
 Take time to monitor progress and evaluate the successfulness at regular checkpoints.
 Learning styles vary, so provide information in various formats: live training, video and other computer
based training, quick reference guides, facilitated user group forums, etc.
Conduct Analyses & Seek Optimal Solutions
Another objective of many Comprehensive EPM initiatives is the desire to optimize the portfolio.
After collecting many data points, this information may be used as measuring sticks against the
portfolios. This is typically the fun part of Comprehensive EPM! Thorough analysis of all the data
collection resultant information will enabled better business decision-making. Introduce multiple
layers and components to the analysis to compare the cost, financial benefits, strategic alignment,
risk, categorization, architectural fit, etc. within the portfolio – and then, apply various resource
constraints to derive the optimal set of projects or applications. Some LOBs, especially those with budget control and
limited resources, may find this extreme useful. Other groups may have projects and applications entirely funded by
external groups (for example, an IT department driven by Business decisions), and therefore may have less control of
project selection. Even without financial constraints, thorough analysis will yield more optimal resource management,
project scheduling, risk mitigation, etc. In most large organizations, there will be multiple scenarios to incorporate into
the desired solution.
Key Success Factors:
 Partner with the business to determine shared strategies and align the projects and applications in the
portfolios to the current set of strategic drivers.
 Balance the discretionary and sustain/BAU activities according to requirements and the willingness for
innovation.
 Determine an “efficient frontier” to maximize the balance between expected portfolio value and known
constraints. Introduce multi-dimensional analyses to incorporate various aspects of cost, benefits, risk,
compliance, value, etc., and realize that there is typically not one master formula to derive optimal results.
 Depending on the planning cycle horizon (annual, gated funding, ongoing, etc.), routinely revisit the
portfolio analysis to ensure the optimal balance is still being achieved. Because the enterprise’s strategies
will change and resource availability will vary over time, continuously revisit the initial optimal portfolio and
make necessary adjustments.
 Believe in the analysis results and be prepared to make radical changes to in-flight activities; terminating
underperforming projects, despite the sunk costs, may be advantageous to yield superior results with other
efforts.

10. Bringing it All Together
It
should be obvious that there is no “right” solution to implementing Enterprise Project & Portfolio Management in
any organization, especially for large and global companies. Each of the components of Comprehensive EPM can be
challenging to deploy in small organizations, and these tribulations are compounded (seemingly exponentially!) in
global, enterprise-wide, comprehensive solutions. Begin by assessing the current state of maturity across the
organization and then use this information to articulate and communicate the short/mid/long term Comprehensive
EPM objectives. Build momentum slowly and enable constant communication of progress to all levels of the
company. Leverage the successes of early adopters, build a team of LOB champions and liaisons, and leverage
enterprise-wide knowledge transfer. Dedicate resources to manage the portfolios, and solicit the guidance and
support of internal/external SMEs to facilitate the implementations.
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