Portfolio Management - Review 2 (PMI's The Standard for Portfolio Management)

In previous posts I considered:

• What is Portfolio Management
• Management of Portfolios(MoP) – OGC (now Axelos)

This is the final post in this series on Portfolio Management. It will contain the review of the Project Management Institute's(PMI) Portfolio Management Standard, and I will provide some links to references and research papers I have found useful in developing my understanding.

I have an admission (if it is really that), I was a member on the PPMS core team that developed the first PMI Portfolio Management Standard 2005-2006. You will find my name on page 167 Section X2.9.1 in Appendix 2. The same core team also worked on the 1st edition of the Program Management Standard.

The third edition of the Standard for Portfolio Management has developed considerably from those early days. The first edition had three chapters 

If you care to look at Appendix X2 you will find some of the reviewers for this edition were involved in building the first edition so there is continuity of thought and ideas.

This post will examine the PMI Standard for Portfolio Management and how it can aid organizations in adopting Portfolio Management as part of their strategic delivery process.

Note all figures and images in this post are copyright of the Project Management Institute. 

What is this thing called Portfolio Management?

In May's blog we explored the meaning of project success and it was clear that project management is focused on doing the project right, with a wider view of success identifying the need to deliver on more than the key constraints of time, budget and scope.

Over the next few weeks I will explore Portfolio Management which is predominately about choosing the right projects that are aligned to the organization's strategy.

For those who wish to research deeper the sources for this series are:

• The Wiley Guide to Project, Program and Portfolio Management
• Management of Portfolios - Published by Axelos in the UK
• The Standard of Portfolio Management (Third edition) - published by PMI

Project Success - "Projects are like Chalk and Cheese"

This is the third part in my thoughts on Project Success:

• In part 1, I posed the question "How do you measure Project Success?"
• In Part 2, I explored Project Success from different perspectives and provided some links to sources that explored factors in project success and to improve the chance of success beyond serendipity.

The key points from the first two parts are:

• Project Success cannot be judged by the triple constraint.
• The triple constraint of time cost and scope only address the project efficiency dimension of success.x
• Different projects have different success measures depending on your point of view as a stakeholder
• Shenhar and Dvir identified five dimensions of success which could be used as a model to identify the success criteria for a project
• Success criteria has to be built into the project from the first step and then reflected in its plan, demonstrating how the project will deliver the outcome

I believe this evidence also points to the need for an organisation to develop its PM reward system to be based on more than just the traditional triple constraint. 

Operation Revitalise!

It has been a while since my last entry 
(sounds like the start of a confession). 

Well I am back in the saddle and ready to start blogging and helping improve the Project Management Competency of whomever wishes to read my musings.

Over the next 8 months (the rest of this year) I will be focusing on set subject themes for each month with the occasional drift into where-ever the conversation goes.

These are the themes (but I am open to requests/suggestions).

• May: Project Success
• June: Portfolio Management
• July: Transformation Projects
• August: Stakeholder Engagement
• September: Issue Management (revisited)
• October: Risk Management (the sister of Issue Management)
• November: Governance in all it's forms 
• December: Estimating and Planning - A refresher of a core skill

These new blogs will include books to review/read. At the beginning of the month I will publish details (titles etc...) of the book or books that I am going to be reading to study the subject.

I'm looking forward to revitalising this blog with some lively relevant content!

Suggestions for potential postings within each month welcomed.

If you want to know more about me then you can view my profile on linkedIn