Episode 149 Premium: How to implement project portfolio management

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Last week we spoke with Terry Doerscher from Planview and he gave us an introduction to project portfolio management. This week we are going to where the rubber meets the road. We want to learn in what steps exactly PPM can be introduced in an organization. We'll look at this from various angles and we'll specifically discuss the following types of assessments that Terry recommends that you perform in your organization before you even get started

• A general operational assessment
• An organizational assessment
• A functional assessment
• A technological assessment

The information we talk about was taken from Terry's book "Taming Change with Portfolio Management" and to win a copy of Terry's book: Go to our Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/pmpodcast find the announcement of this book giveaway and simply add a quick comment (Deadline to participate extended to July 21 2010).

Episode Transcript

Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.

Podcast Introduction

Cornelius Fichtner: This is The Project Management Podcast™. We bring project management to beginners and experts. Find us on the web at www.pm‑podcast.com or send your emails to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to this Premium Episode #149. I am Cornelius Fichtner. This is The Project Management Podcast™, nice to have you with us.

Here is another Premium Episode to which only you, our premium subscribers get access. And of course, in a few days, you'll also get the PDF transcript. Enjoy!

Last week, we spoke with Terry Doerscher from Planview and he gave us an introduction to project portfolio management. This week, we are going to where the rubber meets the road. We want to learn in what steps exactly Project Portfolio Management, PPM, can be introduced in an organization. We'll look at this from various angles and we'll specifically discuss the following types of assessments that Terry recommends that you perform in your organization before you even get started.

He recommends that you first do a (1) general operational assessment, (2) an organizational assessment, (3) a functional assessment, and (4) a technological assessment.

The information that we talk about in this interview was taken from Terry's book "Taming Change with Portfolio Management" and as is usual here on the Podcast, everyone who is subscribed as a premium subscriber, that’s you, obviously, is automatically entered to this giveaway. But if you want to double your chances, then please go to our Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/pmpodcast, find the announcement of this book giveaway and simply add a quick comment. You can either tell me how great you think the podcast is or can just say "Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!" or something along those lines. Everyone who adds a comment to our Fan Page before July 7th 2010 gets a chance to win. The address again for you: www.facebook.com/pmpodcast.

And now, enjoy the interview.

Podcast Interview

Female voice: The Project Management Podcast’s feature Interview: Today with Terry Doerscher, Chief Process Architect for Planview.

Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Terry and once again, welcome back to The Project Management Podcast™.

Terry Doerscher: Thank you very much, Cornelius.

Cornelius Fichtner: In this interview, we are going to look into how to implement portfolio management, which is also a part of your book “Taming Change with Portfolio Management”.  But before we get into that, let’s bring everyone onto the same page again here. Give us a definition of portfolio management, let’s start with that.

Terry Doerscher: Sure! I think it would be good to summarize the earlier session by just giving us a working description of what portfolio management is really all about. And ultimately, the discipline of portfolio management allows us to group together a collection of independent subjects so we can collectively manage them towards achieving the common objective.

The unique thing about portfolios is they give you the ability to gather, present, analyze different types of information from many different perspectives and levels of detail. And depending on the objective of the portfolio, check the information about its subjects and present them compared to different ways in order to assess performance, drive decisions, and then ultimately take action.

So portfolio management establishes a consistent process structure and decision support framework to allow us to have transparent and trustworthy decision making across many different levels and parts of the enterprise. Does that make sense?

Cornelius Fichtner: That makes a lot of sense, yes! It’s probably one of the best definitions and the most concise definitions that I’ve heard. Yeah!

Terry Doerscher: Hopefully, we can get the various disciplines to look at that and agree that, yeah, I can work with that.

Cornelius Fichtner: Good luck, I would say, right?

Terry Doerscher: Yeah. You know, if we do nothing else with this, Cornelius, if we can make that happen, I will go to my grave feeling complete.

Cornelius Fichtner: Wonderful! So as I said, we want to talk about how to implement portfolio management. That means we’re changing something in our organization, right, to get started and that’s what your book is about, taming change also.

So if we’re implementing portfolio management, we’re changing something that means people are going to push back on us. From your experience, what are usually the biggest areas where we will experience pushback in an organization when we’re going to start out implementing portfolio management?

Above are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete PDF transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.