Project Portfolio Management
Drive project throughput and value outcomes with a commonsense approach to managing portfolios, projects, and change.
Talk to an AnalystInfo-Tech’s research shows that successful projects are a top driver of business satisfaction with IT. However, our research also shows that most organizations struggle to consistently deliver successful projects.
Info-Tech has developed a commonsense framework built around supply-demand alignment, strong sponsorship accountability, and a responsible approach to implementing change. This framework helps deliver consistent project outcomes without introducing a lot of unnecessary process overhead.
Pick the right tool for the job
Take a holistic approach to addressing project failure points by focusing on the right capability to fix the right challenges you’re facing.
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Project Portfolio Management
Project portfolio management (PPM) drives projects delivery by allowing IT to focus on the right things at the right time with the right people.
Determine Your Current State
Explore the maturity of your current practices to help determine your future direction for PPM.
Use this diagnostic to get a snapshot of your current PPM strengths and weaknesses.
PPM Current State Scorecard DiagnosticUse this diagnostic to conduct a thorough assessment among stakeholders in your PPM environment.
PPM Assessment DiagnosticUse this Excel-based assessment to help identify your PPM current and target state.
Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment WorkbookAnalyze your current- and target-state alignment with the COBIT 5 framework for portfolio management.
COBIT APO05 Alignment WorkbookDefine Your PPM Approach
Develop viable goals and principles to help guide your PPM activities, and wireframe processes tailored to your organization’s culture and PPM maturity.
This primer blueprint helps ensure organizations have strong PPM foundations in place.
Get Started With IT Project Portfolio ManagementUse this blueprint targeted to small enterprises to develop a crawl-walk-run approach to building PPM discipline.
Formalize Project Portfolio Management for Small EnterpriseLeverage this blueprint to create a strategy and process wireframe across our five core PPM capabilities.
Develop a Project Portfolio Management StrategyAssess the costs and the benefit assumptions associated with your PPM strategy.
PPM Strategy Development ToolUse this template to make the case for PPM and communicate your processes.
PPM Strategic Plan TemplateImprove Project Demand Management
Without a strategic approach to selecting the right projects within a set of constraints (e.g. financial resources, human resources, strategic and operational goals), you cannot have an organized portfolio – rather, just a slapdash collection of projects that stakeholders want and desire.
Use this blueprint to build a centralized workflow and governance for project portfolio intake.
Optimize Project Intake, Approval, and PrioritizationUse this blueprint to help you maintain a manageable project backlog.
Tame the Project BacklogUse this blueprint to help balance the operational necessity of smaller, emergent projects against major projects.
Bring Visibility to Your Day-to-Day ProjectsUse this blueprint targeted to small enterprises to develop a simple yet disciplined approach to project intake.
Rebalance Project Intake for Small EnterpriseUnlock lessons learned and build a project history to make more educated and timely estimates in project intake.
Refine Your Estimation Practices With Top-Down AllocationsUse this Excel tool to determine the right amount of management and governance rigor for project requests.
Project Intake Classification MatrixUse this Excel tool to help you develop a prototype for a scorecard to determine project value.
Project Scorecard Development ToolCustomize this Visio template to visually document your project intake, approval, and prioritization processes.
Project Intake Workflow TemplateDevelop a custom scorecard and get a capacity-constrained view on your project priorities.
Project Intake and Prioritization ToolAn alternative to the above, this tool offers a more granular view of resourcing.
Day-to-Day Project Intake and Prioritization ToolWork with one of our PPM experts to optimize your project backlog.
Project Backlog Rationalization ServiceAdvance PPM Resource Management
IT’s capacity for new project work is largely overestimated, with much of IT’s time lost to tasks that go unregulated and untracked before project work is ever approved. Because utilization is poorly understood by the business, too much work is approved. Shine a light into IT’s resource supply through sustainable processes and reasonable data requirements.
Assess IT's overall resource capacity for project work relative to the organization's overall project demand.
PPM High-Level Supply-Demand CalculatorUse this blueprint to develop sustainable resource and capacity management practices for your project portfolio.
Establish Realistic IT Resource Management PracticesUse this Excel and Power BIbased toolset to help track time across multiple staff or to deploy a time audit.
Time Tracker WorkbookCustomize this Visio template to document your resource management processes in a swim-lane flowchart format.
Resource Management Process Flow TemplateUse this template to capture your resource management strategy, data collection process, and roles.
Resource Management PlaybookCommunicate your staffing needs to support your resource management processes.
Resource Management Analyst Job DescriptionUse this Excel-based assessment to analyze change impacts of your resource management processes.
Resource Management Impact Analysis ToolWork with one of our PPM experts to assess your resource capacity relative to the funnel of project demand.
Project Portfolio Throughput AssessmentImprove PPM Tooling and Reporting
Effective PPM informs good decision-making. Those approving projects need to be kept current on the status of projects that have already been approved as well as the organization’s capacity to approve more projects (before they approve too many). This requires a responsive and strategic approach to reporting and PPM tooling.
Create PPM dashboards and reports that effectively meet the needs of decision-makers.
Enhance PPM Dashboards & ReportsThis workbook provides a list of sample PPM metrics.
PPM Metrics MenuUse this blueprint to learn Info-Tech’s approach to homegrown PPM tools.
Grow Your Own PPM SolutionUse our core spreadsheet-based project portfolio management offering.
Portfolio ManagerThis version of Portfolio Manager is a lighter-weight option for those just getting started.
Portfolio Manager LiteThis version of Portfolio Manager leverages Power BI for an advanced and interactive reporting layer.
Portfolio Manager 2.0Use this Excel-based tool to analyze the current mix of projects and programs in your existing portfolio.
Project Portfolio OrganizerUse this blueprint to help navigate Microsoft’s most recent Project offerings and the wider 365 ecosystem.
Determine the Future of Microsoft Project for Your OrganizationFollow the program in this blueprint to plan and execute a successful PPM tool implementation.
Prepare to Successfully Deploy PPM SoftwareProject Closure
Don’t gauge PPM success by the number of projects you approve. It’s about what gets finished! Drive project throughput by focusing on governing project closure at the portfolio level.
This blueprint helps position closure as the keystone event of the entire project.
Begin Your Projects With the End in MindUse this template to record project successes and setbacks.
Project Lessons Learned TemplateUse this customizable diagnostic survey to get feedback from key project stakeholders.
My Project DashboardBenefits Realization
Delivering on intended benefits cuts to the heart of why organizations start projects and invest time and money into completing them. Get sponsors to articulate business benefits that are legitimate, achievable, and measurable.
Use this blueprint to customize a full benefits management process.
Measure IT Project ValueThis Excel workbook contains a project metric library, and it can be used to capture benefit forecasts.
Benefits Commitment FormUse this Excel workbook to document, analyze, and report on actual benefits realization.
Portfolio Benefits Tracking ToolOther Project Portfolio Management Blueprints and Resources
This concise blueprint explores the recent vendor-driven space of strategic portfolio management (SPM).
Make Sense of Strategic Portfolio ManagementUse this in-depth blueprint to align your PPM practices with COBIT APO05: Manage Portfolio.
Maintain an Organized PortfolioThis blueprint provides a framework and a set of audit standards for your projects and portfolios.
Audit the Project PortfolioLeverage this blueprint to identify and initiate your first or next program of projects.
Introduce Program Management to Your OrganizationGet a meaningful portfolio view across various project planning and delivery methodologies.
Unify a Mixed Methodology PortfolioWork with one of our PPM experts to apply our audit standard to your projects and portfolios.
Project Portfolio Review ServiceUse this diagnostic to survey project customers and portfolio owners to help identify improvements.
PPM Customer Satisfaction Report2
Project Management
Whether your project teams follow a predictive methodology, an Agile methodology, or anything in between, good project management practices should enable responsive risk management and governance and foster a holistic portfolio view to portfolio managers and owners.
Determine Your Current State
Explore the maturity of your current practices to help determine your future direction for project management.
Use this diagnostic to conduct a thorough assessment among stakeholders in your project management environment.
PM Assessment DiagnosticUse this Excel-based assessment to identify your current and target states for project management.
Project Management Maturity Assessment WorkbookUse this workbook to analyze your current and target alignment with the COBIT 5 framework for project management.
COBIT BAI01 Alignment WorkbookEstablish Project Management Foundations
Ensure stakeholders understand the importance of project management and have a good grasp of key principles.
Leverage this primer blueprint to introduce your team to project management fundamentals.
Get Started With Project Management ExcellenceDevelop Sustainable Project Management Processes
Project methodologies fail when they are too prescribed, are overhead heavy, or stand in the way of urgent day-to-day needs. Develop process requirements your time-strapped project management staff can repeatedly follow.
Use this blueprint to develop a thorough standard operating procedure for project management.
Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your ProjectsLeverage this blueprint to help define, document, and communicate your project governance stage gates.
Drive Business Value With a Right-Sized Gating ProcessUse this blueprint to help develop minimum viable standards for time-strapped project managers.
Project Management LiteUse this blueprint to develop a right-sized and sustainable risk management approach for your projects.
Right-Size Your Project Risk InvestmentGet infrastructure practitioners on board with a purpose-built approach to project management.
Right-Size Project Management for Infrastructure and OperationsThis all-in-one Excel workbook provides templates to initiate and manage projects in a lean, effective way.
Zero-Allocation Project Management WorkbookThis all-in-one project management workbook has a special focus on project outcomes.
Keystone Project Management WorkbookUsed this tool to gauge the overhead costs of your project management processes.
Project Management Process Costing ToolCustomize this Visio template to document your project management processes in a swim-lane flowchart format.
Project Management Process Flow TemplateUse this Word template to document and communicate your project management processes.
Project Management SOP TemplateOther Project Management Blueprints and Resources
Need assurance on a large, critical project? Review our service offering and project inspection framework.
Project Success Assurance Advisory ServiceLeverage this blueprint to develop a financially sound business case for your large projects.
Build a Comprehensive Business CaseUnderstand recent developments in the Project Management Institute's (PMI) guides and certification options.
Demystify the New PMBOK Guide and PMI Certifications3
Organizational Change Management
An organizational change management (OCM) practice can help facilitate the goals of project portfolio management by improving the chances of realizing project outcomes and intended project benefits.
Determine Your Current State
Explore the maturity of your current practices to help determine your future direction for organizational change management.
Use this Excel-based assessment to identify your current and target state for OCM.
Organizational Change Management Maturity Assessment WorkbookLeverage this tool to evaluate your current capabilities, opportunities, and challenges around OCM.
Organizational Change Management Capabilities AssessmentImplement OCM Practices
OCM involves tools, templates, and processes that are intended to help project leaders analyze the impacts of a change, engage stakeholders, and train and transition end users.
Use this blueprint to develop OCM processes for your change implementations.
Master Organizational Change Management PracticesFollow best practices and recommendations to gain user acceptance of technology implementations.
Drive Technology AdoptionThis blueprint provides a program and toolkit for getting frontline managers onboard as change leaders.
Push Organizational Change to the Frontlines4
Project Management Office
Project management offices (PMOs) are often born out of necessity or desperation. A traumatic event happens, and leadership decides that it wouldn’t have happened had there been a “project management office.” But simply prescribing the “PMO” as a remedy for every organizational alignment is not going to be sufficient. There are different types of PMOs, and more importantly there are different types of organizations.
Define Your PMO Needs
There is no such thing as a PMO in a box. A PMO can be different things, depending on the needs of the organization, and it should be planned based upon those needs.
Use this tool to establish your PMO current state and the service gaps you may have.
PMO Role Definition ToolUse this tool to help elicit PMO requirements and create an inventory of staff and tools.
PMO Mission Identification and Inventory ToolAssess staffing requirements for the PMO to facilitate PPM outcomes.
PMO Job Description BuilderDesign and Deploy Your PMO
Avoid the PMO becoming the junk drawer of the organization by defining a strong mandate for the PMO and getting organizational buy-in on your PMO services and roadmap.
Use this blueprint to hit the ground running as a new PMO leader.
Set a Strategic Course of Action for the PMO in 100 DaysUse this blueprint to define your PMO services and staffing needs as you develop a near-term and long-term roadmap.
Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMOLeverage this PowerPoint template to compose and communicate your PMO strategy and roadmap.
PMO Strategic Plan