Get Started With IT Project Portfolio Management | Info-Tech Research Group

Most companies are struggling to get their project work done. This is due in part to the fact that many prescribed remedies are confusing, disruptive, costly, or ineffective.
While struggling to find a solution, within the organization, project requests never stop and all projects continue to all be treated the same. Resources are requested for multiple projects without any visibility into their project capacity. Projects lack proper handoffs from closure to ongoing operational work. And the benefits are never tracked.
If you have too many projects, limited resources, ineffective communications, or low post-project adoption, keep reading. Perhaps you should spend a bit more on project, portfolio, and organizational change management.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Successful project outcomes are not built by rigorous project processes: Projects may be the problem, but project management rigor is not the solution.
Don’t fall into the common trap of thinking high-rigor project management should be every organization’s end goal.
Instead, understand that it is better to spend time assessing the portfolio to determine what projects should be prioritized.

Impact and Result

Begin by establishing a few foundational practices that will work to drive project throughput.

Capacity Estimation: Understand what your capacity is to do projects by determining how much time is allocated to doing other things.
Book of Record: Establish a basic but sustainable book of record so there is an official list of projects in flight and those waiting in a backlog or funnel.
Simple Project Management Processes: Align the rigor of your project management process with what is required, not what is prescribed by the PMP designation.
Impact Assessment: Address the impact of change at the beginning of the project and prepare stakeholders with the right level of communication.

Get Started With IT Project Portfolio Management Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Begin by establishing a few foundational practices that will work to drive project throughput. Most project management problems are resolved with portfolio level solutions. This blueprint will address the eco-system of project, portfolio, and organizational change management.

Get Started With IT Project Portfolio Management – Executive Brief

1. Project portfolio management

Estimate project capacity, determine what needs to be tracked on an ongoing basis, and determine what criteria is necessary for prioritizing projects.

2. Project management

Develop a process to inform the portfolio of the project status, create a plan that can be maintained throughout the project lifecycle, and manage the scope through a change request process.

3. Organizational change management

Perform a change impact assessment and identify the obvious and non-obvious stakeholders to develop a message canvas accordingly.

4. Develop an action plan

Develop a roadmap for how to move from the current state to the target state.

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

10.0/10

Overall Impact

$2,599

Average $ Saved

2

Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

City of Bloomington, IL

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,599

2

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Table of Contents

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Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 12 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Project portfolio management

Call 1: Determine current project capacity.
Call 2: Develop portfolio book of record.
Call 3: Evaluate project intake.

Guided Implementation 2: Project management

Call 1: Determine necessary reporting metrics.
Call 2: Create a work breakdown structure.
Call 3: Document your project change request process.

Guided Implementation 3: Organizational change management

Call 1: Discuss change accountability.
Call 2: Complete a change impact assessment.
Call 3: Create a communication plan for stakeholders.

Guided Implementation 4: Develop an action plan

Call 1: Summarize current state.
Call 2: Determine target state.
Call 3: Create a roadmap.

Authors

Barry Cousins

Teodora Siman

Contributors

Five anonymous contributors

Search Code: 91497
Last Revised: March 16, 2020

TAGS:

PPM essentials, Project Management, Organizational Change Management, Get Started with PPM, portfolio report, project prioritization, project report, change assessment, project change communication, project capacity, portfolio analysis, Introduction to IT PPM, IT Project Portfolio Management, IT Project Management, OCM

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