PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT YOUR PIPELINE

Many businesses are in search of better ways to manage their portfolios of projects, whether portfolios of innovation projects (such as in a core innovation group) or portfolios of NPD projects (such as in a core product development group).   In nearly every case the challenge is the same… more projects than there are resources to run them, in terms of people, time, and budgets (both capital & expense).   As a consequence, they must find the selection and arrangement of projects that best balances their use of these resources with both their short–term financial objectives and their long–term strategic goals.

So whether the organization uses distributed pools of resources, or a centralized resource pool (shared services), the aim will remain the same — to ultimately deploy the business' resources in a manner that best achieves both the short–term and long–term objectives of the business.

Similarly, businesses must optimize their phase–gate process to be capable of properly managing the flow and progression of these projects through their respective pipelines.   Since each business has its own unique systems, structures, processes, and flows, the phase–gate process ends up being in part unique to them.   The goal remains the same however — to ensure the right projects continue to get the support they need in order to reach commercialization, while halting those projects that fail to demonstrate the promise of their intended outcomes.

We have many years of experience managing project portfolios, as well as consulting on portfolio management practices across a broad range of industries.   Likewise, we have many years of experience developing and using phase–gate processes, as well as consulting on them.   We are able to work with clients, therefore, to help them develop and implement the portfolio management and phase–gate practices best suited for their business and its unique situation.

THE ENGAGEMENT

The Portfolio Management & Phase–Gate Engagement typically follows these steps:

1. We begin by listening to you so as to understand your objectives for, and current approaches to, portfolio management and phase–gate pipeline management.
2. We next work with you to evaluate your current practices and whatever shortcomings or challenges you may be encountering around those.   This often involves plugging into some of your activities and making first-hand observations.
3. We then make recommendations on how to improve these practices in a way that makes the most sense for your business, so that your efforts can be most effective and productive.   We document these recommendations in a Portfolio Management or Phase–Gate Management Practice Guide.   If desired, we can present these recommendations to your organization in a workshop format.
4. If desired, we can custom design a completely new phase–gate process for your business, including the fully detailed requirements and documents needed to carry out the process.
5. As needed, we can deliver custom training and workshops around portfolio management and/or phase–gate pipeline management so as to build awareness and understanding of it within the business.   It is not uncommon for this to be a part of a new implementation effort.
6. If desired, we can help you implement the Nupe portfolio management / phase–gate software.
   Alternatively, we can make recommendation for other software systems if Nupe is not the best fit your organization.
7. If desired, we can remain engaged with you to help oversee the portfolio management and phase–gate management efforts, and to coach you along the way so as to ensure these remain on track and do not get derailed by unforeseen circumstances.
8. If desired, we can also work with your business' leadership to strategically align your portfolios to the company's broader business and innovation strategies.   For more on this, see our Portfolio Alignment service.