Project Management Institute (PMI)® Professional Development Units (PDUs): This Webinar is eligible for 2 PMI® PDU in the Technical Category of the Talent Triangle. Speakers: Dr. Shan Rajegopal and Rich Weller Pcubed Course Format and Credit The course comprise of 3 sessions of 2 hours each. MPUG Certificate upon completion of series and opportunity for six hours PDU credit. Project Portfolio Management is about ensuring you have the correct mix of projects that are focused on taking the business where it has decided to go. It is about being able to respond quickly to changes in the environment, enabling the business to set the direction and then create a series of steps to get there. Delegates will learn what PPM is; build an effective process using best practices and software tools to support PPM deployment, kick start the process in a realistic and workable environment with a clear understanding true costs and resource requirements, execute and implement the PPM process and embed a sustainable PPM model in their environment. Participants will have access to templates and checklists and will gain familiarity with their use through the sessions that reinforce the learning objectives. They will also have an opportunity to obtain a prerelease copy of Dr. Shan’s latest book Portfolio Management: Executive’s Roadmap to Innovate and Invest in Successful Projects.” Session 3: Benefits management Managing Complexity in the Strategy, Portfolio and Benefits Framework (with case examples using MSP 2010) Dependency management Risk management Resource management Sustaining and embedding Strategy, Portfolio and Benefits best practices Q&A Have you watched this webinar recording? Tell MPUG viewers what you think! [WPCR_INSERT]
Project Management Institute (PMI)® Professional Development Units (PDUs): This Webinar is eligible for 2 PMI® PDU in the Technical Category of the Talent Triangle. Watch session 3 Speakers: Dr. Shan Rajegopal and Rich Weller Pcubed Course Format and CreditThe course comprise of 3 sessions of 2 hours each. MPUG Certificate upon completion of series and opportunity for six hours PDU credit. Project Portfolio Management is about ensuring you have the correct mix of projects that are focused on taking the business where it has decided to go. It is about being able to respond quickly to changes in the environment, enabling the business to set the direction and then create a series of steps to get there. Delegates will learn what PPM is; build an effective process using best practices and software tools to support PPM deployment, kick start the process in a realistic and workable environment with a clear understanding true costs and resource requirements, execute and implement the PPM process and embed a sustainable PPM model in their environment. Participants will have access to templates and checklists and will gain familiarity with their use through the sessions that reinforce the learning objectives. They will also have an opportunity to obtain a prerelease copy of Dr. Shan’s latest book Portfolio Management: Executive’s Roadmap to Innovate and Invest in Successful Projects.” Session 2: Have you watched this webinar recording? Tell MPUG viewers what you think! [WPCR_INSERT]
Project Management Institute (PMI)® Professional Development Units (PDUs): This Webinar is eligible for 2 PMI® PDU in the Technical Category of the Talent Triangle. Watch session 2 Speakers: Dr. Shan Rajegopal and Rich Weller Pcubed Course Format and Credit The course comprise of 3 sessions of 2 hours each. MPUG Certificate upon completion of series and opportunity for six hours PDU credit. Project Portfolio Management is about ensuring you have the correct mix of projects that are focused on taking the business where it has decided to go. It is about being able to respond quickly to changes in the environment, enabling the business to set the direction and then create a series of steps to get there. Delegates will learn what PPM is; build an effective process using best practices and software tools to support PPM deployment, kick start the process in a realistic and workable environment with a clear understanding true costs and resource requirements, execute and implement the PPM process and embed a sustainable PPM model in their environment. Participants will have access to templates and checklists and will gain familiarity with their use through the sessions that reinforce the learning objectives. They will also have an opportunity to obtain a prerelease copy of Dr. Shan’s latest book Portfolio Management: Executive’s Roadmap to Innovate and Invest in Successful Projects.” Session 1 Outline: Aligning Strategy to Portfolio management process and its Value Proposition Strategy, Portfolio and Benefits Management Framework Triple constraint perspective exercise( where are you and where you see you are going) Developing Business Case to Sell Portfolio Management Internally Positioning and Scenario examples Deploying Strategy, Portfolio and Benefits Framework Practices Challenges and common reasons for failures Purpose of knowing the portfolio and benefits maturity assessment and what need to be done to close the gap Have you watched this webinar recording? Tell MPUG viewers what you think! [WPCR_INSERT]
Project Management Institute (PMI)® Professional Development Units (PDUs): This Webinar is eligible for 1 PMI® PDU in the Strategic Category of the Talent Triangle. Speakers: Dr. Shan Rajegopal and Rich Weller Pcubed Do you know the right way to approach and structure portfolio management? This session will show several examples of portfolio management, the right way to approach it, and the top 3 critical success factors. At the end of this 1 hour session attendees will have an understanding of how these portfolio engagements are best approached, the value they provide to the business and the basic vocabulary used. The Challenge Today’s economic challenge requires companies to rethink how they align their project investments to support their business strategy and optimize their return on investments. In addition, understanding the balance between investment risk versus executional risk through portfolio optimization helps organizations be better positioned to make the “right” investment or reallocation decisions. Course Overview Project Portfolio Management is about ensuring you have the correct mix of projects that are focused on taking the business where it has decided to go. It is about being able to respond quickly to identified changes in the environment, enabling the business to set the direction and then create a series of tactical steps to get there. This one hour session is a foundation course to provide an overview of what is project portfolio management, why do companies need to adopt the portfolio management process, who will be involved within a company and real case studies on benefits organizations gained in deploying project portfolio management process. Objectives Who Should Attend Business executives, sponsors, PMO staff, programme managers, project managers, resource managers, project team members, and all those who are responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of projects. Course Outline This session is an excellent introduction the Project Portfolio Management Certificate Series. Have you watched this webinar recording? Tell MPUG viewers what you think! [WPCR_INSERT]
Portfolio management experts Dr Shan Rajegopal and Rich Weller discuss the essential skills which every practitioner needs. What does it take to be a successful portfolio manager? For Pcubed experts Dr. Shan Rajegopal and Rich Weller, the best portfolio managers bring together a dynamic mix of experience, people skills, the discipline to implement the right processes, and a fundamental ability to deploy the best possible tools for the task in hand. Together the pair has nearly thirty years of experience as practitioners in portfolio management. Weller came to the discipline from an entrepreneurial background and had already built and sold a number of companies before joining Pcubed North America. Rajegopal has written a number of books on the subject, including Project Portfolio Management: Leading the Corporate Vision and worked with several leading global firms such as Jaguar Land-Rover, Deutsch Bank, Shell Upstream, and British Petroleum. “The most basic requirement for a successful portfolio manager is to have program and portfolio experience,” Rajegopal explains. “You have to have the ability to think in terms of change management, as a whole process. You need the ability to communicate well, and especially the ability to coach and mentor the people involved. You need to be thinking can we provide them with a template, how easy is this for people to use?” “Managing stakeholders is a key part of the skill-set. You need to be able to communicate effectively with major stakeholders you really need their buy in. You need to demonstrate credibility with your audience in the way you communicate and show how portfolio is a structured decision making process.” “There’s a huge amount of decision making involved in being a portfolio manager. All the ideas and demand that comes in have to be prioritized and optimized based on constraints. The portfolio manager needs to think through the criteria, and decide if its aligned to the overall strategy.” Likewise, for Rich Weller, the ability to keep the organizations strategic direction in the forefront of your mind is absolutely essential. “You have to know – where does that organization want to go? When it looks into the future, what does it want to have achieved?” “These strategic objectives shouldn’t just come from a financial perspective, but the business as a whole. Where are we trying to move to? What are we trying to do internally to grow ourselves and our people?” “We need to be able to ensure that as a portfolio manager I know about the potential projects coming in and I need to be able to assess each project against those objectives to ensure there is an alignment.” Achieving that strategic focus enables a good portfolio manager to make sure the governance board is armed with the right objectives to ensure investment decisions are made in support of the organizations wider strategy. “For example, if I was a portfolio manager at IBM we would have a whole bunch of potential projects coming in all over the place,” Weller continues. “People from all over the world are submitting their ideas. One of them could be to open a McDonalds franchise. Well we know McDonalds restaurants rarely fail, so its a good investment of money, but is it a good idea? No-obviously not: it’s not remotely in line with IBMs business strategy.” To help facilitate the best possible investment decisions, a good portfolio manager needs to be supported by a rock solid grasp of the processes involved. Firstly: the process of idea generation itself. “You need to make sure you capture all the new ideas and improvements which come in- knowing how to handle all that innovation and demand is an important part of being a portfolio manager,” says Rajegopal. “Then you need to use a framework to optimize the projects to ensure they’re all aligned with the organizations strategy.” “You really need to understand the concept of optimization. We use the analytical hierarchy process in calculating the strategic value of the projects and this process also ensure the projects are aligned to the business strategy. Other main areas of concern in portfolio are the need to identify risks and constraints- both budget and resources that affect your portfolio. We have found Interdependencies between projects are often overlooked by companies. The Interdependency identification is extremely important. For example, if you have three projects supporting a large program and one of those projects is cut, the program can’t be delivered.” Weller agrees that the ability to successfully optimize a portfolio in light of an organization’s strategic objectives is absolutely central. “You need to be able to take the list of projects and sequence them based on their strategic fit and given the current constraints in terms of dollars and resources,” he says. “There is always more work than we can achieve. We need to decide and sequence, put the projects in an order time-wise that is achievable – maybe we can only do a dozen this year, but then we could do another set next year.” “Finally I would say you need to keep your finger on the pulse of the portfolio- at any time I want to be able to see what stage the project is in. What is the health of the portfolio? I need visibility into how the different projects are performing.” It is this solid appreciation of the importance of benefits management which is another prerequisite for the job. “Once a project is being executed it is vitally important to track the benefits,” Rajegopal says. “It’s a key component of the feedback loop. Projects are agreed on and invested in to deliver the benefits an organization wants. A lot of organizations are challenged by this – they have a brilliant business case initially but then after that no one is following up on the value. If they don’t put the right metric in place to track the benefits- it’s actually a lost investment – you need to know what value is being delivered to make a decision on it.” Ease with the tools which enable clear visibility is the third piece of the jigsaw. Rajegopal says keeping track of the investment information should not be complicated – but “the problem is that it’s data driven. Many people just don’t think in that way, which leads them to shy away from taking ownership.” “What are the basic tools you need? On a basic level, you can use Excel. But now with Microsoft Project…the tool enables best practice. After years of development between developers and users, it can deal with very complicated situations -you can prioritize, optimize, create multiple scenarios, for example if you have a $200 million budget, you can demonstrate how the portfolio would be affected differently if you had to cut it by 10% or 20%, and show which projects would be forced out depending on the level of cut. You need to be competent with a good tool to be able to present different scenarios which have a powerful impact on an organizations senior executives.” And in terms of general character? There are just a few simple requirements… As Weller puts it: “Portfolio managers are made of the same kind of material as C level executives. You need people management skills – and an advanced understanding of financial data.” The sound judgment which is a fundamental attribute for a successful portfolio manager is summed up by what he describes as ‘that saying which has become old hat for people in the industry but is really a very important distinction:’ “Project management is about doing projects right. Portfolio management is about doing the right projects.”