Take a moment in your busy schedule and quick browsing, and look at the following picture for a few seconds!

Can you tell what’s wrong with this approach?

An illustration of a person putting the cart before the horse.

Of course, you can easily spot the problem.

One doesn’t put the cart before the horse or a bullock, rather puts the horse before the cart.

In the world of management, too, doing only project or program management (or for that matter operational management), doesn’t move an organization forward, if you don’t have portfolio management in place! It’s exactly like putting the cart before the horse. Without portfolio management, an organization can try very hard to be successful, but most of time it’ll be futile.

Why?

Because, as I wrote recently in an article on Building A Portfolio Roadmap with MS Project,

“It’s Portfolio that decides which component Projects and Programs should take and which ones to drop. At the portfolio level, you not only authorize the components but also can deactivate or even terminate a component. Most important of all, it’s Portfolio which directly links the organizational strategy to a prioritized set of programs, projects, and operations. Portfolio is completely strategic in nature, whereas programs and projects are typically tactical. This is because, with portfolios, an organization achieves its strategic goals and objectives, which are outlined in the organization’s strategic plan.”

The strategic plan of an organization not only has the strategic goals and objectives but also clearly informs the vision and mission of the organization. While vision tells the future state of the organization, mission describes the purpose. And as we know, it’s portfolio that links programs and projects with the organization’s vision, mission, and strategic goals.

Simply put, project and program management are the execution part, but portfolio management is the strategic part. The cart driver (strategic) doesn’t put the horse before the cart (execution work).

Welcome to the world of portfolio management and the associated, well-known certification of Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI). It’s the highest-level certification offered by PMI and is considered to be highly valuable if you want to be in the driver’s seat of an organization. Indeed, there are very few PfMPs worldwide, as the snippet from PMI shows. It’s as of August 31, 2023.

PMI Fact File with the number of global PfMP's highlighted, showing that there were 1,538 PfMPs worldwide as of August 31, 2023.

In my upcoming webinar, we will discuss the following regarding this value and truly elite certification of PfMP:

Why should you pursue PfMP?
What’s the value of PfMP as you grow in your career?
PfMP Exam Domains
PfMP Exam Content Outline (ECO)
Five Must-Dos to be a PMI-PfMP

Without portfolio management and still trying to do the execution part with project, program and/or operation management, you can’t just move properly!

In this webinar, you will not only know the value of PfMP certification, but more specifically the top five things or must-knows/dos to be a PMI-PfMP.

Hope to meet you at this unique event.

Register now! 5 “Must Dos” (or must knows) to be a Portfolio Management Professional (PMI-PfMP)