Portfolio Management
The three goals of product portfolio management are:
- Maximize the value of the portfolio
- Seek balance in the portfolio
- Keep portfolio projects strategically aligned
PD-Trak™ provides a set of portfolio management tools to help achieve
these goals. With multiple business units, product lines or types of
development, we recommend a strategic allocation process based on the
business plan. The Master Project Schedule provides a summary of all
active as well as proposed projects and classifies them by status
(active, proposed, on-hold) and by business unit/product line to align
projects with the strategic allocation. The Master Project Schedule also
provides additional portfolio information to prioritize projects using
either a scorecard method or the development productivity index (DPI *).
In addition to this prioritization, PD-Trak provides a Risk-Reward
Bubble Chart and a Project Type Pie Chart to assure balance. A Product
or Technology Roadmap template is provided to help visualize platform
and technology relationships to assure critical project relationships
are not overlooked with this prioritization. This will allow management
to develop a balanced approach to selecting and continuing with the
appropriate mix of projects to satisfy the three goals.
Project Scoring Worksheet
Project scoring worksheets support gate reviews and portfolio
management. They provide a structured method for the management team to
rank projects according to a set of predefined, yet customizable,
criteria. Weighting factors can be set for each criteria. Unique
criteria can be established for each gate, and the specific gate scores
specified for roll-up to the Master Project Schedule. The following
image shows part of the project scoring table:
The evaluators enter their scores (1 to 10, where 10 is best) into
the yellow cells. The worksheet computes the average scores and applies
the weighting factors to compute the overall score. The maximum weighted
score for a project is 100.
Master Project Schedule
Information related to portfolio management is grouped under the
heading Portfolio Information. The results of the project scoring tables
are automatically imported into the Master Project Schedule. When first
opened, the MPS shows only the summary scores for each project:
The detail scores by category can be shown by clicking on the Show
Scoring Detail button:
The sorting functions for the Master Project Schedule allow the
projects to be sorted by Score or Development Productivity Index *.
These sorting methods are an effective way of creating a prioritized
project portfolio. Other sorting methods are provided in the Report
Controls.
Portfolio Bubble Chart
This chart provides a graphical view of various project
metrics/characteristics such as portfolio risk-reward. It is used to
assure balance in the portfolio of projects (e.g., neither too risky or
conservative and appropriate levels of reward for the risk involved) or
provide a breakdown of the project portfolio with different
characteristics.
The report controls allow different factors to be selected for
graphing on the X and Y axis. The size of the bubble can represent a
third factor or characteristic. Projects can be selected or deselected
for inclusion on this graph allowing representation of project subsets
such as a particular product line or types of projects such as only
active and proposed projects.
* Development Productivity Index = (Net Present Value x Probability
of Success) / Development Cost Remaining
For further information, please contact us
.