Large organizations cannot afford to treat their projects as isolated efforts. With dozens or even hundreds of projects underway at any given time, a strategic approach to portfolio management is the only way to avoid duplicated efforts, conflicting agendas and problems with resource allocation.
Despite the obvious importance of portfolio management, many companies have difficulty implementing an effective strategy to align their project portfolios with their strategic goals and to manage their portfolios in the long term. The challenges are especially significant for rapidly growing companies, whose leadership teams may not have experience dealing with large-scale portfolios and high numbers of simultaneous projects.
As project and portfolio management continues to gain visibility in organizations of all sizes, many companies have begun to offer project portfolio management as a professional service. These firms typically employ highly successful project and portfolio managers, who partner with client organizations to develop and implement a long-term portfolio management strategy.
While they typically come with a hefty price tag, the benefits of portfolio management services outweigh the costs for many organizations. Let’s take a closer look at some of the reasons your organization might want to consider bringing in an outside expert to help overcome your portfolio management challenges.
Ensuring a Strong Foundation for Portfolio Management
If your organization has not taken an active approach to portfolio management until now, your leadership team may not have the right skill sets or experience to create a successful strategy on their own. Consultants who specialize in portfolio management can help your executives and PMO team make sense of your ongoing and planned projects and organize them into logical groups. In many cases, someone from outside the organization will be able to bring fresh insight and identify connections and opportunities that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.
It’s important to remember that hiring a firm to provide project portfolio management services doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re signing on for years of high-priced consulting. You may find that you only need outside assistance in identifying your needs and drafting a strategy, after which your internal team will be able to take the reins.
Identifying Hidden Risks
Risk management has become one of the most visible aspects of project management in recent years. As important as it may be at the project level, identifying and tracking risks is even more essential at the portfolio level. A portfolio management services provider can draw on past experiences with other organizations to help you pinpoint the factors that might send your company-wide endeavors off track.
Maximizing Your Investment in Technology
Enterprise portfolio management is almost impossible without a sophisticated project and portfolio management solution like Planview AdaptiveWork. No matter how user-friendly your PM solution might be, bringing in a professional services team when you implement or upgrade your portfolio management software can give you peace of mind that you’re making the best possible use of your technological capabilities.
