¿Cómo puede tomar mejores decisiones de cartera?

Each organization may vary in terms of criteria and the weighting of these criteria, but every organization should keep two points in mind: 1ª - A clear understanding of the organization's strategy and the alignment of OKRs and KPIs. This is an input for defining the correct weights, a clear understanding of all areas on a global scale, and the proper design of the 5-year plan. 2ª - Involvement of Key Stakeholders/Sr. Managers in defining the criteria and balancing the weights based on a mutually agreed common sense across all areas, with a focus on the organization's strategy.

Don't let a scoring system cloud your judgement. In the end, portfolio management is as much art as it is science. Start with an objective scoring system to help you begin to separate the signal from the noise. After that, its got be a judgement call using an entrepreneurs mindset and weighing more than just the "hard facts" of investment and return. Sometimes a key stakeholder needs their project to be one in the mix; sometimes a gut call to take a chance on the one that looks like a risk; and yes ... sometimes something that looks like a waste just has to be done.

To get the greatest value from your portfolio, you first need to understand what value means to your company. Defining your criteria and value drivers via a value framework gives you a robust model to inform decision making, and ensures portfolios are delivering the results you’re aiming for. It gives you the ability to define, communicate, and evolve the elements of your value framework so that all stakeholders understand the rationale behind each decision, and everyone can align investment decisions with business strategy.

💡In my experience, defining clear criteria is crucial for effective project portfolio management. 🎯Strategic Alignment Ensure each project aligns with overarching organizational goals, facilitating coherent progress. 🛠️Capability Assessment Evaluate if your team has the necessary skills and resources to execute the projects successfully. ⚖️Risk and Reward Balance Analyze the potential risks and rewards, ensuring a balanced portfolio that aligns with your risk appetite. 🔄Resource Availability Consider current and future resource availability, ensuring a realistic and achievable portfolio. 📌Concluding, a well-defined set of criteria is essential for objective decision-making in project portfolio management.

Making informed portfolio decisions is crucial for aligning with organizational goals and maximizing stakeholder value. Four key steps include defining selection criteria that align with strategic objectives, using a scoring model to evaluate potential benefits, costs, and risks objectively, involving stakeholders for comprehensive input, and regularly reviewing and adjusting portfolio decisions based on project performance. These steps ensure optimized portfolio performance, better alignment with organizational objectives, and enhanced value delivery. Continuous feedback can further improve decision-making.

Define the scoring criteria, which should reflect strategic alignment, expected benefits, risks, and constraints. Assign a weight to each criterion based on its importance. Develop a way of assessing a low, medium, or high score for each criterion in the model. Calculate the final score for each project based on the scoring model. Rank the projects based on their scores and select the ones that align with the strategic goals of the business and maximize the value of the portfolio. Continually evaluate the performance of the projects in the portfolio and adjust the scoring model as needed.

💡 You should also consider the dynamic aspects of scoring models in portfolio management. 🔍 Customization of Scoring Criteria Tailoring the scoring model to reflect specific project or investment characteristics ensures a more accurate evaluation. 📊 Weighting Factors Assigning different weights to criteria based on strategic importance or risk can significantly alter the portfolio's risk-return profile. 🔄 Iterative Refinement Regular updates to the model in response to changing market conditions or strategic shifts are crucial for maintaining its relevance and accuracy. 📌 A scoring model is not just a static tool but a dynamic framework that requires ongoing attention and adjustment for effective portfolio management.

Use scoring ‘systems’ to keep auditors and micro-managers happy. These are tools that are helpful more for optics of why certain decisions have been made and may be helpful for painting a picture. These do however just open the door for debating the merits of the criteria used - and in complex environments with many competing stakeholders (with strong opinions) you will spend more time justifying the parameters than actually doing the work! Use business cases, benefit matrices and good strategy maps to drive portfolio selection decisions and speak to senior leadership KRAs

The best way to avoid the political play and the art of selling in project portfolio management is to use AHP. You could do it manually in Excel but a dedicated tool is fairly more effective. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a powerful decision-making tool used in project prioritization. It enables project managers to systematically evaluate and rank alternatives based on multiple criteria. AHP breaks down complex decisions into a hierarchical structure, allowing stakeholders to compare and weigh various factors according to their importance. By assigning numerical values to subjective judgments, AHP provides a structured framework for decision-making. It fosters consensus among stakeholders by showcasing how decisions are reached.

I recommend taking a look at AHP as a solution for scoring projects. Through deconstructing complex solutions into scoreable criteria you can integrate subjective insight (which is critical) without having to let 'gut instinct' prevail (not the most scalable approach...)

Effective communication is required to get the valuable insights of stakeholders in your project portfolio management. The decision you make will cut across your organization and different stakeholders, it is important to solicit their feedback as it might be of great help in providing you deeper insights.

Create a senior cross-functional management forum (evaluation and recommendation) and an executive forum (decision-making). This ensures management are involved, have a voice and have ‘skin in the game’ to see through delivery of the prioritised initiatives - and responsibility to be aware of the company-wide view of initiatives so can be encouraged to adopt the broader organisation vs siloed functional view when it comes to committing staffing, physical resources etc. Also provides opportunity for emerging leaders to have a seat at a cross-functional table - so good for talent development.

Before starting a project or at the beginning of each fiscal or natural year, it is significant to review Project Charter, which includes vision , budget, design, scope and objectives in order yo identify and manage stakeholders expectations , it s crucial report operative and financial progress each month. In agiles portfolios, daily ceremonies are great to review progress. Meet with customer to discuss feedback at the end of each sprint ( 2 weeks) and the same way report operative and financial progress each month. Invite the team to join a Lessons Learned session periodically.

Analyze stakeholder engagement strategies to ensure that stakeholders are involved in the portfolio management process. This is one of the most important - keep your stakeholders informed and engaged.

Being agile and engaging a cross functional management forum for decision to the review and adjustment process will enable better informed and aligned decision making

Continuously optimising your portfolio is essential as plans change, new priorities emerge, and the uncertainty of the future takes hold. Having the agility and flexibility to amend your portfolio allows you to save costs, manage risk, and reduce resource wastage, and ensures you can keep making the right decisions at the right time.

Continuously collect and analyze lessons learned from past projects. Use this information to inform future portfolio decisions and improve decision-making processes. Be open to learning and iteration. No decision-making process is perfect, so aim to continually improve your portfolio management practices.

Use a scoring model: Use a scoring model to quantify the benefits, costs, and risks of each option and calculate their expected value and return on investment

Review and adjust by being proactive as much as possible. Also, leveraging automation for metrics monitoring and customers (stakeholders, team members) sentiment.

An important thing is to understand in which context, sector, industry your portfolio is inserted. There is no one-size-fits-all model. For example: using the SAFe framework to manage industrial engineering projects in industry will be a disaster. We need to understand the context and then use the correct tools.

As mentioned above, a weighted scoring system is great for evaluating your portfolio. I would only add that you should ensure the process is collaborative with your stakeholders, from defining the criteria to evaluating projects. This way, there will be more buy-in and it will reduce tension when projects do not make the cut. A data-driven scoring system is excellent for steering you in the right direction. However, it is worth having a panel to review in a time-boxed session to fine-tune and make any necessary adjustments. Finally, create a cadence for when the portfolio is reviewed. Annual planning is too far apart, and monthly is probably too soon. Every quarter or half-year could work

Often overlooked in initial models: ways to include the cost estimate for not doing the work. For example a large fee for non-compliance or the risk of legal liability might make something a must do even without standard CBA revenue increases or cost savings.

Don’t forget that as well as evaluating each project individually, you need to assess the portfolio as a whole and how everything fits together. Are there dependencies that could affect prioritisation? Is there too much emphasis on one area and not enough in another?

By reviewing and adjusting the portfolio, project portfolio managers can ensure that the portfolio aligns with strategic goals, stakeholders are informed and engaged, and the portfolio delivers the expected outcomes.