The changing face of portfolio management

How it works

This is an emerging field, so there is no single methodology yet that is widely used worldwide. I’m guessing that over the next few years we’ll see a common set of principles, terminology and approaches as well as a variety of tools become available, just as we saw happen with program management. As an example, here is Prosci’s Change Portfolio Management Process. This is a holistic process that reports on project management capability as well as change management capability as key success factors in change health.

Stage 1: Identify. Scope the portfolio analysis: the entire organisation, a department, division, region or a type/source of change. Identify project and non-project change in the organisation to produce a schematic of organisational groups to enable mapping of changes to impacted groups.

Stage 2: Investigate. Collection of a common set of data for each and every change in the portfolio and mapping how each group is impacted by each of the changes in the portfolio.

Stage 3: Analyse. Analysis of data from the Investigate phase to capture the positioning and risk of the change portfolio in a change portfolio dashboard.

Stage 4: Act. Risks to projects, groups, points in time and the organisation are identified and presented to key business leaders. Conclusions and decisions on how to adjust the portfolio are made based on the information provided.

Stage 5: Monitor, Manage and Control. The organisation uses the portfolio perspective to manage ongoing change efforts. As changes are introduced, the impact on the overall portfolio is evaluated. As changes exit the portfolio, analysis on the outcomes and lessons learnt is conducted.

I believe that there’s a tremendous opportunity for project managers to be the catalysts and leaders in this new field, given their expertise in building program management capability. In some early adopter organisations, the PMO has been reborn into a change management office, led by a CMO director who is a member of the executive team. Project managers and change managers are located in the CMO and work across both business-as-usual and ‘project’ change.

Already, project managers worldwide are building their change management capability through on-the-job involvement and formal training and accreditation. AIPM has now endorsed change management programs for the professional development of its members. Change is changing, and project managers and change managers have a great opportunity to partner with leaders of organisations to deliver successful change.