How can you successfully review your portfolio to maximize the value of your projects?

Many companies, particularly large-scale ones, find themselves juggling numerous separate projects on a daily basis. This calls for a solid project portfolio management (PPM) process.

PPM involves numerous operations for the employees concerned, starting with the arbitration of priorities and the monitoring of ongoing projects, with a view to aligning them with the company's overall strategy.

To do this, they can't do without the ritual we'll be taking a closer look at in this article: the portfolio review.

Find out what it's all about, the steps involved, and the software you need to make it a success.

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What is a project portfolio review?

Portfolio review: definition

The portfolio review is an essential part of portfolio management, designed to assess the various projects deployed within the organization in terms of their

• their consistency with the company's strategic objectives;
• their performance (in terms of costs, deadlines, quality, customer satisfaction, etc.);
• identification of potential risks;
• prioritization of projects to identify those that will generate the most value;
• reallocation of resources;
• ensure consistency between projects.

The portfolio review generally takes the form of a meeting bringing together various stakeholders, for example :

• the PMO (Project Management Officer), if the company has one ;
• the Executive Committee,
• project managers,
• external parties, such as investors, etc.

Together, they examine various evaluation criteria during this interview, with the aim of making the best decisions in line with the company's vision.

🤝 The portfolio review thus fosters transparent communication between all the players involved, a sine qua non for moving in the same direction.

How does it differ from a project review?

Portfolio reviews differ from project reviews. While the former aims for a broader scope, the latter focuses on a single project.

As a result, there are clear differences in :

• 📆 frequency: as a general rule, project reviews are held more regularly than portfolio reviews;
• 🙋 participants : while the former welcome stakeholders specific to a given project, the latter integrate other stakeholders, starting with members of Management.

How to conduct a project portfolio review? The 4 main steps

Are you responsible for managing and facilitating your company's portfolio reviews? Whether you're a PMO or not, here are the steps you absolutely must follow 👉.

Step 1: Prepare the portfolio review

Define the objectives

Before the portfolio review itself, a few preparations need to be made.

To begin with, clarify the objectives of the meeting in advance to avoid everyone scattering on the big day.

Is it to :

• evaluate the performance of a sample of projects?
• arbitrate on current projects and new ideas to redefine priorities?
• See how to make savings in the face of financial difficulties? Etc.

Select projects for review

Depending on the size of the organization, there are many projects to examine during the portfolio review. It's not easy to go through them all with a fine-tooth comb!

So you need to select which ones to analyze, based on the previously defined objectives.

Gather data

Finally, before the review, gather all the useful documentation to enable everyone to work from reliable data.

📚 Project managers have homework to do for the occasion. In fact, they need to gather all the metrics required for decision-making (on costs, resources, performance, etc.), and render them visually as required via dashboards and other customized reports.

Step 2: Evaluate selected projects

In this stage of the portfolio review, projects are evaluated in conjunction with stakeholders on the basis of the figures provided, across a range of aspects, starting with their alignment with strategy.

They are also examined in terms of :

• Risks: there are many possible risks hanging over a given project (financial, resource, quality risks, etc.). The portfolio review helps to detect them as early as possible, and then rapidly implement the necessary corrective actions.
  
  
• ROI: in the business world, decisions are often driven by the expected return on investment of various operations. In the context of the review, it's a question of prioritizing the most profitable projects, as long as they enable us to achieve the objectives previously set.
  
  
• Compliance. For example, compliance with legal requirements (security, confidentiality, etc.), quality standards and internal procedures.
  
  
• Progress. This is more operational in nature, but it is vital to ensure that all projects are progressing correctly, and to avoid delays. As with risk assessment, this work is used to take the necessary steps to remedy any difficulties, such as allocating more resources, more budgets, reorganizing processes, etc.

Step 3: Prioritize projects

Once the projects have been assessed one by one, it's time to rank them according to their relevance.

💡 We recommend that you use the scoring method, which involves assigning a score to the various projects based on predefined criteria.

Once this prioritization has been carried out, your aim is to do everything in your power to ensure that key projects are completed under the best possible conditions, and of course on time. This often means making adjustments to resource allocation or budget, for example.

Step 4: Set up an action plan

Between the risks identified and the priorities to be reviewed, the portfolio review inevitably leads to decisions and corrective actions designed to guarantee the portfolio's performance.

Of course, everything has to be planned, with deadlines and responsibilities, to ensure that the planned improvements are implemented on time.

☝️ In some cases, the meeting may simply result in the suspension or even termination of certain projects, if they are not considered sufficiently strategic for the organization.

Finally, it's important to keep a close eye on the implementation of all scheduled actions, because if things get stuck, adjustments can always be made.

Best practices in portfolio review

Now that you know the essential steps for carrying out a portfolio review, here are a few bonus best practices to know if you want to become an ace at it 🚀.

• Hold your portfolio reviews regularly, as often as necessary depending on the complexity of your organization. While some experts recommend once a quarter, don't hesitate to be more regular.
  
  
• Make every effort to encourage transparent communication during meetings. It's really important that project managers feel free to point out problems, even if this involves significant consequences.
  
  
• Be prepared to adjust the portfolio as new information, opportunities and challenges arise, even if it means taking painful initiatives, such as stopping certain projects.
  
  
• Identify recurring trends or problems over time. You'll learn valuable lessons that will help you improve portfolio management over the long term.
  
  
• Keep a written record of the decisions taken and the context associated with each portfolio review. This will make follow-up work much easier.
  
  
• Regularly evaluate the portfolio review process itself. As with your projects, there is always room for improvement!

Portfolio review tools

The most commonly used tools

As the person in charge of portfolio review, it's important to surround yourself with the right tools, those that prove useful for analysis as well as decision-making.

These include

• the dashboard, perfect for easily understanding, at a glance, the various key indicators (on resources, budget, progress, etc.) ;
• capacity planning, indispensable when it comes to allocating the right resources (with the right skills) to the right projects, while avoiding costly over-staffing or under-staffing, which is a real pain for the teams involved;
• the prioritization matrix, a simple little table that helps PMOs classify and prioritize projects according to their urgency and impact on the business;
• the Gantt chart, which provides visibility on the planning of each project in the portfolio, helping to ensure that deadlines are met and operations run smoothly.

Specialized software

What if we told you that there was software out there capable of bringing all the above-mentioned tools - and many more besides - together in a single interface?

We're talking about PPM solutions, or project portfolio management software. They give you :

• have a centralized, consolidated view of your data on all your projects, which simplifies arbitration during reviews;
• compare projects with each other in just a few clicks, using predefined criteria;
• benefit from advanced resource management functionalities;
• model different scenarios to assess the impact of potential changes in the portfolio;
• manage dependencies between projects to avoid resource conflicts and other delays;
• consolidate all project and review documentation.

🛠️ Software example:

Triskell is a PPM that will perfectly support you in managing your portfolio reviews. Integrated into the company's strategic management system, it offers a wide range of functions. It gives you an overview of your various projects in progress, and enables you to efficiently handle all associated actions (resource allocation, budget calculation, etc.). But this software is also a powerful arbitration tool, as evidenced by its scenario simulation functionality, handy for prioritizing the right projects. With Triskell, the headaches of project reviews are a thing of the past. You'll be more efficient and, above all, more reliable in your decision-making.

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What's in a portfolio review?

If your company is working on several projects at the same time, it's impossible not to have a portfolio review, one of the challenges of which is to compare the different projects with a view to reviewing priorities. And for good reason: it's best to make judicious choices, so as to focus your resources and efforts on those that promise the best ROI, but also, and above all, perfect alignment with your company's objectives!

On paper, however, this can be a daunting task, all the more so as you need good visibility across the entire portfolio, but you also need to work with accurate, up-to-date data in real time. How else can you be sure of making the right decisions?

That's where the PPM comes in, as the PMO can rely on it to support the review's decision-making, and guarantee the portfolio's performance.