The most exciting project conversations take place in … kitchen.

Early in the morning, when the catfish are still asleep, the young fry enters the kitchen searching for life-giving coffee. “Why have we postponed the start of project x again?” you can hear the still languid comments on past events. “The implementation of project y is unrealistic. After all, the new workstation won’t fit on the assembly line”!

After a while, the caffeine enters the bloodstream. The blood pressure rises, and the young fish, unable to stand still, swim away into the bushes nearby.

Their place is taken by slightly more prominent and more experienced catfish and perch. The ceramic grinder starts to turn again, and a moment later, the aroma of brewing coffee spreads through the kitchen. The discussion continues. “I don’t understand what criteria we use to select our projects”! “I don’t have enough resources to assign them to new projects without delaying the current ones”.
As the cups’ bottoms are drained, the activation energy is reached, and the individuals drift off in their own direction.

Around midday, the first whales and cetaceans roll through the kitchen. Their thunderous laughter and loud conversations seem to be the result of a good mood. There is a good reason for this; the project review that has just been completed has revealed some shortcomings here and there, but solutions were quickly found. As those who are always right say, every problem has a name. So just assign another name to the project, and that’s that!

The good mood of the big fish began to spread to the other members of the bay. At first, the fry started to laugh shyly and subtly. Then catfish and perches joined in, and after a while, the whole room filled with salvos of wild laughter. The fry is laughing because they do not see the sense of their actions. Catfish and perch laugh at their hopeless situation because, despite sharing the fry’s opinion, they have to make the unreal real. Whales and cetaceans also laugh, looking forward to a success that will never happen.

Does this sound familiar? If despite the reality, the project objectives have “strangely” not been met again, it is high time to think about implementing project portfolio management.

Why?

1. To maintain a balanced and strategically aligned portfolio in the context of changing conditions [fn]APM, Body of Knowledge, https://www.apm.org.uk/body-of-knowledge/, access: 26.07.2018[/fn].Balanced does not mean that we work 300 hours in the month following a holiday to balance the hours. On the other hand, strategically aligned does not mean that projects have to support the team leader’s strategy to be promoted as the boss of all bosses.
2. To improve the delivery of projects and programme through a wide view of risk, dependencies and scheduling reflecting available capacity [fn]APM, Body of Knowledge, https://www.apm.org.uk/body-of-knowledge/, access: 26.07.2018[/fn].That is, by exploiting synergies during project delivery and shifting the focus from doing the right things to doing the right things.
3. To reduce costs by removing overlapping, poorly performing, and non-strategically aligned projects and programmes [fn]APM, Body of Knowledge, https://www.apm.org.uk/body-of-knowledge/, access: 26.07.2018[/fn].This means ruthlessly deleting all projects that do not support the company’s strategic goals or do not promise success – no matter how much money we have already sunk into them.
4. For more efficient and effective use of limited resources, by matching demand and supply, and optimising the allocation of available resources [fn]APM, Body of Knowledge, https://www.apm.org.uk/body-of-knowledge/, access: 26.07.2018[/fn].Documenting what has been done, is being done and will be done, or not done is an essential task for educational purposes, as case studies of project failures. However, it does not bring the team one step closer to achieving the project goals.
5. To increase realisation of forecast benefits and the identification and realisation of unexpected benefits to create additional value [fn]APM, Body of Knowledge, https://www.apm.org.uk/body-of-knowledge/, access: 26.07.2018[/fn].Because “the ultimate goal of the project is to provide business value”. A great project that does not provide business value is like a Bugatti Chiron without an engine. It looks nice, but you won’t get far with it.

So what is this project portfolio management?

Project portfolio management is the selection, prioritization and control of an organization’s projects and programs in line with its strategic objectives and capacity to deliver [fn]APM, Body of Knowledge, https://www.apm.org.uk/body-of-knowledge/, access: 26.07.2018[/fn].