The 5 Cornerstones of Effective Portfolio Management in Agile Transformation

Streamline your project portfolio for agile success with these five core practices: visioning, simplifying intake, prioritizing with purpose, valuing agility, and transparent sequencing. These steps ensure sustainable transformation and maximized ROI.

1. Visioning Large-Scale Change
   Successful portfolio management begins with large-scale visioning. Establish clear, top-line enterprise goals to guide team efforts. With this strategic direction, efforts remain small-scale, and the full benefits of agile are attainable. A strong vision aligns all projects with the company’s mission, ensuring efforts are not just busy work but progress towards a common goal.
2. Simplifying Intake Processes
   Streamline the request intake process to avoid project backlogs. Move away from the traditional approach of creating detailed business cases upfront, which are time-consuming and often need to be updated rapidly due to changing business demands. Instead, opt for a minimalistic, one-page request form that captures essential information and enables quick analysis.
3. Prioritizing with PACE
   Employ the PACE (Priority, Action, Consider, Eliminate) technique to manage your project portfolio. This method assists in aligning projects with business value and technical feasibility. It facilitates the tough decisions of what not to undertake and focuses resources on projects that promise the highest returns.
4. Valuing Agility in Business Cases
   Regularly assess your project backlog to ensure all initiatives are current and necessary. Discard any business case that hasn’t commenced within a reasonable timeframe and re-evaluate outdated assumptions. In the fast-paced business environment, a business case’s shelf life is as crucial as its initial approval.
5. Transparent Sequencing and Dependencies
   After setting the portfolio, transparent sequencing is crucial. Discuss and understand dependencies across products to create an enterprise portfolio backlog. This prioritization ensures that teams are clear on what needs to be executed first, thus enabling a more agile and responsive strategy execution.

Let’s talk.
Your insights are invaluable to me. Join the conversation and share your agile journey. What worked? What didn’t? Your feedback fuels our collective growth.