PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT: MAKING THE MOST OF LIMITED RESOURCES

1. PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT:
WhitePaper
M AKING THE M OST OF L IMITED R ESOURCES
As state and local government officials feel the may be coming into the portfolio that provides
pinch of budget cuts and increased demand greater value to the enterprise. In this way,
for service, they have begun looking for ways officials can compare and contrast projects
to make better and more informed investment to determine not only individual project per-
decisions. formance, but also link overall benefit to the
organization according to predetermined val-
One method for making the most of lim- ues and business objectives.
ited resources is portfolio management, an
increasingly popular process that allows orga- Portfolio management is actually an exten-
nizations to roll their various projects up into sion of project management methodology but
a portfolio. There is a holistic way to approach is very different in its practice and conclu-
these initiatives in the strategic context of the sions. Current project management pursuits
organization’s mission and goals with visibility are cost-based, work at prioritizing project
over all competing initiatives. The question is, schedules, manage risks across the project,
“What does it mean to manage with a strate- manage scope, and attempt to answer the
gic portfolio perspective?” The first step is to question: Are we doing things right?
gain a total view of all assets and initiatives
across the enterprise and seek a purposeful Portfolio management, by contrast, is invest-
prioritization and balance among them. This ment-based, focuses on scheduling priority
has been termed “taking a portfolio view” of projects, and answers the question: Are we
the business. The concept has actually been doing the right things? The notion of “doing
refined into a disciplined portfolio manage- the right things” reflects the strategic align-
ment process. ment with the mission and goals. Projects
need to be judged against how they meet the
Portfolio management gives decision mak- organizational goals and how they compare
ers visibility into their organization because to each other. Portfolio management helps
a portfolio of projects allows for compari-
sons. The operative concept is “comparison.”
Instead of seeing only individual projects The question is, “What does
meeting cost and schedule goals on their own
it mean to manage with a Solution used:
separate tracks, the tracks can be compared.
This means that a project may be performing
strategic portfolio perspective?”
adequately in its own right, but something else

2. ensure that organizations get the most value its life cycle to have strong upper management support
from the projects they invest in because the discover and eliminate duplicate and involvement.
projects;
selection process helped to align them in
recognize earlier in the process
the first place. In short, portfolio manage- To begin the portfolio management process,
those projects destined to come in
ment offers an organized and effective way the following steps are required:
over budget or schedule.
to select and prioritize which projects to pur-
Take an inventory–Government
sue—rather than simply choosing according In the end, operational excellence is achieved
officials need to develop an
to emotion, the same way of doing business, as organizations pursue and devote resources inven-tory of projects; this
effort alone will help decision
or guesswork. to only those projects offering high-qual-
makers discover redundancies
ity, reliable, and predictable outcomes. Once and start the discernment of
Portfolio management is a facilitated pro- these projects are selected, they become part what is important.
cess that leads to a structured, repeatable of the portfolio and are monitored and evalu- Create Selection Criteria–The
objectives defined in the strate-
approach. Through this process, Robbins- ated throughout their life cycles, allowing deci-
gic plan will form the
Gioia works with executive leaders to define sion makers to see how investments can be basis for creating weighted
selection criteria. Some objec-
what they think is important and determine maintained, reprioritized, or even eliminated.
tives will have more value to
what decisions they want to make. A selection an organization than others.
process cannot be created without the active TAKING A CTION Robbins-Gioia will work with
decision makers to develop
involvement upfront of people with authority to Technically, portfolio management is defined
agreement on which criteria
make decisions about what they value most. as the dynamic decision process of assessing are more important. Once
These values lead to the construction of the value and allocating resources to meet key
the agreed-upon selection
criteria are in place, projects
selection criteria. The portfolio management business objectives in which an enterprise are scored against them. The
process forces executives to decide first analyzes and competitively selects investment resulting project scores are
used to rank projects.
which values and objectives are most impor- initiatives, controls the resulting investments
Validate the Project Portfolio–
tant to the organization and then align those throughout their life cycles, and constantly
Robbins-Gioia provides score-
priorities with appropriate investments. evaluates their effectiveness in meeting stra- cards that rate existing and
tegic objectives.
As a result, state and local government offi- In short, portfolio
cials can optimize the balance of their invest- Portfolios can be set up any number of
ments across business functions and accord- ways, including by project type, division, or
management offers an
ing to risk levels, short-term versus long-term geographic region or even across the entire
organized and effective
needs, innovations, and project life cycles. enterprise. It is a methodology that can fit in
Portfolio management offers state and local anywhere. way to select and prioritize
government officials—especially those deal-
which projects to pursue—
ing with budget shortfalls—a number of other By the same token, portfolio management is
benefits as well. It enables them to: a cyclical process. As such, the methodology rather than simply choosing
can be implemented whether an organization
focus limited resources on projects according to emotion, the
has yet to begin planning projects or has
that further the organization’s most
important goals more than a thousand underway. It does not same way of doing business,
keep close tabs on a project’s matter when you start, but one fact remains
effectiveness and value throughout or guesswork.
constant: The key to success at any stage is

3. new projects and then rank
them so that they can be The keys to success
presented in investor maps.
Investor maps enable decision are senior management
makers to quickly see where
projects fall in terms of risk, commitment, consensus,
return, “go live” date, cost,
schedule, or geographic region,
and the ability and
function, or division. This is
especially powerful because
decision makers can test “what
willingness to define and
if” scenarios to determine the
possible impact of reallocating communicate strategic
funds on a periodic basis.
objectives.
As an organization becomes ready to perform
its first portfolio analysis, it should begin by
mapping each of the investments to each or new, more effective projects enter into the
of the weighted objectives. In doing this, portfolio.
an organization might conclude that certain
projects meet its immediate business needs C ONCLUSION
while others do not. Some may provide too Portfolio management is a process that uses
little business value; some may be too risky, simple management techniques to bring order
expensive, or time-consuming; and some may to the investment selection process. Just as
be redundant or depend too much on another an investor would look over a stock portfolio
project. for balance, risk, and long-term value, so
too can an organization assess and manage
Now that the data has been turned into real, a portfolio of projects to effectively allo-
usable information, the organization needs cate resources and optimize business value
to enter the manage, control, and evaluate against one or more key objectives.
phase. At this point, Robbins-Gioia in conjunc-
tion with executives will recommend corrective The keys to success are senior management
actions, such as go/kill, no-go, or resource commitment, consensus, and the ability and
reallocation decisions, and begin implement- willingness to define and communicate stra-
ing project management discipline for those tegic objectives. As state and local govern-
projects going forward. Projects that have ments implement portfolio management with
been selected through the portfolio manage- senior management support, they will realize
ment process have the best chance at suc- tremendous benefits in delivery of projects
ceeding and providing value to the business. to citizens, despite limited budgets. The cost
of failure is too high to attempt a lesser
Although this first iteration has been complet- approach.
ed, the portfolio management process never
stops. Projects must continue to be screened
against KBOs and tweaked and refined over
time, as projects can lose their overall value

4. Corporate Headquarters
11 Canal Center Plaza
Headquarters
Alexandria, VA 22314
11 Canal Center Plaza
Robbins-Gioia has been dedicated to delivering management
t:Alexandria, VA 22314
800.663.7138
f: t: 800.663.7138
703.684.5189
f: 703.684.5189
solutions to government agencies and Fortune 500 companies
Canadian Headquarters
Anniston
180 Elgin Street
608 Noble Street
Suite 1402 36201
Anniston, AL since 1980. We help our global customers optimize their
256.235.2827
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K2P-2K3
Charlotte
t:201 South Tryon Street
613.236.3773
f: Suite 1050
613.236.5584
business processes, accelerate change, and establish time,
Charlotte, NC 28202
704.714.6200
Dayton
cost, and quality improvements to transform their businesses.
1360 Technology Court
Suite 200
Beavercreek, OH 45430
937.426.8081
Detroit
26555 Evergreen Road Selected Past & Current Clients
Suite 1115
Southfield, MI 48076 COMMERCIAL CIVIL AGENCIES
248.359.7800 AOL Department of Agriculture
American Red Cross Department of Commerce
Huntsville AT&T Department of Homeland Security
555 Sparkman Drive Avaya Customs & Border Protection
Bldg 1200, Suite 1202 AXA Financial Federal Emergency Management Agency
Huntsville, AL 35816 Bank of America Secure Border Initiative
256.830.6813
Colonial Bank Transportation Security Administration
DaimlerChrysler Department of Interior
Sacramento
777 Campus Commons Road
Delphi Department of Justice
Suite 200 EDS Department of Transportation
Sacramento, CA 95825 Fannie Mae Department of Veterans’ Affairs
916.565.7419 Fifth Third Bank Environmental Protection Agency
Ford Motor Company National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Warner Robins FuGen
1100 Park Drive General Motors DEFENSE AGENCIES
Warner Robins, GA 31088 Hewlett-Packard Defense Logistics Agency
478.329.0009 Johnson & Johnson U.S. Air Force
Landmark, a subsidiary of Halliburton U.S. Army
Lockheed Martin U.S. Marine Corps
Ottawa U.S. Navy
Lucent Technologies
180 Elgin Street
Merrill Lynch Office of the Secretary of Defense
Suite 1402
Ottawa, Ontario Canada
PricewaterhouseCoopers
K2P-2K3 Public Service Electric & Gas
Qwest INTERNATIONAL
613.236.3773
Regions Bank Agriculture Canada
United Airlines British Ministry of Defence
www.robbinsgioia.com Verizon Canadian Department of National Defence
Wachovia Canadian Blood Services
info@robbinsgioia.com Wells Fargo
800.663.7138
www.robbinsgioia.com STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
info@robbinsgioia.com New York City Police
State of California
800.663.7138 State of Maryland
State of Michigan
©2007 Robbins-Gioia, LLC®
©2007 Robbins-Gioia, LLC®
All rights reserved
All rights reserved