Develop achievable portfolios and roadmaps

Background

Change portfolios and change delivery roadmaps are critical components to successful change and programme management

The warning signs are all too familiar: too many active programmes, not enough resources, unrealistic pressure to deliver and a never-ending pipeline of ‘urgent’ new requests. If you recognise these, then you may have a large-scale change portfolio that is out of control.

The simple reality is that not all projects are created equal. In the eyes of many sponsors, theirs is the most important. So, how do you break this cycle and deliver what is most important to the business?

The first step is for the executive team to champion and support portfolio management. It needs to be a part of an organisation’s DNA. Then separate your governance of investment decisions from portfolio and programme oversight, capture demand from across your business, not just from those who shout loudest and qualify demand to weed out ‘pet projects’ that add little value. Finally prioritise and rank the portfolio against a set of criteria that enables delivery of the business strategy and stop programmes that are ranked low.

Then build your roadmap with key milestones, estimated resources, mapping of key dependencies to inform sequencing and a plan that sets out the schedule and phasing of the changes.

Relevant articles and customer stories

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Insight Developing an achievable change portfolio and roadmap John Howarth

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Customer story Portfolio Management – Delivering what you promise

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Customer story Enterprise portfolio management for a global manufacturer

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Insight Portfolio management in retail. What is it? And why do I need it? Paul Monteith

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Insight Defining your change portfolio and plan John Howarth

“The Project One team have been absolute superstars and life savers. I can chuck stuff at them that just gets done, they are my sounding board on everything and the only people I feel really “get it” like I do. Feeling the pain, understanding the challenge and helping in more ways than could ever be expected.”

Head of IT Portfolio

Award winning work

The Financial Times has listed Project One, for the fourth consecutive year, as one of the UK’s leading management consultants in its annual report, with a record-breaking 8 Silver awards for the firm, including being the only independent, SME boutique consultancy to be recognised with a silver rating for Digital Transformation and Organisation & Change.