How can you carry out a successful portfolio review to maximise the value of your projects?

Many companies, particularly large ones, find themselves juggling a large number of separate projects on a daily basis. This situation calls for the implementation of a solid project portfolio management (PPM) process.

PPM involves a number of 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 the portfolio review is, what stages are involved and what software you need to make it a success.

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What is a project portfolio review?

Portfolio review: definition

The portfolio review defines an essential practice in portfolio management, designed to assess the various projects deployed in the organisation in terms of several aspects:

• their consistency with the company's strategic objectives;
• their performance (in terms of costs, deadlines, quality, customer satisfaction, etc.);
• identification of potential risks;
• prioritising these projects to identify those that will generate the most value;
• reallocation of resources;
• ensuring that projects are consistent with each other.

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

🤝 The portfolio review thus promotes 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?

The portfolio review differs from the project review. While the former has a broader scope, the latter focuses on a single project.

As a result, there are clear differences in terms of:

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

How do you conduct a project portfolio review? The 4 main stages

Are you responsible for managing and leading your company's portfolio reviews? Whether you're a PMO or not, here are the steps you need to 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 beforehand to avoid everyone getting scattered on the big day.

Is it to :

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

Select the projects to be examined

Depending on the size of the organisation, there are many projects to examine during the portfolio review. It's difficult to go through them all with a fine-tooth comb!

You therefore need to select the projects to be analysed on the basis of the previously defined objectives.

Gather the data

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

📚 The project managers have some homework to do for the occasion. In fact, they have to gather all the metrics needed for decision-making (on costs, resources, performance, etc.), and render them visually if necessary via dashboards and other customised reports.

Stage 2: Evaluate the selected projects

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

They are also examined from the point of view 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 to implement the necessary corrective actions quickly.
  
  
• ROI: in the professional world, decisions are often driven by the expected return on investment of the various operations. In the context of the review, it's a question of prioritising the most profitable projects, as long as they enable the objectives set in advance to be achieved.
  
  
• Compliance. For example, compliance with legal requirements (security, confidentiality, etc.), quality standards and internal procedures.
  
  
• Progress. This is more of an operational issue, but it is vital to ensure that all projects are progressing correctly and to avoid delays. As with the risk assessment, this work is used to take the necessary steps to remedy any difficulties, such as allocating more resources, more budgets, reorganising processes, etc.

Step 3: Prioritise 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 prioritisation has been carried out, your aim is to do everything possible to ensure that the key projects are completed under the best possible conditions, and of course within the allotted time. Adjustments will often be necessary, in terms of resource allocation or budget, for example.

Stage 4: Draw up an action plan

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

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

☝️ Sometimes the meeting simply results in certain projects being put on hold, or even stopped, if they are not considered to be sufficiently strategic for the organisation.

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

Good practice in portfolio review

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

• Hold your portfolio reviews regularly, as often as necessary depending on the complexity of your organisation. While some experts recommend once a quarter, feel free 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 there are significant consequences.
  
  
• Be prepared to adjust the portfolio as new information, opportunities and challenges arise, even if you have to take painful initiatives such as stopping certain projects.
  
  
• Identify recurring trends or problems over time. This will provide you with valuable lessons for improving portfolio management over the long term.
  
  
• Keep a written record of the decisions taken and the associated context at each portfolio review. This documentation 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 the portfolio review, it's important to surround yourself with the right tools, those that prove useful for both analysis and decision-making.

These include

• the dashboard, which is perfect for providing an at-a-glance overview of the various key indicators (on resources, budget, progress, etc.) ;
• capacity planning, which is essential 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 can be a real pain for the teams affected;
• the prioritisation matrix, a simple little table that helps PMOs classify and prioritise projects according to their urgency and impact on the business;
• the Gantt chart, which provides visibility over the planning of each project in the portfolio, thereby helping to ensure that deadlines are met and operations run smoothly.

Specialist software

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

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

• have a centralised, consolidated view of your data on all your projects, which simplifies the arbitration process during reviews ;
• compare projects with each other in just a few clicks, using predefined criteria;
• take advantage of advanced resource management features;
• 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 documentation relating to projects and reviews.

🛠️ Software example:

Triskell is a PPM that is perfect for helping you manage your portfolio reviews. Integrated with the company's strategic management system, it has a wide range of functions. It gives you an overall view of your various projects in progress, and efficiently handles all the associated actions (resource allocation, budget calculation, etc.). But this software is also a powerful arbitration tool, as demonstrated by its scenario simulation functionality, which is handy for prioritising 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 are the key points of the portfolio review?

If your company is running several projects at the same time, it's impossible to miss the portfolio review, one of the challenges of which is to compare the different projects with a view to reviewing priorities. And with 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 the company's objectives!

On paper, however, this can be a daunting task, especially as you need good visibility across the entire portfolio, as well as accurate data that is updated in real time. Otherwise, how can you be sure you're 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.