Program Portfolio Planning
Program Portfolio Planning
The Program Portfolio Planning capability’s enablers include Business Requests, Strategy and Program Planning, and Governance. Each capability within the Planview Capability Framework has a distinct set of features and functionality, business processes, best practices, and analytics and reports that deliver value to customers in the form of specific business outcomes.
Enablers and Business Outcomes
Business Requests
Supports a clearly-defined process to initiate business requests, including collecting relevant categorization and scoring information and initial financial data. Resulting business outcomes include:
- We have a single repository to collect requests from the business and this repository is available to all stakeholders in the organization for review.
- We have a structured process to categorize, assess, and carry out a sizing estimation of requests before taking them forward for consideration.
- We have a controlled and consistent process for reviewing and approving all work requests.
- We can ensure that request approval and review actions have been assigned to the appropriate users based upon specific criteria.
- We can ensure all appropriate actions and steps have been taken before requests are approved to progress.
Strategy and Program Planning
Supports the creation, planning, business case development, financial plans, and approval of programs that will deliver the organizational strategic initiatives and business outcomes. Resulting business outcomes include:
- We can initiate new programs to deliver the programs defined in our strategic plan and can describe and categorize these programs and assign ownership, providing an inventory of our programs.
- We can define a schedule and milestones to describe the timeline for delivery of the program, then baseline for performance monitoring when the programs move into execution.
Program Governance
Provides a process and governance structure for progressing programs through an approval lifecycle into execution and delivery, ensuring that decisions are made by the right people based on structured data for each program entity. Resulting business outcomes include:
- We have a structured process to capture, assess, estimate, and approve programs.
- We can ensure that the appropriate governance process is applied to programs, based on specific criteria.
- We can ensure that the program approval and review actions have been assigned to the appropriate user.
- We can submit these programs for approval and funding through a workflow.
Best Practices
Optimize the request process
Managing requests can be time-consuming. If you use requests, ensure that the process is as streamlined as possible by simplifying the submission process, using a standardized set of objective criteria to prioritize them, and having a designated person evaluate them.
Focus on strategy
Programs are about driving the organizational big picture. Make sure that as a program manager you’re keeping your eye on the initiative and strategy level and not getting too bogged down in details of specific projects or delivery tasks.
Use minimal governance
Organizations can cut down on valuable time and resources by optimizing their governance processes with a streamlined and consistent “minimum viable governance” model. Project managers and teams must know where governance gates are and incorporate them into the planning process.
Don’t get mired in detail
At the program level, it can feel like you need to help put out every fire and that every problem will derail the whole program. Remember to be flexible, work with your managers, and be ready to adjust to get over the finish line.
Engage stakeholders proactively
Like most things, the success of the program overall will depend on the support of sponsors and stakeholders. Be sure to keep them in the loop so it is clear the value the program provides to them, and that it feels easy to support in return.
Work with project managers
Your success as a program manager depends on your project managers. Be aware when project managers are facing resistance and be ready to step in when necessary to help deal with stakeholders or explain strategy. Remain flexible and be sure to hear them out when it comes to obstacles, make adjustments when necessary, and ensure alignment and commitment if changes are made.
Demonstrate the vision
A common miscalculation at the program level is to assume everyone understands the program’s value and connection to the overall strategy. Make sure the overall vision is communicated in clear terms to both stakeholders and team members alike, so they can see the value to themselves and the organization.
Know your risk level
It’s important to understand your organization and the level of risk that will be considered acceptable for the program to keep running, as well as your own personal risk tolerance. Insecurity about risk can quickly derail a program – make sure you’re estimating conservatively and build in a level of risk buffer to avoid putting others or yourself on edge.
Processes and Reports
Program portfolio planning supports a clear process for initiating new business requests, managing new programs, and progressing programs through execution and delivery. A high-level estimate of program costs and benefits are captured in the financial plan, and a strategic program roadmap is created and baselined to track progress on project delivery, business outcomes, and important program milestones.
Business Requests Process Steps
Business requests process flow
| Process Step | Description |
|---|---|
| Initiate request |
Requests provide one way that new entities, such as projects, programs, products, can be initiated in Planview Portfolios. This allows incoming requests to be well-defined, categorized, and assigned to the right area for delivery. This also allows requests to be evaluated against each other to compare scoring, impacts, and alignment. When a new request is created, certain fields will be required to ensure the data needed for appropriate categorization is provided. Request assignment and any lifecycle steps will start following your defined governance process. For more information: |
| Describe and categorize request |
During the initiation of a request, information is populated into Planview Portfolios to describe and categorize the request within the register. Often a minimum level of required categorization or descriptive information is enforced during the creation of the request via a lifecycle workflow to satisfy the specific data and information needs of the organization. For more information: |
| Review request |
Once you have a request portfolio, you can see detailed information regarding the requests that are included in your portfolio on the Portfolio Manager tile within the Request Portfolio View screen. The purpose of this step is to review and analyze the request in preparation for dispatch. For more information: |
| Dispatch request |
The purpose of this step is to connect the request with a relevant entity in Planview Portfolios. This can be achieved by either dispatching the request, which generates a new entity, or by associating it with an entity that already exists. Planview Portfolios can route requests to a dispatcher, who is the user responsible for evaluating the requests and then performing the following tasks. Depending on whether your system configuration supports request lifecycles, a dispatcher can perform those tasks through request lifecycles or from the Request View screen without the use of lifecycles. The dispatcher can:
For more information: |
| Close request |
If approval is not granted or the request is no longer needed, change the status to closed. This provides a record of its status for reporting and ensures that no further updates can be made to the request. Depending on the internal business process, the process to close the request can vary and may contain approval gates in a lifecycle workflow. In these instances, successful completion of the lifecycle steps by the relevant users will automatically close the Request. The status of the request can be changed in the Request Detail screen, or directly in the Portfolio Manager using an appropriate column set selection. For more information: |
Strategy and Program Planning Process Steps
Strategy and program planning process flow
| Process Step | Description |
|---|---|
| Create program |
Strategic programs can be created from a request, from the Portfolio Manager screen, or directly entered. When a new program is created, certain fields will be required to ensure the data needed for appropriate categorization is provided. Program assignment and any lifecycle steps will start following your defined governance process. For more information: |
| Describe and categorize program |
Relevant description and categorization information should be captured through a lifecycle-driven configured screen during the creation of each new program. Program attributes can also be edited on the Strategy View screen of the program and can be viewed in Strategy Portfolio View. For more information: |
|
Plan program roadmap and milestones |
Milestones and releases at the program level are added directly from the Strategy View screen. The color of the displayed milestones and releases are specified in the Strategy Portfolio preferences. The program roadmap graphically represents the schedule of strategic entities, allocated work, outcomes, milestones, and releases of a strategic plan. At the program level, two sets of dates are visible:
Here are a few helpful tips for the roadmap planning process:
For more information: |
| Estimate program costs and benefits |
Capture a high-level estimate of the costs and benefits to deliver the program in the financial plan based on the need of your organization. Cost accounts can include labor, capital spending, and expense spending. In the initiation phase of a program, these costs will likely be high-level estimates entered into the financial plan by the program manager. Once programs are approved, the underlying projects required to deliver these programs will be planned and scoped. At this point, cost information can be rolled up from the projects to the program to provide a more accurate view of the program costs. For more information: |
| Baseline program roadmap |
Strategy roadmap baselines are snapshots of the strategy roadmap, including program target dates and actual or scheduled dates of associated entities or projects. The purpose of this step is to capture a strategy baseline as part of the program planning phase which represents a record of the roadmap dates of the program at the time of program approval. For more information: |
| Create and associate projects to deliver program |
Projects provide a way of planning and managing the schedule and resources required to deliver segments of work that, together, constitute the delivery of the program. Following the approval of the program, the underlying projects required to deliver these programs can be planned and scoped. The program manager will work with the relevant project manager/s to achieve this. To create projects, start the process of creating a new work entity in the program's action menu. Creating a project directly against the program automatically creates the association with the program. Creating a project requires a manual association to the program after the entity has been created. When a project is associated to program(s), an allocation percentage is defined. This allocation percentage is used to roll up the project's cost to its associated program(s). For more information: |
Program Governance Process Steps
Program governance process flow
| Process Step | Description |
|---|---|
| Governance point A |
Request intake information is reviewed and, if approved, new projects or programs are created. |
| Governance point B | Initial program planning information, such as description and categorization attributes, cost and benefit estimates, and roadmap dates, are captured and reviewed to determine if enough is known to proceed with the program and include in the detailed portfolio planning process. |
| Governance point C |
The process of investment planning allows planners to prioritize and analyze the list of proposed investments (programs) to determine which to move forward with. Analysis of investments is achieved by comparing what’s available, capacity (which can be in the form of resource capacity or financial a budget against what is required) versus demand (derived by the forecast of programs in the portfolio). Planners will create and compare a number of investment planning scenarios to model different investment decisions and various approaches to balancing investment demand with capacity. Once an approach is chosen, these decisions are published as the agreed portfolio plan. |
| Governance point D |
Following agreement of the portfolio plan, the underlying projects required to deliver the approved programs can be planned and scoped. Initial project planning information, such as description and categorization attributes, cost and benefit estimates, and high-level schedule dates, are captured and reviewed before proceeding to the detailed planning of schedule dates, resource assignments, and project financials. |
| Governance point E | If required, projects can proceed through a gated governance process. Usually, each gate requires the project to comply with a checklist of activities/deliverables before proceeding to the next gate. |
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