Field notes on running project portfolios. Written for PMO leads, portfolio managers, and the program teams who turn a list of projects into delivered outcomes.
Application portfolio management and project portfolio management share the word portfolio and confuse a lot of people. One manages the inventory of software an organization runs; the other manages which projects get funded. Here is the difference, who owns each, how they feed each other, and why only one still has a Gartner Magic Quadrant.
What a benefits realization plan contains, who owns each benefit, how to set a baseline and a target you can actually measure, when to measure (almost always after the project has closed), and a downloadable benefits tracker with a worked example.
A downloadable project portfolio management template for Excel and Google Sheets: the columns a portfolio tracker needs, the formulas behind the dashboard tab, a worked example, and an honest answer on when a spreadsheet stops being the right tool.
What agile portfolio management is, how it differs from traditional PPM and from lean portfolio management, the operating model (funding, cadence, intake, metrics), the tools that support it, and what an agile portfolio manager actually does.
What resource forecasting is, how it differs from capacity planning, four forecasting techniques with the arithmetic, a downloadable Excel and Google Sheets forecast template, and how to read a persistent gap.
A business case template with every section spelled out, a downloadable Excel financial model that calculates NPV, ROI, IRR and payback, a worked example, and the sensitivity test that survives a skeptical CFO.
What strategic alignment means, why portfolios drift out of it, the Henderson and Venkatraman alignment model, how to score projects against strategic objectives, and how to measure alignment with a worked example.
What resource contention is, why it happens, how to detect it before it bites, and the escalation order for resolving competing claims on the same person across a portfolio.
Earned value management (EVM) measures project performance by comparing planned value, earned value, and actual cost. This guide gives you the full formula set (CV, SV, CPI, SPI, EAC, ETC, VAC, TCPI), a worked example with real arithmetic, how to read a CPI and an SPI, how a PMO rolls earned value up to portfolio level, and the honest limits of the technique.
RAG status rates a project red, amber, or green to show its health at a glance. This guide covers what RAG stands for, what each color actually means, how to write objective criteria so the rating is not a negotiation, worked examples, who owns the rating, and how to stop green projects from failing overnight.
The PfMP (Portfolio Management Professional) is PMI's credential for people who manage portfolios rather than projects. This guide covers the eligibility requirements, the panel review that gates the application, the 170-question exam, the fees, how PfMP compares to PMP and PgMP, and who should realistically pursue it.
Project pipeline management is the practice of tracking every candidate and active project through defined stages so the portfolio stays balanced, resourced, and aligned to strategy. This guide covers the pipeline stages, how pipeline management differs from intake and from the portfolio itself, the process to run it, the metrics of a healthy pipeline, and the practices that keep it working.