Project Management

Strategic Alignment of the Project Portfolio

• Traditional Classroom: 2-day
• Virtual Instructor-led: Four 3-hour sessions

Every project in a portfolio competes for the same finite budget, people, and executive attention, which makes selection the highest-leverage decision a PMO makes — a flawlessly delivered project that does not advance the strategy still consumes resources something else needed. This two-day course gives PMO and program leaders a repeatable, defensible way to make that call. You will examine modern views of enterprise strategy and the models that put them into practice, see where business analysis fits in translating strategy into project requirements, and apply the evaluation methods used to rank a portfolio — non-numeric techniques, scoring models, and balanced scorecard views. Exercises use your organization’s own project data, so you finish the course with an evaluated portfolio and a set of recommendations for improving how your organization selects and aligns projects.

Target Audience

Individuals who will benefit from this course include:

• PMO directors
• Program directors
• Program managers
• Senior project managers

Learning Objectives

• Develop a common understanding of strategy, project portfolios, and portfolio alignment.
• Apply project evaluation, prioritization and selection techniques to your existing project portfolio.
• Develop recommendations for improving the portfolio management process in your organization.

Key Takeaways

• An overview of business strategy, including modern views of enterprise strategy and its implementation.
• Examples of effective models of business strategy, and how and why they work.
• How to implement strategies with projects and use the project portfolio as a strategic decision vehicle.
• Effective tools and techniques used to achieve correct selection of projects and align these projects to the organizational strategy.
• How to ensure strategic alignment throughout the project life-cycle and keep key stakeholders engaged with the project.

Prerequisites

To maximize and accelerate the benefit derived from attending the two-day session, participants will be applying the tools and techniques learned in the course to their actual job responsibilities. Participants will be asked to use real project data in exercises that will help them view the portfolio of projects within their organization.

Course Outline

Module 1: Course Introduction

• Course Overview, Agenda, Introductions

Module 2: Business Strategy

• Business Strategy Terms

Module 3: Business Analysis

• The Role of Business Analysis
• The Business Analysis Spectrum
• Business Analysis Activities

Module 4: Project Portfolios

• Goals of Portfolio Management
• Portfolio Models

Module 5: Balanced Scorecard

• Balances Scorecard Views

Module 6: Project Selection and Alignment

• Non-Numeric Techniques
• Scoring Models
• Evaluating a Project Portfolio Using Scoring Models

Module 7: Summary and Closing

• Successful Project Portfolio Management Processes

MDP111A Course Code