The three goals of portfolio management are:

1. Maximize the value of the portfolio
2. Seek balance in the portfolio
3. Keep portfolio projects strategically aligned

PD-Trak� provides a set of portfolio management tools to help achieve these goals. With multiple business units, product lines or types of development, we recommend a strategic allocation process based on the business plan. The Master Project Schedule provides a summary of all active as well as proposed projects and classifies them by status (active, proposed, on-hold) and by business unit/product line to align projects with the strategic allocation. The Master Project Schedule also provides additional portfolio information to prioritize projects using either a scorecard method or the development productivity index(DPI *). In addition to this prioritization, PD-Trak provides a Risk-Reward Bubble Chart and a Project Type Pie Chart to assure balance. A Product or Technology Roadmap template is provided to help visualize platform and technology relationships to assure critical project relationships are not overlooked with this prioritization. This will allow management to develop a balanced approach to selecting and continuing with the appropriate mix of projects to satisfy the three goals.

Project Scoring Worksheet

Project scoring worksheets support gate reviews and portfolio management. They provide a structured method for the management team to rank projects according to a set of predefined, yet customizable, criteria. Weighting factors can be set for each criteria. Unique criteria can be established for each gate, and the specific gate scores specified for roll-up to the Master Project Schedule. The following image shows part of the project scoring table:

The evaluators enter their scores (1 to 10, where 10 is best) into the yellow cells. The worksheet computes the average scores and applies the weighting factors to compute the overall score. The maximum weighted score for a project is 100.

Master Project Schedule

Information related to portfolio management is grouped under the heading Portfolio Information. The results of the project scoring tables are automatically imported into the Master Project Schedule. When first opened, the MPS shows only the summary scores for each project:

The detail scores by category can be shown by clicking on the Show Scoring Detail button:

The sorting functions for the Master Project Schedule allow the projects to be sorted by Score or Development Productivity Index *. These sorting methods are an effective way of creating a prioritized project portfolio. Other sorting methods are provided in the Report Controls.

Portfolio Bubble Chart

This chart provides a graphical view of various project metrics/characteristics such as portfolio risk-reward. It is used to assure balance in the portfolio of projects (e.g., neither too risky or conservative and appropriate levels of reward for the risk involved) or provide a breakdown of the project portfolio with different characteristics.

The report controls allow different factors to be selected for graphing on the X and Y axis. The size of the bubble can represent a third factor or characteristic. Projects can be selected or deselected for inclusion on this graph allowing representation of project subsets such as a particular product line or types of projects such as only active and proposed projects.

* Development Productivity Index = (Net Present Value x Probability of Success) / Development Cost Remaining