Do you ever feel like your project portfolios are just groupings of initiatives with no common theme? That your sponsors are still making one-off project decisions that don't seem to tie to anything? That projects drift along with no real direction or purpose? That PPM is a buzzword that nobody - except you - really understands? Been there, done that. Still doing that to some degree, but there is now a light at the end of the tunnel.
Aligning your project portfolios with business strategies can help make PPM a value added discipline. In large measure, strategies are executed through projects. You can define strategic objectives to support your strategies and capabilities to drive your strategic objectives. Capabilities are delivered through projects, giving you a linkage back to strategy.
This approach supports PPM in a couple of ways. First, it provides a mechanism by which you can evaluate and group initiatives. The idea is that you should be able to represent 100% of your strategic objectives through initiatives. If an imitative does not support a strategic objective, it should not be part of your strategic portfolio. Conversely, if an objective is not supported by an initiative, there is a gap to fill.
Secondly, this approach helps to prioritize and optimize portfolios. Strategic objectives can and should be weighted in terms of importance. This weighting will give you a framework by which you can prioritize (importance) and optimize (constraint analysis) your portfolios.
To further strengthen the strategy-initiative linkage, you can develop metrics to measure your progress against your strategic objectives. Projects can build business cases that show how they will move the needle on these metrics.
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