How can you master portfolio change management skills?

There’s a difference between change and scope creep. Change happens when the objectives and goals of the project change direction. Scope creep are changes that align a project more closely with current business processes and should not be treated with the same rigour. A change is more disruptive and requires reevaluating what was done and what needs to be done to realign the project. These changes impact cost, time, and, most notably, the organizational change aspect of communicating the change in direction, along with the reasons and benefits. Managing the change with stakeholders and accounting for the time required to build buy-in toward the new direction is the first step to mastering portfolio change management.

In the VUCA world, requirements change ever faster, also during the execution of our well planned portfolio. That is why we should focus more on the end goal, the real objective of what we want to achieve instead of focusing on the plan, the artefacts and the process. We have to include as much as possible flexibility, staying open for change as much as possible and prefer this above sticking to the plan. Portfolio management today is about fixing the right OKR's, objectives and key results (to measure when you reached your objective). Measuring every month, or at least every quarter where you stand compared to your OKR's, gives you the flexibility to adapt your plan where needed. At the end, it's about implementing the right changes !

Certainly, effective change management begins with governance. We need to define the framework that will be used and implement this governance, aligning processes, stakeholders, and approval levels.

In my experience, a back out change plan is useful as well. Even though we want a change to be successful, but we always want to plan for the worse and hope for the best. Having the teams understand the who, when, how, and what in the event a change needs to be rolled back, will save frustration and help with the go live processes.

Portfolio Change is far different from other types of change control. The Portfolio is the collection of all the funded projects of the Enterprise, whether these projects have been started or not. Usually, the Portfolio is a representation of the organizational strategy. In my experience, the Portfolio Manager should be reviewing, working with Stakeholders, and making recommendations based on changing strategies. If a project no longer fits, there should be a discussion regarding the value of the project. These evaluations should be ongoing and should rely solely on value. In my experience, monthly reporting with quarterly reviews and recommendations worked best.

A robust tool that I had the pleasure of using and really liked is Service Now. Obviously this tool only makes sense if you have several projects running in parallel, as it is an additional cost that you will have to foresee in your OPEX. If your organization does not have many projects, I would particularly recommend something simpler, for example, defining some templates in Excel and Word, aligned with periodic meetings for change management;

In my experience, software tools can be very useful, but, when managing smaller portfolio's, a good excel can do the job. Still, better than any tool, is the conversation on where we stand towards our objectives and what we can/should do to achieve them. My preferred tool is an Obeya, it gives you all the information you need to take the right decisions, quickly and in all transparancy.

Enterprise Resource Planning systems are expensive. Nonetheless, no single enterprise software would guarantee sustainable success. Companies adapt a number of corporate systems to accomplish a comprehensive ERP function that also would entail into 'portfolio change management' function. On this path, some challenges are inevitable such as non-conformity of some software suits with different operating systems. A wise company needs to understand 'requirement specifications' of firm's 'core value activities' in order to pick and choose right enterprise systems that help all interacting players providing easier process and that ultimately promote company's overall strategy.

This part is probably the main/core activity of a good portfolio manager, also probably the main challenge. Methods like ADKAR can certainly help in identifying the stakeholders and adapting your actions towards them based on their impact and their engagement in your portfolio/programs. Speaking their language is key, and here I do not only refer to the language itself but also to their context. A good portfolio manager knows what he/she is talking about and can speak the same vocabulary as the stakeholders.

A well-planned liability fundamentally requires exquisite set of 'charter documents'. For instance 'stakeholder register' is amongst inherent elements of a well-defined 'requirement specifications' document of a software application. 'Stakeholder register' and similar structures such as 'responsibility matrix' will guarantee involvement with right stakeholders to a great extent throughout liabilities' lifecycle.

Absolutely correct, this refers to the OKR's I mentioned before and the Obeya, my favorite "tool" for this. You cannot do this on your own, a good portfolio manager will do this together with the delivery team and the stakeholders.

Change is inevitable in contemporary business. That said, a change scenario must have been defined to improve either corner of the magical triangle: time-cost-quality. In fact, a change would occur only if a business has contemplated and learnt something about an aspect of the enterprise. That means 'learning' and 'change' go hand in hand accomplishing one another and no corporation would be maintain success without them interaction sustainably.

Commonly portfolio investments are made based on business cases. OKRs should be then immediately set on those BCs for the expected outcome and documented. Regular performance review should be based on those going forward. Otherwise this is also common that some nice pictures are shown to the Management which will never be realised in reality but those few presenters will take personal advantages. Those unrealistic ideas will be then put on the shoulders of others who has no clue.

Mastering portfolio change management skills requires an understanding of how to identify, assess, and implement changes effectively, along with the ability to communicate with stakeholders and manage risks. Here are some tips to enhance your portfolio change management skills: Develop a Formal Change Management Process: Having a formal change management process will help ensure that all changes are evaluated in a systematic, consistent way. Foster a Culture of Change: As a leader, cultivate a culture where change is expected and embraced. This could mean leading by example, providing training and resources for managing change, or creating opportunities for team members to take on new challenges and learn new skills.

I did not clearly see something on how your total portfolio budget could be managed between the different programs and projects within your portfolio. A flexible portfolio also implies flexibility in the funding of the initiative. A good portfolio manager considers stopping an initiative that has achieved its objective, and making funds available for other objectives to be reached or where we are lagging behind. A quarterly review of the objectives and reconsidering the distribution of the funding is to be recommended, from my experience. The (traditional) yearly cycle that a lot of organisations still consider today is "passé", because of the rapidly evolving customer needs.