How do you measure the impact of your project portfolio governance?

Tracking the # of projects that were completed every year that did not meet min ROI thresholds. This would provide visibility on whether phase gates in the Portfolio Lifecycle were effective in stopping projects that no longer met ROI thresholds.

When we talk about bringing benefits to the organization, these benefits have to be aligned with the strategic plan, otherwise these benefits will not bring real value. Projects are often approved without justification or alignment with the organizational strategy, in which case these projects should be canceled instead of approved.

With a proven track record in portfolio execution, I assert that measuring the impact of project portfolio governance involves several key metrics.?? ??First, assess alignment with strategic objectives by tracking the percentage of projects contributing to critical goals. ??Next, evaluate resource utilization and efficiency through metrics like cost variance and schedule adherence. Stakeholder satisfaction surveys can provide insights into governance effectiveness. ??Finally, analyze project success rates and benefits realization against initial forecasts. Effective governance not only enhances project outcomes but also drives organizational agility and innovation, paving the way for sustained success.

??Benefits Realization is key that needs to be tracked Benefits can be tracked by the Benefits Realization Register which comprises the following attributes: 1. Description of Benefits to be achieved. 2. Person responsible for Realizing the benefit. 3. Description of Current Situation/ Performance of the Business Process. 4. Current Cost/ Performance Measure of the Business Process. 5. Target Cost/ Performance Measure after the planned change. 6. Target Date for the Benefits to be Realized. 7. Type of Contribution to the Business. 8. Assessed Value of the Benefits or Savings 9. Strategic & Corporate Objectives and Outcomes supported by the benefit 10. Contribution of this Benefit to the Achieving the Strategic & Corporate Objectives.

?? Beyond common metrics, there are deeper ways to measure benefits effectively. ?? Qualitative Insights Surveys and interviews reveal stakeholder satisfaction and project value alongside quantitative data. ?? Lagging vs. Leading Indicators Lagging indicators (e.g., ROI) reflect the past, while leading indicators (e.g., stakeholder engagement) forecast the future. ?? Frequency of Benefit Tracking Real-time tracking prevents benefit drift, ensuring timely corrections. ?? Adjusted Benefit Metrics Account for external factors that could skew project benefits, such as market changes or unforeseen global events. ?? To measure benefits effectively, use a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods and understand your indicators clearly.

??The objective of Portfolio Balancing is Optimization.?? ??Portfolio Optimization can be achieved by maximizing expected returns and minimizing financial risk. ???????????????????? ?????????????????? ???????????? ?? ??. ?????????? ?????????????? ?????????? 1. ??????????????????????????????: The goal here is to be unmatched and to create the differentiation that will define your future. 2. ????????????????????????????: The goal here is to keep up with or catch up to new market expectations, typically reset by some competitor’s latest differentiation. 3.????????????????????????: The goal here is to do what you were doing before but faster and cheaper.

Defining SMART criteria and their respective balance, aligned with the strategic plan, is essential. The Stakeholders who will be directly involved with the approval of the portfolio must clearly understand what is outlined as a strategic plan, so that they can then jointly define the best criteria and the correct balance of these.

Other aspects could be: - Ability to reuse assets created to accelerate business transformation - Ability to decompose portfolio in units able to increase project speed in the future

Another dimension we are looking to include in our Portfolio Mix is setting the optimal mix of projects based on "change saturation". This will ensure that we are not just looking at optimizing the portfolio based on strategic alignment, project type, risk level, complexity level, R/G/T, and neglecting to evaluate whether we are driving too much change in a given area which would have negative impacts such as reduced change adoption.

Definitely using a model to measure and draw up a plan to increase portfolio maturity is essential. Every organization must have this mapped out, as the execution of a good portfolio aligned with the strategic plan is one of the success factors for any organization. A model that I really like is the Axelos P3M3, which is used in line with the P3O.

An article I read talked about measuring portfolio maturity at an organization based on establishing an "organization-first" culture rather than a "department-first" culture. This really stuck with me as it is a current challenge we are facing. One way the article measured this was by surveying the org to evaluate how familiar were individuals with the portfolio lifecycle department, framework, and the projects that were selected for the year. Definitely going to run with this idea, and thought it would be a great add to this article.

Maturity could be measure as the ability to evolve as business needs so projects need to be able to have components able to be updated and shared with ecosystems

Impact measured is always perceive not just quantify by stakeholders. Identify first those elements os satisfaction further than traditional measurement is an option

Some methodologies that can be used, which already have a suggested governance designed as a basis for any organization, are PM2-PfM, MoP and SAFe. Discover them all and adapt and use the one that best meets your needs.

Elements around communication and KPIs model that links satisfaction with objectives and operations. Value is always qualified but perceived just worthy for customer