Introduction
Within an organization, projects compete for corporate dollars, management’s attention, staff’s talent, time and energy. Their impact is felt at all levels, across all functions, and throughout the supplier/customer/consumer chain. Projects interact further in their need for, and impact on, scarce IT and business resources. For any organization dependent on information technology to provide the competitive edge, its ability to flawlessly execute multiple projects simultaneously is a key factor in achieving both tactical and strategic goals. A consistent and universal process by which projects are initiated, approved, managed, and implemented does not exist in most organizations. Absence of a well-balanced portfolio invariably results in duplication of effort, unnecessary delay of mission-critical projects, and internal conflict. Without the necessary data, management is incapable of making informed decisions to approve new projects or to shut down projects that have no hope for success.

CIOs and senior executives urgently need to get clear alignment between corporate business needs and IT capacity. Most IT organizations run in continual catch-up mode resulting in a reactionary rather than proactive environment. The solution to these chronic problems is a well-structured and well-balanced Project Portfolio. A well-managed Portfolio helps ensure that organizational resources are, in turn, well managed, conflicts are avoided, and duplication of effort between projects is minimized. It establishes a clear path from the germination of an idea through to completion, and depicts the progress of each project using a uniform set of metrics.

Objectives
The goals of this session are to provide participants with the abilities required to define, populate, and manage a Project Portfolio -- a tool which provides the executive body with an accurate summary of project status across the enterprise.

Upon successful completion of this seminar participants will be able to:

Seminar Audience
Business executives, business unit managers, CIO, CIO’s direct reports, and selected senior project managers.

PMBOK® Guide Areas Covered:

Management’s Challenges

Project Portfolio
         Proposals Portfolio
         Charters Portfolio
         Active Projects Portfolio
         Completed Projects Portfolio
         Suspended Projects Portfolio
         Canceled Projects Portfolio

Defining the Portfolio Structure