Portfolio Office : Welcome Pack
There seems to be a lot of conversations going on at the moment about the difficulties people have with showing the value of an enterprise portfolio office.Value is a really important aspect of this world in my opinion. Some people think portfolio offices are killed because its the first thing to go when budget cuts come, i say thats complete and utter rubbish. The only reason portfolio offices are killed is because the value they provide does not exceed their costs and if this is the case it means the person leading it isn’t doing their job properly. That may seem harsh, but it’s true – no Board of Directors will kill a portfolio office that they get a lot of value from.
So what can you do? One of the things we did at the Office for National Statistics as part of our 100 days to implement portfolio management (using the Cabinet Offices Management of Portfolios) was to create a Portfolio Delivery Unit Welcome Pack.
The Portfolio Delivery Unit (our name for an enterprise portfolio office) was a brand new function and so we felt it was really important to help people understand exactly what portfolio management services were provided by the team and most importantly, the value people would experience from those services.
It was published across the organisation and feedback was really good, we also found it a great way to bring new people up to speed with the Portfolio Delivery Unit.
ONS has very kindly agreed to share it in the hope that other people find it as helpful as we did. I think it’s really nice of ONS to share this so if you liked it, be nice back and zap a little tweet to @statisticsONS with a hashtag #statisticsarecool
@MrPortfolio
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Incredibly useful, thank you so much for sharing this Craig & Office for National Statistics! Downloaded and used immediately. Many thanks Steve
Such a wonderful way to show value for portfolio offices! regards, Jane
Hello Craig,
Thanks for the slides, excellent work the ONS are doing. It gave me some food for thought.
I wonted to go back to basics and remind myself about what is Portfolio Management and what should Portfolio Managers be doing?
Starting at the lowest common key denominator in a portfolio, “Project delivers capability”, “a program delivers clearly identified business benefits”, and “a portfolio optimises investments in programs and projects” (maximise the value of those investments aligned to the organisation’s strategic objectives). Hopefully you agree with me up to this point.
Now lets consider what a Portfolio Manager’s role is. To manage the programs and projects to achieve those objectives. Specifically focusing on “are we doing the right things”, “are we doing them in the right way”, “are we getting them done well”, “and most importantly are we getting the benefits”. I think this is the major aim/ goal of your PDU.
So, I am guessing you are thinking to yourself, so what?
Well your slides seam to cover the above basics, but I do think the audience, “Stake holders at ONS” need to understand this basic concept, and relate this to the new PDU unit you have/ are establishing. Some stakeholders that might not have such management knowledge need to receive this key message.
Summary
I really think you have a great PDU document, which gives a great view of the value the PDU will provide. May I suggest, that the document emphasises the above basic message in some form. I think the message is in the document, but takes a little understanding to see the meaning.
Ashok Singha
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/ashoksingha
hi ashok. glad it was useful.
good point although roles, portfolio objectives and overall return on investment is expressed in the Portfolio Delivery Strategy. the PDU welcome pack was very much focused on the services people would experience from the portfolio office.
regards
craig
@MrPortfolio