Project Management

Strategic Alignment of the Project Portfolio

• Traditional Classroom: 2-day
• Virtual Instructor-led: Four 3-hour sessions

Many organizations do not understand or focus on how their projects support the enterprise strategy. This can impede both progress and efficiency in achieving the organization’s goals. This course surveys important views of enterprise strategy and provides the tools and understanding necessary to keep projects on the correct organizational track. Projects that strategically align to organizational goals can significantly impact the life cycle return on investment and the ability to invest in projects. Lectures, discussions, and exercises will familiarize participants with prioritizing projects and how best practices in strategic alignment can help ensure a project's contribution to enterprise success.

Target Audience

Individuals who will benefit from this course include:

• PMO directors
• Program directors
• Program managers
• Senior project managers

Learning Objectives

• Develop a common understanding of strategy, project portfolios, and portfolio alignment.
• Apply project evaluation, prioritization and selection techniques to your existing project portfolio.
• Develop recommendations for improving the portfolio management process in your organization.

Key Takeaways

• An overview of business strategy, including modern views of enterprise strategy and its implementation.
• Examples of effective models of business strategy, and how and why they work.
• How to implement strategies with projects and use the project portfolio as a strategic decision vehicle.
• Effective tools and techniques used to achieve correct selection of projects and align these projects to the organizational strategy.
• How to ensure strategic alignment throughout the project life-cycle and keep key stakeholders engaged with the project.

Prerequisites

To maximize and accelerate the benefit derived from attending the two-day session, participants will be applying the tools and techniques learned in the course to their actual job responsibilities. Participants will be asked to use real project data in exercises that will help them view the portfolio of projects within their organization.

Course Outline

Module 1: Course Introduction

• Course Overview, Agenda, Introductions

Module 2: Business Strategy

• Business Strategy Terms

Module 3: Business Analysis

• The Role of Business Analysis
• The Business Analysis Spectrum
• Business Analysis Activities

Module 4: Project Portfolios

• Goals of Portfolio Management
• Portfolio Models

Module 5: Balanced Scorecard

• Balances Scorecard Views

Module 6: Project Selection and Alignment

• Non-Numeric Techniques
• Scoring Models
• Evaluating a Project Portfolio Using Scoring Models

Module 7: Summary and Closing

• Successful Project Portfolio Management Processes

MDP111A Course Code