Portfolio View
Part of Project portfolio management
Grouping projects by business priority
Group portfolio projects by business purpose, then rank comparable work while keeping priority, approval and readiness distinct.
Group portfolio projects by the business reason for considering them, then compare projects within each group. Keep priority, approval and readiness in separate fields.
A proposal can be strategically important but unready to start. An approved commitment may need formal change before it moves.
Choose groups that support a decision
Use categories that reflect the organisation's objectives and obligations. The following starting set is illustrative:
| Primary group | Question it puts before decision-makers |
|---|---|
| Required commitments | What obligation must be met, and how much of its timing or approach can change? |
| Strategic change | Which proposed work most directly advances a current objective? |
| Operational improvement | Which work improves an existing service or process, and on what evidence? |
| Discovery | Which limited investigation would resolve uncertainty before a larger commitment? |
Give each item one primary group for comparison and record any other objectives it serves. Check the underlying obligation before calling work required.
Record urgency separately: a deadline can change the order within a group without changing why the work exists. Approval state and readiness also remain separate from the group.
Rank comparable work with reasons
For competing items, record the objective served, expected benefit and evidence for it, timing, estimated effort and funding, dependencies and main uncertainty. Decide who judges each criterion. If you use scores, define their meaning and retain the explanation. Two identical scores need not carry equal confidence when their estimates rest on different evidence.
Consider a hypothetical customer-portal proposal that strongly supports a current objective but needs a specialist committed to a security upgrade. A smaller process improvement could start with another team.
The record should preserve the portal's strategic claim and show its capacity constraint. Starting the smaller item first does not make it the higher strategic priority.
Draw the capacity boundary
Compare intended start periods with existing commitments, available skills and funding. Mark each proposal as selected, conditional or deferred, with the reason and next review trigger.
These are decision states, not more business-priority groups. A score can inform the boundary; it does not calculate an authorised portfolio decision by itself.
When objectives or forecasts change, record who moved an item and why. An approved project needs an authorised change if its commitment is affected. A deferred proposal needs a condition for reconsideration. The record should let a reader explain both why two projects have different priority and why one can start now.
