The Benefits of Enterprise Project Portfolio Management
Combining Enterprise Project Portfolio Management with Agile and non-Agile project paradigms
enables greater visibility into the overall project portfolio to minimize unwelcomed surprises.
Gaining an enterprise perspective and enabling governance
Agile techniques are deployed to support work efforts that ultimately make up projects or programs.
But highly effective organizations must look at those small-scale projects in relation to the business
strategy as a whole and to other projects also taking place within the organization. How can executive
level management be made aware of the progress to create business value and measure that against the
importance of other projects that are currently under way? What’s more, how do other project
managers know what resources are being used across all their projects and which employees are free to
take on new projects? An Enterprise Project Portfolio Management system can help evaluate portfolio
progress and communicate necessary changes.
The mix of both Agile and non-Agile approaches works best for organizations that need to fit Agile
into a broader release cycle, according to Forrester. In many cases, the development team contributes
components to a larger release that is delivered on its own, lengthier timeline. An Enterprise Project
Portfolio Management system can complement Agile development by tying in a project’s progress and
resource needs to the overall project performance and provide crucial governance across the project
portfolio.
Provide a consistent view and improve decision-making and productivity
According to the Agile Alliance, the five tenants of Agile development include close collaboration
between individuals, frequent delivery of business value and self-organizing teams. This combination
of principles has been proven to be highly effective but there are a variety of specific practices that
would satisfy these tenants. Forrester indicates that, Agile development is not used consistently today
within organizations. Scrum and other Agile methodologies prescribe a set of techniques that, when
used collectively, are intended to lead to successful software development and delivery. However,
teams do not usually implement all of these techniques simultaneously. An Enterprise Project
Portfolio Management system can maintain a consistent view of project resources, financials and value
to the business. Furthermore, this overall view can be used to make more informed decisions about
what practices work best in what contexts that ultimately lead to greater productivity and efficiency.