Assume that you have a number of projects that you want to execute. You also have a fixed number of resources that can be used to execute these projects (such as innovation managers and programmers). If the resources can be organized for execution so that there are no independencies you can safely execute all projects at the same time. That is, each resource involved is only needed in their designated project and you don’t risk any of the resources becoming a bottleneck for more than one project at any one time.
The problem is that this is not the normal situation.
As soon as projects become interdependent, choices have to be made and the projects need to be prioritized. Projects may become interdependent if they need the same resources. They can also become interdependent if they need the results from another project before they can move forward. Which projects should be prioritized may be self-evident in some cases. However, in many organizations, this is far from obvious. Stakeholders may be more interested in certain projects, and projects can become stigmatized if they are not high on the list. It may seem as if they have “lost out” to another project. Moreover, careers can be tied to the success of a project. Finally, some executives have pet projects. All these social phenomena can lead to a schedule and a prioritization that is less than optimal from a strictly operational perspective. By using a formal process to manage your portfolio of projects, you will generally get a better consensus on which projects gets access to needed resources first. This is true regardless of what type of portfolio you have.
Welcome to the webinar, during which we will dive into the world of mitigating risk and optimizing your portfolio.
The webinar will be led by Johan Persson, a director and expert in scenario planning, commercialization, and portfolio management at Innovation360, and by Magnus Penker, a global strategist and innovation management thought leader at Innovation360.