An effective product or project portfolio management (PPM) system is based on selecting new product development projects to achieve the following objectives: 1) maximize the value of the product portfolio, 2) achieve balance (e.g., risk vs. reward, across product lines and business units, etc.), and 3) align projects and products with company strategy
The PD-Trak project portfolio management software provides tools to:
PD-Trak’s enterprise project portfolio management software functions can be used to plan multiple portfolios at the business unit level and roll up the business unit portfolios to the enterprise level to further plan, review and monitor the overall enterprise portfolio of projects. Or this PPM tool can just be used to plan a portfolio of products or projects at the business unit or department level. You may also want to see if you can use it in conjunction with software such as https://bamboosolutions.com/products/chart-plus/ to help bring up the efficiency of operations.
New, proposed projects are entered into the system and can be analyzed in combination with existing, mid-stream projects. A preliminary investigation of the opportunity is conducted resulting in a clearer definition of the project and business case. A high-level approach is used to quickly plan resources for portfolio projects. A business case is easily developed for the portfolio projects. Scorecards and financial metrics are used to prioritize and rank projects (Project Portfolio Reporting) with the objective of maximizing the portfolio value. Product line and technology roadmaps and portfolio charts are used to achieve balance and to align projects with company strategy.
The portfolio can then be tested to determine if a) it can be accomplished with planned resources and b) it achieves the financial objectives in terms of R&D investment, revenue and profit from new products. Based on the resource requirements for the projects in the proposed portfolio, resource planning is performed to check that the proposed portfolio of projects is achievable with the planned resources.
Adjustments are made to the portfolio to include or exclude projects, change the timing of projects, adjust the scope of projects and the corresponding resource requirements, changing the development approach (e.g., internal development to ODM, etc.). Once it is determined that the adjusted portfolio can be accomplished with planned resources, the portfolio is then checked against the business plan for R&D investment, sales and profit from new products. Adjustments are again made to the portfolio plan and these steps are repeated until a viable plan is developed that best meets the organization’s needs within resource and financial constraints.
