Portfolio Flexibility
Business demands are getting tougher and tougher. Organizations must be able to do more with less. The performance level that was good enough this year will not meet the higher expectation level of next year. Staff must always be looking for ways to improve delivery processes, overall service level and ways to leverage their existing assets to improve the level of benefits being derived from portfolio products.
But in addition, the operating environment may be changing:
- Overall business priorities could have changed at the organizational or departmental levels
- Business revenue may not be trending as expected so that may impact scheduled projects - for good or bad
- The organization's Business Planning Process for the following year may have already started before some projects have started in the current year. The new business plan may render some current projects less relevant. This may be reason to postpone a project or even cancel it for the time being.
Essentially, that means that the project's Business Case has changed. Therefore, before projects are started in Step 7, the Steering Committee should insist on revalidation of Business Cases that are no longer current. This review does not have to be in-depth but at least ensure that the assumptions, costs and business benefits are still valid.
It also follows that the Steering Committee should keep project managers informed of general business trends as project managers are often too close to their project work to be sensitive to a changing environment.
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Portfolio
Summary Review 
