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Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects
All of your projects and programs make up your portfolio . But how much time do you actually spend on your projects, and how much time do you spend responding to emergencies? This book will introduce you to different ways of ordering all of the projects you are working on now, and help you figure out how to staff those projects-even when you've run out of project teams to do the work. Once you learn to manage your portfolio better, you'll avoid emergency "firedrills". The trick is adopting lean and agile approaches to projects, whether they are software projects, projects that include hardware, or projects that depend on chunks of functionality from other suppliers. You may be accustomed to spending time in meetings where you still don't have the data you need to evaluate your projects. Here, with a few measures, you'll be able to quickly evaluate each project and come to a decision quickly. You'll learn how to define your team's, group's, or department's mission with none of the buzzwords that normally accompany a mission statement. Armed with the work and the mission, you can make those decisions that define the true leaders in the organization.
210 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
30 people are currently reading
426 people want to read
About the author
Johanna Rothman
44 books108 followersPeople know me as the “Pragmatic Manager.” I offer frank, practical advice for your challenging product development problems.
I help leaders and teams see their current reality. Because one size never fits all, we explore options for what and how to change. The results? Leaders and teams learn to collaborate and focus on outcomes that matter.
My clients and readers appreciate both my trademark practicality and humor. I've written 21 books, hundreds of articles, and thousands of blog posts. See all my writing and monthly newsletters at www.jrothman.com and www.createadaptablelife.com.
I write in all genres except for horror because I need my sleep, and horror gives me nightmares. My short fiction has appeared in Pulphouse Magazine, Fiction River, and Heart’s Kiss in addition to several other anthologies.
I help leaders and teams see their current reality. Because one size never fits all, we explore options for what and how to change. The results? Leaders and teams learn to collaborate and focus on outcomes that matter.
My clients and readers appreciate both my trademark practicality and humor. I've written 21 books, hundreds of articles, and thousands of blog posts. See all my writing and monthly newsletters at www.jrothman.com and www.createadaptablelife.com.
I write in all genres except for horror because I need my sleep, and horror gives me nightmares. My short fiction has appeared in Pulphouse Magazine, Fiction River, and Heart’s Kiss in addition to several other anthologies.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
April 24, 2010
I ignored this for a long time, based on its title alone. It must be, I thought, only of interest to anyone working with Prince2. Then I flicked through a copy at a conference and realised I was completely wrong.
The best description is actually the first paragraph on the back cover:
This is a book for people stuck in scheduling hell, where fighting fires takes up so much time that there's not much left to improve the way the organisation works. In fact, a good chunk of the first half is much like a project-centric version of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity: collect your projects, evaluate and filter them, prioritise them, and finally, do them. A key part of this is to use the plan to avoid the multi-tasking that cripples so many teams. There's a wealth of tips for making the whole process effective, with some unexpected ones thrown in. The sections How to Kill a Project and Keep it Dead and Discover Barriers to Collaboration are little gems. The ideas pair well with Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency (which may actually be a more compelling argument for getting away from scheduling hell).
The real purpose of this book, is to get lean principles - eg those described in The Toyota Way - into software project management (development). There's a brief summary on p14, and only one more notable reference, until chapter 9, when the book completely turns around. The first half is Johanna Rothman's way of creating visible, rational, project management. Chapter 9 is her way of evolving into a fully lean (and by necessity, agile) organisation. In this sense, Rothman's "project portfolio" is a tool to highlight problems and put a team on a course. And in this sense, it's a set of training wheels, much like Scrum (same endpoint, different route). But the reason I'm infinitely more excited about this than Scrum is that it targets the economic and political issues directly, upfront. User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development is the best book I know on specifying work in a suitable form for this style of development.
The final main aspect of the book is leadership and collaboration. The penultimate chapter is about defining the mission of your organisation. This defines the principles that let you commit to projects effectively. Both The Toyota Way and The Goal are good explanations about why this matters. Teamwork-related ideas permeate the book, though. Pretty much every chapter has advice on navigating political waters.
It's also amazing that all this has been fitted into just 170 pages. You could read it in a day.
Essential reading for software managers, and extremely valuable to anyone in working software who is committed to helping their team deliver customer value while staying sane in the process.
The best description is actually the first paragraph on the back cover:
Too many projects. Not enough time. There's an avalanche of requests and requirements coming your way, and you need help.
This is a book for people stuck in scheduling hell, where fighting fires takes up so much time that there's not much left to improve the way the organisation works. In fact, a good chunk of the first half is much like a project-centric version of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity: collect your projects, evaluate and filter them, prioritise them, and finally, do them. A key part of this is to use the plan to avoid the multi-tasking that cripples so many teams. There's a wealth of tips for making the whole process effective, with some unexpected ones thrown in. The sections How to Kill a Project and Keep it Dead and Discover Barriers to Collaboration are little gems. The ideas pair well with Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency (which may actually be a more compelling argument for getting away from scheduling hell).
The real purpose of this book, is to get lean principles - eg those described in The Toyota Way - into software project management (development). There's a brief summary on p14, and only one more notable reference, until chapter 9, when the book completely turns around. The first half is Johanna Rothman's way of creating visible, rational, project management. Chapter 9 is her way of evolving into a fully lean (and by necessity, agile) organisation. In this sense, Rothman's "project portfolio" is a tool to highlight problems and put a team on a course. And in this sense, it's a set of training wheels, much like Scrum (same endpoint, different route). But the reason I'm infinitely more excited about this than Scrum is that it targets the economic and political issues directly, upfront. User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development is the best book I know on specifying work in a suitable form for this style of development.
The final main aspect of the book is leadership and collaboration. The penultimate chapter is about defining the mission of your organisation. This defines the principles that let you commit to projects effectively. Both The Toyota Way and The Goal are good explanations about why this matters. Teamwork-related ideas permeate the book, though. Pretty much every chapter has advice on navigating political waters.
It's also amazing that all this has been fitted into just 170 pages. You could read it in a day.
Essential reading for software managers, and extremely valuable to anyone in working software who is committed to helping their team deliver customer value while staying sane in the process.
June 24, 2017
Revisiting this book after the first reading a few years ago. It has some good general guidelines, but certainly lacks any practical operational guidances.
November 11, 2017
2nd edition more detailed and pragmatic, earns 4th star
May 3, 2020
Interesting book but it lacks depth.
October 7, 2022
Another pragmatic book from Johanna on managing a portfolio of work for product teams.
May 19, 2023
Extensive bibliography
April 26, 2015
I really wanted to like this book, and it did have some useful information. However, it had too many issues to be really enjoyable.
It was repetitive. It had a large amount of internal cross-referencing, which is good, but each reference was "Section X.Y, Full Section Name, on page N" which got annoying after awhile. There were a number of editing errors, and there were some sections where I doubted editing had been done at all. E.g., the chapter on measurement, which I was really looking forward to, had a bunch of graphs with some description, but no actual explanation of what where the values on the graph came from.
The biggest flaw, however, is that this book set itself up to be a book about project portfolio management for any project life cycle, but it felt like every other section had a "but that won't really work well if you're not using agile" caveat.
Overall, I don't regret having read this, but I cannot recommend it.
It was repetitive. It had a large amount of internal cross-referencing, which is good, but each reference was "Section X.Y, Full Section Name, on page N" which got annoying after awhile. There were a number of editing errors, and there were some sections where I doubted editing had been done at all. E.g., the chapter on measurement, which I was really looking forward to, had a bunch of graphs with some description, but no actual explanation of what where the values on the graph came from.
The biggest flaw, however, is that this book set itself up to be a book about project portfolio management for any project life cycle, but it felt like every other section had a "but that won't really work well if you're not using agile" caveat.
Overall, I don't regret having read this, but I cannot recommend it.
August 9, 2011
Well worth reading if you struggle with project overload and want ideas for getting a handle on it all.
I'm new to lots of the concepts referred to but not explained in detail in the book - agile, kanban, burndown charts etc - so there was plenty to send me off to the glossary (and Google!) about, but that didn't stop it being useful.
Certainly the book has successfully inspired me to do as it implores in the final chapter: do *something*. All that simultaneous work-in-progress and dealing with 'emergencies' has to stop.
I'm new to lots of the concepts referred to but not explained in detail in the book - agile, kanban, burndown charts etc - so there was plenty to send me off to the glossary (and Google!) about, but that didn't stop it being useful.
Certainly the book has successfully inspired me to do as it implores in the final chapter: do *something*. All that simultaneous work-in-progress and dealing with 'emergencies' has to stop.
June 25, 2014
This book helps remove the mystery about managing a portfolio. The great part about it is the method of delivery. The author provides practical insights about handling a project portfolio. You can zoom through this book in a weekend and apply some of the concepts when you get back in the office by Monday. The best part about my experience reading this book for me is my conversations with a portfolio manager friend who lent me the book. Our conversations enriched the learning experience for the student of project portfolio management in me.
February 10, 2016
O livro contém idéias básicas sobre gerenciamento de portfólio porém essencial pra quem está iniciando na área. Questões importantes são abordadas como quais projetos devem ser iniciados, como suspender ou mesmo abortar um projeto em execução e como avaliar o framework de portfólio. Contém uma seção importante de ranqueamento de projetos, inclusive uma crítica para quem utiliza o ROI para priorização de projetos. No final um capítulo importante sobre métricas, uma discussão sobre o que precisa ser medido e como medir a execução de um projeto.
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February 2, 2016Awesome book! Great for Product Owners, Product Managers, and anyone in management that needs to get a quick grasp on how to increase the flow of value in the organization.
I have too many clients that continue to overload their portfolio of ongoing projects because they just can't seem to easily grasp that you get more by taking on less.
I have too many clients that continue to overload their portfolio of ongoing projects because they just can't seem to easily grasp that you get more by taking on less.
July 13, 2012
Great book with great insights. Johanna approaches some approach regarding Project Portfolio that can be even intuitive but is good to see written somewhere.
The downside of the book is the all generalization of Agile as a silver bullet to all software problems.
The downside of the book is the all generalization of Agile as a silver bullet to all software problems.
September 13, 2012
Great book! I've had the opportunity to attend Johanna's course about portfolio management, And the book was complementary. I've had good insights and ideas to try at work. I recommend the book.
May 29, 2016
A well written introduction on managing multiple projects at the same time. The book offers good advice on how to set priorities and keep a team together to work on multiple projects – if you can’t convince the upper management that multitasking is the biggest waste of time you can do.
March 19, 2011
An ok book. It feels a bit light on, perhaps this is a reflection of how agile is growing, from small teams to larger co-ordinated efforts.
December 3, 2013
Appreciated the practical approaches and agile context.
March 8, 2013
Great advice. As good as her earlier book Hiring The Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets & Science Of Hiring Technical People.
Want to read
July 7, 2013To Learn
August 8, 2014
A good basic level setting book on PPM, but really just an introduction. Not a whole lot to learn for those who have already spent time practicing PPM already.
July 24, 2014
Marvelous !
December 3, 2014
Thanks, I'll steal some practacies!!
February 15, 2019
I need to contact her to see if she can adapt this to my company’s reality. Good concepts for internal and traditional orgs, but not for agencies!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews