Using the five principles of lean, lean portfolio management connects the business strategy with project execution. These lean principles can be used by portfolio managers to determine business strategies and allocate appropriate budgets for their execution. If your team has been using traditional portfolio management for years, introducing lean portfolio management may take some time. However, once adopted, this new way of managing a portfolio can provide significant advantages to your business, such as reducing overhead costs and delays. So, leaders that are looking for ways to start with your Lean Profile Management, here are some tips to help you out.
Readying Your Team Leaders
With the right team in place, lean portfolio management is easier. If you are managing a portfolio, your first step should be to assemble a team of financial experts who can help you align your business strategy with project execution. To put together the right portfolio leadership team, determine the strengths of internal team members or seek input from your hiring manager about who has the right skills. Instead of hiring external employees, you can also build your already working employees up to tune with an adept leading SaFe® training to make the process more efficient and also save on funds.
Never Stop Upgrading
Your portfolio management workflow should function smoothly with a focus on lean initiatives. However, since this framework is new to your team, you’ll likely need to add clarity and upgrade to smooth things out. Operational excellence is impossible without flexibility and constant improvement. Roll out the transition between traditional portfolio management and lean portfolio management by employing the best change management practises. The transition to LPM can be made as painless as possible by establishing a change management process.
Organising Regular Lean Profile Management Events
For LPM to work as effectively as any traditional portfolio management system, a cadence of events must be established for reviewing and prioritising the proposed work. Attending these events allows the APMO to share portfolio metrics and their other insights with relevant stakeholders (not merely interested parties). Thus, it is crucial to put resources towards strengthening the metrics capability. Types of LPM events that you can organise may include portfolio sync, participatory budgeting, and strategic portfolio review events.
Working with Value Streams
The idea of maximising value for the client is one of the basic foundations of any Lean-Agile methodology. Instead of being organised by a goal, teams are organised by function (marketing, sales, and operations). As a result, rather than optimising the generation of value for the customer, decisions are made to optimise the efforts of those functions. Whereas, teams in Lean Portfolio Management are organised by the value they’re supposed to deliver. Value streams are created around a certain product or solution, verticals, or in other ways, with teams organised by competence. Individuals or teams will still perform specialised responsibilities, but they will do so in close collaboration with others who have similar objectives.
There you have your four beginner tips for building an able Scaled Agile framework in your organisation and developing a well-defined LPM function.
