The New Dynamic of Portfolio Management

“In today's hyper-paced business environment, CIOs need portfolio management to show results fast. This book shows the glide path to the portfolio finish line with a refreshing innovative mindset."

—Michael Brady, Chief Information Officer, USAA

“This bold new book describes why portfolio management is the third wave of the project management revolution and how to win at it!”

—Ruth Lang, Deputy Chief Information Officer at Oregon Department of Revenue

“In today's world, almost everything is a project, and everyone is a project manager. In such a context, this book shows how to easily manage this mass of projects to deliver clarity and business value to the enterprise.”

—Padman Ramankutty, Managing Director, Accenture

“In a refreshing back-to-the-basics approach, this very readable volume approaches why and how portfolio management needs to work. It shows how portfolio management is now a requisite for all business leaders and how to make it deliver.”

—Americo Pinto, Chair, PMO Global Alliance

“This incisive new volume shows how to deploy portfolio management for targeted business growth.”

—Zubair Faiz, CIO, CTO, CISO, Digital & Cloud Transformation

“The rules of work execution and remote delivery have all changed in today's bold new landscape. The need for rapid results demands a dynamic form of portfolio management as explained in this book.”

—Steve Wretling, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at HIMSS

“This book describes a new dynamic form of portfolio management that offers rapid results… definitely worth a close read.”

—Rajat Mishra, COO and Board Member, PREZENTIUM

This bold new text approaches project portfolio management from a fresh new lens of delivering immediate value. In today’s hyper-paced business climate, the need for portfolio management has grown exponentially but the time to deliver results has dramatically shortened. This book recognizes that and explains how an impactful portfolio is attainable using a back-to-basics approach. It also walks readers through the actual implementation of each portfolio component using a popular platform called Smartsheet. Whether you already have a project portfolio, or are starting to build a portfolio from scratch, this breakthrough book will show you how to obtain a high-performing project portfolio without investing in expensive tools.

The New Dynamic of Portfolio Management recognizes the need of a huge number of organizations for a simple, yet advanced portfolio that can be scaled based on your starting point. Every section of this practical desk reference provides guidance for getting your portfolio up and running quickly to achieve immediate results. It also presents a detailed look at successful portfolio governance; explores the important relationship between the portfolio office, CIO, and finance department; and supplies effective funding strategies for project portfolios.

Murali Kulathumani, PMP, has over 22 years of IT management experience. He has successfully managed large project portfolios at leading Silicon Valley firms such as Facebook, Cisco, Symantec, and Kaiser Permanente. Murali has extensive knowledge of the full spectrum of portfolio capabilities and pioneered a simplified form of earned value management, called mEVM, which has been well received by industry practitioners and several organizations. In fact, it has become the standard at a billion-dollar business unit of a leading health care provider in the United States.

Mr. Kulathumani has a technical degree in Electrical Engineering from Bangalore University and an MBA from Purdue University. Murali earned the Project Management Professional (PMP)^® designation from the Project Management Institute and is a Certified Scrum Master. He is the author of Breakthrough Project Portfolio Management (J. Ross Publishing, 2017) and is a consultant, trainer, and professional speaker. Murali has also taught courses as an adjunct professor at Purdue University.

Section I – The Foundational Basics  

Chapter 1 – The New Project Portfolio Landscape

Chapter 2 – A Simple Guide to Project Management Basics  

Chapter 3 – A Simple Guide to Smartsheet Basics

Section II – The Basic Portfolio

Chapter 4 – Portfolio Intake and Assessment

Chapter 5 – Implementing Portfolio Intake Using Smartsheet

Chapter 6 – Portfolio Reporting and Performance Monitoring

Chapter 7 – Portfolio Reporting Using Smartsheet

Chapter 8 – Portfolio Resource Management and Implementation with Smartsheet

Chapter 9 – Introduction to Portfolio Annual Planning

Chapter 10 – Implementing Portfolio Annual Planning Using Smartsheet

Section III – The Advanced Portfolio

Chapter 11 – Budget Management in the Advanced Portfolio

Chapter 12 – Performance Monitoring in the Advanced Portfolio

Chapter 13 – Rebalancing the Advanced Portfolio

Chapter 14 – Benefits Realization in the Advanced Portfolio

Chapter 15 – Strategic Planning in the Advanced Portfolio

Section IV – The Support Systems that Decide Success

Chapter 16 – The Politics of Portfolio Management

Chapter 17 – Introduction to the Portfolio Office

Chapter 18 – Introduction to Portfolio Governance

Chapter 19 – How the Portfolio Office Interacts with the CIO 

Chapter 20 – How the Portfolio Office Interacts Finance

Chapter 21 – Portfolio Rollout and Change Management

Chapter 22 – Real-life Portfolio Problems and Solutions

Index