Introduction

P5.express is a minimalist, practical management system for portfolios of programs and projects. It helps organizations make the best use of their available resources by focusing on the most Valuable yet balanced set of programs and projects. It also helps reduce conflicts and rework by involving the whole organization and preventing programs and projects from being run with poor coordination and in isolation.

Like all other systems in the OMIMO (Open Minimalist Modules) family, it’s modular, meaning that you can use it in any setup without being limited to using it with programs or projects that use OMIMO systems; e.g., your projects may be run using P3.express, micro.P3.express, DSDM^®, Scrum, PRINCE2^®, or any other system without causing problems for P5.express.

P5.express can be implemented in most organizations regardless of the type of projects they have or whether they conduct the projects for themselves or for external customers.

P5.express can be implemented before or after implementing structured program or project management systems. Its implementation has a higher priority in many organizations than program or project management.

Usually, it’s best to have one portfolio management system per organization, and P5.express is designed for such a singular setup. Some large organizations that have separate project delivery divisions, each capable of delivering a specific type of project but unable or unoptimized to deliver the rest, may benefit from having a hierarchy of portfolios. For such organizations, P5.express can be used at the lowest level of the portfolio hierarchy to work with programs and projects, along with a separate management system for portfolios of portfolios. OMIMO doesn’t provide a system for the latter. In any case, hierarchical portfolios are not as optimized as singular ones and, and therefore should be avoided unless they are really necessary.

All programs and all projects that don’t belong to a program (called “standalone projects” in OMIMO) must be directed in the portfolio management system, with no exceptions. In addition to optimization and balancing, this helps to avoid conflicts. Projects that are not standalone should be directed in their programs rather than directly in the portfolio management system.

Process

The P5.express diagram illustrates its process. Each node on the diagram is a management activity, and you can read about each of them by clicking on the node in the online manual or by opening its section in the downloaded version. Note that this is a reference manual rather than a training resource.

The management activities fit into three cycles:

• 6-Monthly Cycle: It’s run every 6 months or whenever an important decision has to be made to refine the Value generation strategy.
• Monthly Cycle: It’s run every month to monitor the portfolio and continuously improve how the portfolio management system works.
• Daily Cycle: It’s run continuously (it can be any day, but not necessarily every day) to implement the Value generation strategy.

Organizations that work with large projects that last for a long time can replace the 6-Monthly Cycle with an annual one.

Note that projects and programs are temporary, with a beginning and an end, whereas portfolios are continuous, without an inherent beginning or end. You start your journey of structured portfolio management at some point, but that start is an implementation of the process rather than part of the process itself. That’s why you don’t see a start or an end in P5.express.

Roles

There are two roles in P5.express:

• Portfolio board member
• Portfolio manager

Portfolio board

The portfolio board is a diverse group of high-level managers in the organization who work together and make all the important decisions about programs and standalone projects in an integrated, holistic way.

Composition:

• Core members: All the department heads (executives) in the organization or their equivalents should be core members on the portfolio board. They can have equal or unequal votes. Some core members can have the power of veto, but it’s better to avoid that if possible to improve collaboration.
• Proxy members: Each core member can have a proxy to represent them in workshops when they cannot be present and also to sponsor some of their related programs and projects. Regardless of the presence of the core member, the proxy should attend all workshops to stay aware of strategies. Proxy members must be authorized to make decisions on behalf of the core members in their absence.

There must be a single person in each program or standalone project responsible for its justification, communicating high-level decisions, funding, and resourcing. This person is referred to here as the “sponsor”, but they can have any title. In the case of Scrum and its derived systems, their default “product owner” role can satisfy the sponsor function to some degree. Alternatively, a separate sponsor role can be added to such projects.

Sponsors of all programs and standalone projects must be selected from the portfolio board. Each program or project sponsor is the only person who communicates high-level decisions with their project or program.

Portfolio manager

The portfolio manager’s role is primarily one of facilitation and coaching, but they also have a decision-making threshold used in the Monthly Cycle and Daily Cycle to make the process faster and smoother. The portfolio board makes all the important decisions, and the portfolio manager’s decision-making authority should be used to interpret the board’s decisions rather than to reflect personal opinions. The portfolio manager should not have a direct role in any program or project, to avoid conflicts of interest.

In large organizations, there can be a few support staff to help the portfolio manager.

Each program or standalone project should have a single person representing its management, coordination, and evaluation concerns. This person is referred to here as the “program manager” or “project manager”, but they can have any title. In the case of Scrum and its derived systems, their default “scrum master” role can satisfy this function.

The portfolio manager is in contact with program and project managers for various reasons. However, the portfolio manager should avoid communicating any decisions to them and rather let the decisions go through the program or project sponsors.

Portfolio managers must avoid micromanagement and ensure the portfolio board members do not micromanage either, especially as program or project sponsors.

When there’s a single portfolio management system, its portfolio manager reports to the head of the organization. When there’s a hierarchy of portfolios, the portfolio manager reports to the portfolio manager of the parent level.

Documents

The following are the default documents in P5.express:

• Portfolio Description
• Value Generation Matrix
• Global Follow-Up Register
• Global Health Register
• Business Cases

Remember not to collect data you don’t need, and to keep the documents simple and purposeful. You also don’t have to use complicated software – start with simple tools and switch to more sophisticated ones only if you have good reason to.

The following is a short description of each document.

Portfolio Description

The Portfolio Description is a dynamic text that documents the following key information:

• Organizational strategy, mission, vision, etc.
• Decision-making threshold of the portfolio manager (in exact or rough forms)
• Portfolio board members and their voting powers
• The voting method and its calculation
• Organizational processes and policies that impact portfolio management
• The unit of measure for investments and benefits

The Portfolio Description is first created when implementing P5.express, and it can then be updated in the X2 activity.

Value Generation Matrix

The Value Generation Matrix lists programs and standalone projects on one dimension and their information on the other. It increases visibility and transparency by clearly describing the organization’s strategy for generating Value.

The following are the mandatory fields in the matrix: name, sponsor, status, progress, investment, benefits, Value, Value categories.

The matrix can be implemented in a spreadsheet or using a specialized tool. An example of the matrix as a spreadsheet is available, which shows how it changes in activity X2.

Global Follow-Up Register

The Global Follow-Up Register is a list of risks, issues, change requests, improvement plans, and lessons learned that impact multiple programs or projects. To make sure there won’t be mistakes, such items should not be repeated in the local registers of programs and projects, but rather, their managers should use the global register alongside their local registers. All programs and projects in the portfolio must have such local registers.

Each item in the Global Follow-Up Register should have a custodian. Each custodian should be one of the portfolio board members or program or project managers.

Global Health Register

The Global Health Register stores the results of evaluating the satisfaction of portfolio stakeholders (portfolio board members, program managers, and managers of standalone projects).

Business Cases

Each program or standalone project should have a Business Case created in the portfolio management layer to describe its purpose and justification with the following main elements:

• Why this program/project?
• Alternative options
• High-level requirements
• Expected benefits (covering the positive and negative impacts)
• Method of measuring benefits
• Estimated investment (time, cost, etc.)
• Execution strategy (done internally, outsourced, etc.)
• Major risks

A rough Business Case is usually enough for prioritizing the program or project in the portfolio, but when needed, the sponsor of the program or project may initiate it (form a team to create a high-level plan without executing it) and use that information to create a more refined Business Case.

Tailoring

As with other minimalist systems, it’s best not to tailor P5.express upfront. Instead, you should implement and use it as described in the manual and then customize it gradually, in activity Y3, only in response to feedback collected from the environment and with careful trial and error.

History

The private draft of the first edition of P5.express was published in November 2023, followed by its public draft in January 2024, and the final version on July 2024.