X - Biannual Cycle
Y - Monthly Cycle
Z - Daily Cycle
Y2 - Evaluate the ongoing programs and projects
What
Measure the performance of ongoing programs and projects and re-estimate their expected benefits.
Why
As programs and projects are executed, we’ll learn more about them and can make our assessment of their strategic value more realistic. This refinement can result in stopping programs and projects that lose their absolute justification or pending those that have a significant decrease in their relative justification. Both actions help make a better use of our resources and opportunities.
On the other hand, this evaluation may show that the program or project has become more important or sensitive than it was before and, therefore, requires more support and a higher priority in the organization.
Who
The performance of programs and projects is measured by their managers, with supervision from the portfolio manager. The re-estimation of the expected benefits will be done by sponsors, with supervision from the portfolio manager.
How
This activity is connected to the cyclic program and project management measurement activities (e.g., activity C01 of P3.express). If the program or project management systems don’t have such a cyclic measurement activity, it must be added to them.
Normally, we’d expect to have the following measurements:
- Overall progress (percentage)
- To-complete investment forecast (e.g., time and cost)
The portfolio manager is responsible for ensuring that the performance of programs and projects is measured correctly. They should also work with the sponsor of each program or project to re‑estimate the expected benefits (e.g., activity B03 of P3.express). All data will be stored in the Value Generation Matrix.
The portfolio manager should avoid collecting unnecessary data and instead focus on data that serve a clear purpose and keep the system simple and purposeful.
After updating the investment forecast and estimated benefits, the portfolio manager can calculate the new estimated strategic value:
strategic value = benefits ÷ investment
Based on the new strategic value, if the program or project loses its absolute justification or there’s a significant decrease in its relative justification, it may have to be canceled or paused. If the portfolio manager and the sponsor can agree on that decision according to the Value Generation Matrix, they will finalize it in this activity. Otherwise, the portfolio manager should run an exceptional Biannual Cycle and ask the portfolio board for a Strategy Workshop.