How to Design an Effective PPM Process with Costbars

Project Portfolio Management is a strategic approach to managing multiple projects as a unified portfolio, ensuring they align with organizational goals and available resources. Think of it like managing an investment portfolio, but with projects instead of stocks. For an overview of how Costbars supports this approach, see Introduction to Costbars Product Guide.

Key reasons organizations invest in PPM:

Strategic Alignment - Ensures projects support business objectives
Resource Optimization - Better allocation of limited resources (people, money, equipment)
Risk Balance - Maintains a healthy mix of high-risk/high-reward and safer projects
Project Prioritization - Focuses resources on the most valuable initiatives
Improved ROI - Better project selection and execution leads to higher returns

Basic steps to implement PPM:

Project Inventory
- List all current and proposed projects
- Gather key data (costs, resources, timelines, objectives)
  Learn how to set up your project inventory efficiently with How to Use the Spreadsheet Sync.
Strategic Alignment
- Define organizational goals
- Score projects based on strategic fit
- Eliminate or defer misaligned projects
  Discover how to align projects with organizational goals using How to Use Costbars.
Resource Assessment
- Document available resources
- Map resource requirements
- Identify constraints and conflicts
  Manage your resource pool effectively with How to Manage User Controlled Data.
Portfolio Selection
- Prioritize projects using consistent criteria
- Balance the portfolio for risk/reward
- Select the optimal mix of projects
  Use Costbars’ tools for portfolio selection with Use the Tabular and Card Reports for Analysis.
Governance Structure
- Establish clear decision-making processes
- Define roles and responsibilities
- Create reporting frameworks
  Get started with Costbars and set up your governance structure with Getting Started.

Costbars PPM Process - Get Started

After establishing your governance structure, you can follow the Costbars PPM process within the application to establish the Project Inventory, Resource Pool, Strategic Alignment Values, and associated metadata. It can take weeks or months to establish this data and achieve resource-loaded projects to run through the PPM process. For a detailed introduction to this process, see Introduction to Costbars Product Guide.

Steps to run through the Costbars PPM Process

When ready to begin using the PPM process in Costbars, see the Product Help Section.

PPM Process

Prioritize Projects (P Score): Calculate Strategic Priority based on your Strategic Alignment Values and Order of Importance. P Score ranges from 0-100, where 100 indicates perfect alignment with operational strategy.
Learn how to generate P Scores in How to Use Costbars.
Score Projects (Costbars): Evaluate projects using multiple data points including health indicators, costs, hours, Size vs Complexity metrics, and additional project metadata.
Understand the scoring process with How to Use Costbars.
Level Resources: Optimize resource allocation by adjusting project start and finish dates. View resource demand changes across the timeline as projects are rescheduled.
Master resource leveling with How to Use Costbars.
Select Projects: Utilize the bubble chart visualization to filter projects based on P Score and C Score ranges. Run selection analysis to identify optimal project combinations.
Explore bubble chart-assisted selection in How to Use Costbars.
Review Resource Demand: Analyze resource requirements for selected projects and make scheduling adjustments as necessary to optimize resource utilization.
Dive into resource demand analysis with How to Use Costbars.
Finalize Selection: Make final project selections or eliminations to achieve desired strategic outcomes and resource balance.
Finalize your selections using Use the Tabular and Card Reports for Analysis.

Explanation of how AI performed the Link Derivation that are included in the content above. The links take you to useful non verbose content to help use our products and support good business process practices.

Introduction: Linked to "Introduction to Costbars Product Guide" (/introduction-to-costbars-product-guide) as it provides an overview of Costbars and its PPM process, aligning with the article’s introductory focus.
Project Inventory: Linked to "How to Use the Spreadsheet Sync" (/how-to-use-the-spreadsheet-sync) because it details how to efficiently enter and manage project data, crucial for creating a project inventory.
Strategic Alignment: Linked to "How to Use Costbars" (/how-to-use-costbars) as it explains how to generate P Scores and align projects with strategic goals.
Resource Assessment: Linked to "How to Manage User Controlled Data" (/how-to-manage-user-controlled-data) since it covers managing the resource pool and related data stores, key to assessing resources.
Portfolio Selection: Linked to "Use the Tabular and Card Reports for Analysis" (/use-the-tabular-and-card-reports-for-analysis) for its focus on reports that aid in project selection and analysis.
Governance Structure: Linked to "Getting Started" (/getting-started) as it provides guidance on setting up and using Costbars, including initial steps that could support governance setup.
Costbars PPM Process - Get Started: Linked to "Introduction to Costbars Product Guide" (/introduction-to-costbars-product-guide) again, as it introduces the PPM process and references the common help page.
Steps 1-5 (Prioritize, Score, Level, Select, Review): All linked to "How to Use Costbars" (/how-to-use-costbars) because this article comprehensively covers the PPM process steps, including prioritization (P Scores), scoring (C Scores), leveling, and bubble chart selection.
Finalize Selection: Linked to "Use the Tabular and Card Reports for Analysis" (/use-the-tabular-and-card-reports-for-analysis) as it provides tools (Tabular and Card Views) to review and finalize project selections.