This document discusses portfolio and project management best practices between two universities. It begins with an agenda and background on the University of Idaho and Evergreen State College. Both schools faced challenges with inefficient technology investments and a lack of governance. To address this, they implemented dedicated project management resources, processes, and transparency. The rest of the document covers key concepts, measuring maturity, example models, roadmaps, and exercises. It provides a recipe for success that involves understanding the current state, goals, and regularly planning, checking, and communicating progress.

1. Becoming a Partner of Choice in Portfolio & Project
Management
Jamie Daniel
Technology & Application Services
danielj@evergreen.edu
(360)867-6849
Moscow, Idaho
Jane Cox
Portfolio & Project Management
jmcox@uidaho.edu
(208)855-7233

2. Agenda
 Our Stories
 Definition of Project and Portfolio
 How to Frame Governance and Improve Visibility (Exercise)
 Key Concepts for Successful Practice
 Measuring Maturity
Example Model and Roadmap
Self-Assessment & Goals (Exercise)
 Recipe for Success

3. University of Idaho
2016 numbers
Faculty - 934
Staff - 1530
ITS Staff – 100 (incl. 35
TH)
Founded 1889
Enrollment - 11,534
Campuses - 5
University
of Idaho

4. Initial Challenges
 Gaps, inefficiencies and duplications in technology
investments
 Rapid growth in technology projects
 Real and perceived project failures
Never ending projects
Failure to understand total cost of ownership
 Ad hoc prioritization
 Limited oversight
 Security and compliance concerns
University
of Idaho

5. What did it Take?
• Institutional commitment
• Assigned a dedicated person
• Understand your portfolio
• Educate staff
• Build the process and maintain
consistency
• Align projects with University strategic
direction (governance process)
• Increase collaboration across the
University
Communicate
Communicate
Communicate
University
of Idaho

6. The Evergreen State College
Founded 1971
Enrollment 4,089
Campuses 4
Faculty 224
Staff 534
ITS Staff 40
The Evergreen
State College

7. Evergreen’s Challenges
 Technology grew organically
 Shrinking IT resources
 Isolated project prioritization
 No campus transparency
 Numerous rapidly aging applications/ systems
The Evergreen
State College

8. What are we doing?*
 IT Leadership committed to building a core set of project management principles
• 4 Associate Directors = IT project managers
• Developing curriculum for entire IT staff with basic PM principles
 Leveraging campus relationships better
• Academics has a PM – she is the PM on all Academics application projects
• New, vendor hosted RFPS – requirement that departments hire a 2 year project
implementation position
 Transparency, communication, governance
• Quarterly newsletter, monthly workgroup meetings, governance groups, training
materials on how we do projects
The Evergreen
State College
* This is very much a work in progress – ask me in another
year how this is going

10. A Recipe for Success
Creating your unique project & portfolio management approach

11. Key Concepts For Successful Practice
Quick Wins
 Visibility into current projects
 Clear scope definitions
 Project prioritization
 Successful projects
Improvements
 More effective decision making
 Enhanced scoring – stronger risk based
 Ability to as “here is how we can help you?
 Improved picture of IT investments

12. BUILDING THE PPMO
ConsistencyAccountabilityLifecycleStructure
Definition

13. Define What is Important
Portfolio/Portfolio Management
Project/Project Management
Change Management
Oversight/Governance
Roles
Levels of PPMO Engagement (High, Medium
and Low)

14. Structure
PPMO reports directly to CIO/VP
Portfolio must be created in right way
• Minimize disruption (integration of existing processes)
• Maximize effectiveness (align w/current planning)
Structure aligns with existing functions
• ITS takes ownership of leading technical delivery
• PPMO owns project management tools and processes
• Unit leaders cannot ignore their role and partnership with
ITS
Change is Mandatory, Disruption is Optional
Innotas 2014 ProjectManagement.com

15. Portfolio Lifecycle
PORTFOLIO
LIFECYCLE
Idea Generation
Preliminary
Screening
Prioritization
Strategic Project
Execution
Portfolio Change
Management
Centralized
Benefits Tracking
and Accountability

16. ACCOUNTABILITY
 University focus not unit focus
 Meaningful agreement to change the way
the organization makes IT investments
 Words backed by actions
 Cultural change
 Organizational and personal goals tied to portfolio success
 Accountability for delivery of success criteria
 Remove stand alone project execution
 Focus on benefits realization not deliverables

17. Plan
DoCheck
Act
“PDSA Process" by Johannes Vietze - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PDCA_Process.png#mediaviewer/File:PDCA_Process.png
Dr. W. Edwards Deming
BUILDING THE PPMO

18. How to Frame Governance
 Identify a Governance Authority (CIO, Committee, etc.)
 Define Required Documentation
 Prioritization process
• Risk
• Impact
• Organizational Priority
 Map Review and Approval Workflow
 Communicate Results
• Email
• Web

19. Measuring Maturity
• Identify Current State
• Determine Graduated Maturity Levels
• Determine Measurements
• Establish Roadmap

20. Simple Maturity Model
Processes are
informal or not
defined.
Processes are
defined, but not
well adopted.
Processes are
defined,
repeatable, and
followed.
Processes are
aligned and
performance is
measured.
Processes are
optimized and
continually
improved.
<15% 30% 45% 60% 75% 90% 100%
Mastered
In Progress
Future

21. Projects Applications Infrastructure People Process Information Overall IT Portfolio
Level 0
Admitting
Collecting data on projects Collecting data on
applications
Collecting data on
infrastructure
Collecting information
on people and their
skills
Determining processes and
owners.
Identifying primitive
entities
Recognition of need
for an IT portfolio
Level 1
Communicating
Aggregated and interrelated
project information with
standard business cases
Listing of all
applications with basic
characteristics
Listing of all
infrastructure with basic
characteristics
Listing of all IT
professionals and
skills
All processes documented in
similar fashion
Listing of key entities
with characteristics to
identify issues
All sub-portfolios at
Level 1
Level 2
Governing
People, processes, and
policies are standardized to
ensure governance and
consistency around project
management
Application owners
exist. Lifecycles
managed.
Defined application
portfolio process in
place
Basic asset
processes in place.
Infrastructure owners
identified.
Defined infrastructure
portfolio process
Basic human capital
management
exist to proactively
update skills.
IT human resource
managers exist.
A business improvement
methodology and team
Processes stored in common
repository.
Processes reconciled to
reduce redundancies.
Process owners identified.
Information
active to enable portfolio
management.
Governance around
information use exists.
Legitimate owners of
information identified.
All sub-portfolios at
Level 2
Level 3
Managing
Metrics for governing
processes and key supporting
processes are identified and
captured
Metrics for governing
processes and key
supporting processes
are identified and
captured
Metrics for governing
processes and key
supporting processes
are identified and
captured
Metrics for governing
processes and key
supporting processes
are identified and
captured
Metrics for governing
processes and key
supporting processes are
identified and captured
Metrics for governing
processes and key
supporting processes
identified and captured
All sub-portfolios at
Level 3
Level 4
Optimizing
Project portfolio reflects real-
time project information.
Portfolio is integrated with
other portfolios, most
specifically people,
infrastructure and
applications.
Performance and life-
cycle information is
affecting the portfolio.
Information from other
portfolios is used to
balance portfolio while
feeding information to
the process portfolio
Asset Management
information is used to
balance the portfolio
and associated
portfolios, including
project, people, and
process.
Portfolio is used
against process,
project and
infrastructure to
ensure optimum mix
of skills exist in
sufficient quantities to
support current and
future needs.
Proactively identifying
shortages.
Processes exist in a portfolio
with supporting metrics and
ties to the applications
supported by these
processes and the
information touched by
these processes.
Processes can be adjusted
based on information and
other sub-portfolios.
Data quality flows up
the portfolio, enabling
rapid corrective action to
be taken through
information
or operational processes
in other related sub-
portfolios.
All sub-portfolios at
Level 4
Copyright 2005, Bryan Maizlish and META Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Gartner, Inc.

22. Roadmap
PPMO
Portfolio
Management
Metrics
Management
Project
Management
Requirements
Management
Test
Management
Resource
Management
Project Managers Business Analysts Test Analysts
Areas
Roles

23. PPMO Ongoing Improvement – FY17
Subject (% maturity) Task Notes Status (Started,
In Progress, Complete, Hold)
Project Mgmt Define rigor levels
Project closure – Lessons learned
Expand on small, medium and large
definitions. Priority and risk based.
Budget Management (50%) • Portfolio Expectations
• Operational
• Estimating
This includes resource materials and
training sessions where necessary.
Change Management (60%) Refresher trainings
Charter (50%) Develop scope statement options Scope statements for projects not meeting
project definition.
External Expansion (1%) • Begin Planning This should begin at end of FY17
Initiatives (75%) • Technology Governance Begin planning on initiative
Outreach (5%) • Internal to ITS @ UI
• External to ITS @ UI
• External to ITS – Industry
This includes internal trainings and external
speaking engagements.
Requirements (20%) • Training (Roles, Elicitation, Analysis,
Representation, Validation, Change
Control)
This includes resource materials and
training sessions where necessary.
Resource Management (5%) • Define practice/procedures Integrate with Governance processes
Risk Mgmt (25%) Training on risk definition and
mitigation
This includes resource materials and
training sessions where necessary.
Testing (20%) • Roles
• Types
• Training
This includes resource materials and
training sessions where necessary.
Timeline (25%) • WBS facilitation
• Estimates & Efforts
• Project closure (Lessons Learned)
This includes resource materials and
training sessions where necessary.

24. Self-Assessment & Goals Exercise

25. Recipe For Success
Ingredients:
1 measure of your Current State
1 measure of Where you Want to Be
Mix in your Roadmap
Plan, Do, Check all ingredients on a regular basis
Ice with Communication, Communication, Communication

26. Thank you!
Jamie Daniel
Technology & Application Services
danielj@evergreen.edu
(360)867-6849
Moscow, Idaho
Jane Cox
Portfolio & Project Management
jmcox@uidaho.edu
(208)855-7233