Breakthrough Portfolio Performance: Managing a Mix of Agile and Non-Agile Projects

Agile has delivered impressive performance improvements at the project level, and some attempts to scale agile’s success to the IT project portfolio have also demonstrated good results. However, agile is not for all IT projects nor all project teams. Sometimes other approaches may be more appropriate. Can disparate approaches co-exist harmoniously in the same project portfolio? Can portfolio managers apply a flexible, “best-tool-for-the-job” approach, while simultaneously driving portfolio-wide adoption of disciplined, hyperproductive techniques? Michael Hannan describes a set of integrated techniques that drive breakthrough performances in IT portfolios comprised of both agile and non-agile projects. These proven techniques and approaches can triple the portfolio’s project completions and double the projects delivered reliably. Specifically, Mike discusses optimal buffer-management methods at both the project and portfolio level, optimal resource sharing methods across agile and non-agile teams, and how to achieve the “common denominators” of focused execution and aggregated risk across the portfolio.