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Explore the Alternatives for Investments

You can define specific plans within the portfolio boundaries to determine how you can best accomplish your portfolio goals. With the larger content set defined, planning lets you perform iterative analysis on the portfolio. For example, you can create the following plans for the IT Projects portfolio that spans fiscal years 2013 and 2014.

• IT Projects Plan for FY2013
• IT Projects Plan for FY2014

You can create different plan versions or scenarios by altering specific parameters to explore different planning options going forward. Ultimately, you can choose to approve a Plan of Record.

To plan effectively, consider the following factors:

• Formal versus informal planning process. Understand if the planning process in your organization is formal, informal or a mix of both.
  • In a formal planning process, plan reviews take longer and changes are implemented in a disciplined manner. This planning process is applicable when the recommended changes are extensive or the changes require more review before you can implement them. For example, approving an investment that requires more budget. Typically, in formal planning, there is a well-defined process of proposals and approvals to plans before you can change anything.
  • In an informal planning process, organizations implement changes faster following the reviews. The changes are smaller and support existing goals. For example, slightly pushing out the start date of an investment. Informal planning can be as simple as someone going into the system and marking a change as approved without any formal approval.
  • In a mixed planning process, organizations implement smaller changes following an informal planning process and more extensive changes following a more formal approval process.
• Planning horizon. Determine the time-span for your portfolio that specifies the planning range of data. To allow planning for current and future investments, verify that the portfolio horizon covers the planning horizons.
• Review cadence. Determine the cadence for your plan reviews. Then you can set up the sync schedule for your portfolio to reflect the actual investment data when you need it.
• Required data for portfolio reviews. Determine the type of data that is required for your reviews. Next, set up your portfolio to capture the required data from the investments. For example, to review cost and resource information, you can capture the following key metrics from your portfolio investments:
  • Days Late
  • Cost Variance
  • Effort Variance
  • Risk
  • ROI
  • Earned Value