What is Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM)?

EPPM is a higher-level, more integrated type of project portfolio management (or product portfolio management). It involves breaking an enterprise organization’s strategy and operations into smaller initiatives or groups — often called portfolios. Stakeholders across several teams, departments, and locations will have visibility of these initiatives. They can then assign, complete, and review them accordingly.

In short, EPPM is the approach of managing all the projects a business is undertaking simultaneously. For example, a company may have new product portfolios, cost-saving project portfolios, in-market product portfolios, and technology portfolios. Because EPPM operates at an enterprise level, it encompasses all (or at least the majority) of these different portfolios.

EPPM requires a comprehensive, real-time collection of data, so it is most often discussed in relation to the strategic use of integrated PPM software.

What are the Benefits of EPPM?

Put simply, Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) enables organizations to manage and oversee many project portfolios simultaneously, providing:

  • Valuable data for informed decision-making
  • A centralized view of the needs and requirements of the whole company
  • The ability to make it easier to scale the business
  • Better insight and tools to manage budgets, resources, assignments, and capacity
  • Real-time, accurate data that empowers you to prioritize projects
  • Visibility of potential delays, risks, or duplicate tasks
  • Information required to understand revenue attribution of projects
  • Clarity on whether to continue with or kill unsuccessful or non-strategically-aligned projects

Many businesses include market-leading EPPM software in their tech stacks to support their EPPM. This enables enterprise organizations to save money, reduce risks, minimize human error, and speed up transformation.

What’s the Difference Between EPPM and PPM?

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) helps centralize and standardize a distinct portfolio of projects. In a nutshell, Project management offices (PMOs) will use PPM within one specific area of the business. For example, new product development may include several initiatives, but all focus on generating revenue through enhanced or new product offerings.

EPPM takes a top-down approach to PPM. Rather than overseeing one portfolio of projects, all of which share a similar goal or outcome, EPPM refers to managing a business’s entire suite of project portfolios simultaneously.

For example, larger enterprise organizations may have company-wide digital transformation projects and new product development split between business-to-business (B2B) and government ICPs.

It can therefore be challenging to see, measure and track the business impact of very different projects when assessed in silo. With EPPM in place, key decision-makers can see the whole puzzle, not just the individual pieces. This way, they can accurately oversee multiple initiatives in the context of the enterprise and make better-informed decisions.

What are the Roles and Responsibilities of Enterprise Portfolio Management?

Senior leadership teams or Enterprise Portfolio Management Offices (EPMOs) will typically lead EPPM to maintain a high-level view of all projects and understand how they support business objectives. Some of the critical job roles and their responsibilities might include:

  • A leader, ‘head’, or director of EPPM oversees the entire approach. This will include implementing best practices, setting goals, and ensuring activities align with business objectives.
  • Portfolio managers are in charge of one specific portfolio. Their role will include project selection and prioritization, resource allocation, and more.
  • Project managers are leaders of individual projects or tasks within a portfolio. They are responsible for the project’s execution and success.

Every business is different, and in turn, so is every EPMO. Job titles will vary, and in some instances, so will roles and responsibilities. They may include but are not limited to:

  • Portfolio governance
  • Project forecasting to determine success or failure
  • Tracking projects against objectives and KPIs
  • Ensuring an understanding of priorities based on broader business goals
  • Improving the visibility of projects across the entire organization
  • Facilitating communication
  • Providing accessible, accurate data to inform business decisions
  • Building and promoting agility across the enterprise

What are the Key Elements of EPPM?

Successful EPPM provides businesses with effective frameworks and standards to create a centralized and comparable view of all projects across different portfolios and divisions.

While every project, portfolio, and department has unique requirements, EPPM ensures everything is working to support the broader business goals. Key elements of the EPPM approach include:

  • A well-defined strategy that communicates corporate objectives, budget prioritization, standardized project and proposal evaluations, and more.
  • Project and financial forecasting
  • Reducing costs by eliminating duplicate efforts, streamlining execution, tracking progress, and monitoring cost and revenue
  • Cross-functional resource prioritization and dependency planning to improve productivity
  • Business intelligence and analytics to inform decisions
  • Implementing an agile and ‘always improving’ culture

If you are looking for a way to manage multiple projects effectively, we can help. Get in touch.

 

see also: project portfolio management
related articles: building an effective enterprise portfolio management process