Versioning of Portfolio

[Former Member]

Dear All,

The process here is that, there will be multiple portfolios will be created and based upon the correct combination of projects (depending upon feasibility), one of the chosen portfolio will be finalized.

I know you can certainly maintain different versions of items of portfolio, however is it possible to have the version management for entire portfolio?

thanks in advance!

Regards,

Mahendra

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Mahendra,

This may not exactly be what you're looking for, but you can create Review objects within a Portfolio, that could be used to capture "screenshots" of portfolio items and initiatives at any given (planned) point in time.  It's not by way of the standard SAP "Versioning" procedure though.  And I think to meet your needs, you may have to design your business process for defining Items and Initiatives carefully, and this is the reason why:

Most companies who need Portfolio Management will want to manage multiple projects within the context of Programs or Initiatives.  The initiative meets the need of aggregating various projects together into a single hierarchy structure that makes sense together.  This "selection" or "initiative planning" or "project selection" process will define "what makes sense", and it's what can be captured in versions.  (i.e. Initiative Versions)

The Review can be then used to score and "version" all Initiatives within a portfolio, and is a de-facto screenshot of what-is at any given point.   Decisions can be made using activities performed on a Review as well  (i.e. scoring, status, etc).

The PPM functionality gap here is bucket versioning, which is what you're asking for.  And that's why I say design of processes using initiatives and items together specifically for Portfolio Planning is key.  Eliminate planning and selection  at the bucket level and this will make your task easier.  If you use buckets to simply be "collectors" of initiatives, then the unit that you're really looking to version are the initiatives.

Then executives can simply use the buckets to look at costs and headcount, as a matter of bottom-up reporting and aggregation.  But the decisions and the REAL data that needs to be managed at the Initiative level.

I hope that helps.  Pardon the long reply.

Lawrence

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Lawrence,

thanks for elaborate reply!

Actually I avoided using initiatives as there are too many glossary terms and objects in PPM for non-SAP users who are entering in this new world.

However I will rethink of it and will see if I can use them over here.

Regards,

Mahendra

[former_member209919]

Hi Mahendra,

Do you need create a version for all items in a portfolio?

You can get in in Portfolio and Project Administrator --> Open the portfolio --> You can also --> Create Version of All items.

Regards,

[Former Member]

Hi Clara,

thanks for your reply! My question was regarding version of portfolios to track changes in portfolio after projects are added on later stage after agreed project plan.

thank you!

Regards,

Mahendra

[Former Member]

Hi Mahendra,

Short answer is no, you cannot version a portfolio. Keep in mind that the portfolio is intended to be a very high level object and most companies do not have multiple portfolios for similar projects. Just based on what you said, perhaps collections or reviews might be a better option if you want to evaluate a portfolio mix of projects.

Lashan

[Former Member]

Thanks Lashan for the reply!

I did envisage the same but just wanted to verify it.

I do not know but this can be genuine requirement where a Company want to arrive upon the correct mix of projects(i.e. portfolio) based upon the factors such as feasibility and ability to deliver.

What is your opinion on it?

Regards,

Mahendra

[Former Member]

Hi Mahendra,

In general your portfolio will consist of your entire list portfolio items or your projects. You only have different portfolios to segregate completely unrelated project. For example, you  might have 1 portfolio all "product development" projects and another portfolio for IT projects.

Each project in  your portfolio will typically go though multiple phases and in the early phases you will review if the project is feasible or not. In order help determine if projects are feasible in PPM you would use a number of functions such as portfolio review, questionnaires and scoring models, phase approval process etc to make decisions and calculate metrics. For example, you might use scoring model to calculate a "score" for project based on any number of criteria. The calculated score can then be used to identify projects which don't make the cut based on feasibility, resource or any criteria as determined by the business. Using status values, you can identiy within your portfolio which projects are active, which projects are canceled, which projects are complete and so on...

You will need to evaluate in detail the business requirements and figure out which functionality in PPM will work best for the business. Personally I don't think the solution is to create multiple portfolios.

Hope that helps,

Lashan

[Former Member]

Thanks Lashan for detailed reply!

Over and above, we have the process of freezing a portfolio or project mix at a certain point of time and if any new projects need to be added into it we call it as change request to earlier portfolio.

In this process, the key requirement is to keep track of the changes in portfolio and show it in different reports.

I am thinking of using the report where I can show the information on number of projects and their values at a certain point of time and then show comparison what is the latest situation of the same portfolio after project addition.

Do you think, above is the best way to manage it?

Also is there any functionality to add new project or item in existing portfolio which goes through formal change request and approval process?

Regards,

Mahendra