Most organisations do not have a shortage of project ideas. They usually have more than they can realistically fund or deliver.
A leader wants to improve a service. A team sees an opportunity to upgrade technology. Someone wants to enter a new market or finally fix a long-standing problem. In theory, those ideas should go through a robust prioritisation process to ensure the projects that are funded represent the best use of organisational resources. In practice though, the process of project approval is often inconsistent, easy to override or overly influenced by who is backing the idea.
Even where a formal prioritisation model exists, we often see weak inputs. If a proposal is built on a thin business case, vague benefits or sweeping claims about how the organisation will somehow be better at something, the output will be weak too. A prioritisation model cannot fix poor thinking. It just puts a number on it.
Project selection has to be more than a scoring exercise. It needs clear criteria, realistic assumptions and proper challenge. What problem are we trying to solve? What value will this create? How confident are we in that value? What will we need to stop, delay or deprioritise to make room for it?
Without that level of rigour, the portfolio can be shaped by influence rather than evidence. Resources are spread too thinly. Lower-value work gets approved ahead of more important initiatives. Organisations end up spending real time and money on projects that do not deliver enough value to justify the effort. Choosing projects should not be an administrative task. It is one of the most important commercial and strategic decisions an organisation makes.
Another element of prioritisation that is often poorly managed is capacity. Resource capacity, financial capacity and capacity for change all matter. A project might look attractive on paper and still be unrealistic to deliver.
The role of the PMO
Good portfolio data is essential if an organisation wants to answer these questions honestly. Does the Portfolio Management Office (PMO) actually know how many people with a critical skill set are available and what their workload already looks like? Is it clear how much change the workforce can absorb before fatigue starts to show? Can the business fund the work and still support what has already been approved?
People, funding and attention are limited. If everything is a priority, nothing is, which is why portfolio management is such a critical discipline. Organisations need a clear view of what they are doing, why they are doing it and who is actually going to deliver it.
Portfolio management should not be thought of as just a governance process. At its best, it helps an organisation invest in the right work, align delivery with strategy and improve the chances that key initiatives will succeed, both commercially and operationally.
At the centre of this sits the Portfolio Management Office. Executives may set strategy and sponsor major initiatives, but the PMO Director or Manager is often the person responsible for making sure the portfolio is governed properly, aligned to strategy and realistic to deliver
Start with strategy
One of the most common mistakes organisations make is starting with ideas and projects instead of strategy. A proposal arrives, it’s a great concept and has a passionate and committed sponsor. The business case looks promising. The initiative is approved on its own merits and added to an already crowded portfolio. Over time, the organisation ends up with a collection of individually sensible projects that, on reflection, do not contribute clearly to the organisation’s strategic direction.
Strong portfolio management aims to work the other way round. It starts with a clear view of strategy. What are the organisation’s priorities over the next three to five years? Which outcomes matter most? What problems must be solved to get there? Only then should projects be assessed. Each initiative should be able to show how it contributes to a strategic outcome.
The PMO leader has a critical role here. They help make sure the process for proposing and approving projects is anchored in strategy rather than personal preference, habit or internal influence. Instead of allowing projects to enter the portfolio through enthusiasm or informal sponsorship, the PMO puts in place a framework that requires initiatives to show clear strategic alignment. That is how the portfolio becomes more than a list of projects. It becomes a test of whether the organisation is serious about its strategy.
Select the right projects
Given that most organisations have far more projects than they can deliver, the real discipline in portfolio management is deciding what not to do.
Effective project selection usually comes down to three things:
- Strategic alignment. Does the initiative support one or more strategic priorities?
- Value and benefit. What outcomes will the project deliver? That might include financial return, operational improvement, better customer outcomes or reduced risk.
- Capacity and risk. Even well-aligned projects compete for scarce resources. The organisation needs to decide whether it has the capability, capacity and appetite to deliver the work successfully.
The PMO will usually lead the design and implementation of the prioritisation framework. That includes setting the evaluation criteria, supporting prioritisation discussions and making sure decisions are based on data rather than assumptions.
It also matters where the PMO sits in the organisation. If the PMO leader is too far removed from the executive table, the function is more likely to be overruled, underused or reduced to administration. If the PMO has senior-level access and backing, it is in a much stronger position to gather the right data, challenge weak proposals and contribute properly to strategy execution.
That is when the PMO can start to add real value. It becomes a trusted adviser to the senior leadership team and helps shift decisions away from politics and towards deliberate investment choices.
From approval to delivery
Portfolio management does not stop once projects are approved but, in many organisations, that is where things can start to drift.
A great deal of effort goes into getting initiatives approved, yet too often far less effort goes into checking whether they are still on track, still aligned to the original intent and still worth continuing. Problems are often visible long before anyone is prepared to act on them.
Status reports may show cost, schedule, risk and other delivery metrics, but they do not always loop back to the bigger question of whether the initiative is still delivering the benefits and value it was approved to create.
A high-performing and empowered PMO helps stop that from happening. It keeps the portfolio visible and tracks whether initiatives are delivering what they promised. It gives leaders enough information to intervene early, rebalance priorities or stop work that no longer stacks up.
Turn strategy into results
Portfolio management is how strategy shows up in actual investment decisions. It connects what leaders say matters with what teams are asked to deliver.
When portfolio management is weak, organisations try to do too much. Resources are stretched. Attention is fragmented. Benefits are diluted. Work gets approved because it sounds useful, not because it is the best use of time and money. When portfolio management is strong, fewer projects tend to be approved but the ones that go ahead are there for a reason. Initiatives are aligned to strategy. They are properly resourced. They are actively managed.
A high-performing PMO gives leaders the visibility and discipline to make that possible. And that is the point. Not more projects. Better choices about which ones are worth doing.
How we can help!
At Pledge Consulting, we support clients across the full project lifecycle, from early business case development through to delivery, governance and benefits realisation. If your organisation is running into roadblocks with project prioritisation, portfolio management or broader project delivery challenges, get in touch today for a confidential discussion.
References
Project Management Institute. (2025). Pulse of the Profession® report 2025: Boosting business acumen. https://www.pmi.org/learning/thought-leadership/boosting-business-acumen
Project Management Institute. (2019). Benefits realization management: A practice guide. Project Management Institute. https://www.pmi.org/standards/benefits-realization
Project Management Institute. (2016). Benefits realization management framework. https://www.pmi.org/learning/thought-leadership/series/benefits-realization/benefits-realization-management-framework
Association for Project Management. (2024). Maximising organisational success through benefits management and portfolio prioritisation. https://www.apm.org.uk/blog/maximising-organisational-success-through-benefits-management-and-portfolio-prioritisation/
Zwikael, O., & Huemann, M. (2023). Project benefits management: Making an impact on organizations and society through projects and programs. International Journal of Project Management, 41(8), Article 102538. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2023.102538
