Practice 1 of 4
Align is the PPM4Agile practice that turns ideas, requests, and work already in flight into an approved and prioritized portfolio, with the rationale for every yes and every no written down.
Deciding what belongs in the portfolio starts with the goals leadership has already set, not with the request queue. Many portfolios skip that step. Every request gets a yes, every sponsor has a top three, and teams end up working on everything at once, slowly. A project that was turned down comes back every month, because nobody wrote down why. Align fixes that. You finish with an approved, ranked portfolio and the reasons behind it: which goal each project serves, and what it displaces. Just as important, you finish with a written list of what you are not starting, so a no stays a no. That is a portfolio you can explain plainly and defend when priorities are challenged. This page tells you what Align gets you. Module 1 of the course walks you through how to run it, with a case study and the tools to do it for your own portfolio.
Inside Align
Align starts from what you already have: ideas and requests from across the organization and the strategy and priorities you already set. None of it needs to be perfect. This is what you finish with.
A ranked portfolio your leaders can defend
A written list of what you’re not starting, and why
Your operating system, set up for how you actually work
This page tells you what Align gets you. The course shows you how to run it.
The steps, in order, with the templates to go with them
A case study that shows it done well before you try it yourself
Your own version, built for your organization as you go. No exam: the proof is the playbook you walk away with.
Context
Align is the practice behind phase 1 of the course, Portfolio Development. Each practice feeds the next, and Learn feeds Align to start the cycle again.
Your executive sponsor, your portfolio lead or PMO, and the people who already set priorities. No new titles. These are the people whose decisions it depends on, so they take part in it rather than reviewing a summary afterwards.
In short: a ranked portfolio your leaders can defend; a written list of what you’re not starting, and why; and your operating system, set up for how you actually work. None of it is produced once and filed away, and Focus starts from it. The course module shows how to produce it.
Yes. Align is the natural starting point and produces value before any other practice is in place. If you want help putting the practices in one at a time, that is the implementation service.
Start here
60-Minute Portfolio Clarity Session
One paid conversation over Zoom about your portfolio and your constraints. You leave knowing what Eric thinks is going on and what fits next.
What you get
