Welcome to the latest edition of the APM Portfolio Management SIG newsletter 2018

Welcome to the latest edition of the APM Portfolio Management SIG newsletter

Introduction by the SIG Chairs

Firstly, welcome from your new Co Chairs, Lynne Ratcliffe and Steve Leary. Stephen Parrett has stepped down from a very long chairmanship, but we are really pleased he is staying on the committee as his contribution remains invaluable.

Stephen was a founding member of the Portfolio Management SIG in 2010 and has been Chair since 2012-13 and was Co Chair with Steve last year. His commitment, determination and dedication has led us to be one of the most successful SIGs, with well over 1,300 members, and we are very grateful for his efforts.

Looking back over the first half of the year we had a great portfolio management conference in May, the room was at capacity with nearly 150 participants and delegates. Thank you to those of you who came along, we hope to see you all again next year, and we would also welcome any suggestions for content.  We have set the date for the 2019 conference of Thursday 23 May, so please book the date in your diaries.

Unfortunately, Hayley Wood a planned speaker, was unable to present at our conference at the last minute. However, we are pleased that she has agreed to present next year which we are already, sharing her broad experience of maximising the value from portfolio management and delivering the strategic goals.

Our thought leadership reports in our “Managing the Portfolio series” continue, and the second was published just in time for the conference. It has had a great response with over 300 printed copies issued and over 100 downloads, plus 200+ views of the introductory video. The third one, ‘Prioritising and compromising: shaping the pathway’ has just been published.

APM’s first portfolio management guide has been through the external reviews. We are taking the reviewers’ comments on board and are now in the final stages, before going into publication through the APM publishing team.

As you probably know the Body of Knowledge (BoK) 7th edition is being drafted and we are continuing to work with the authors to input best practice portfolio management and ensure the BoK and our guide are fully aligned.

Have you seen the latest SIG blog from Simon Darby, one of our committee members?  It is a great description of his journey into portfolio management and is an inspiration for many of us.

We also have a joint half day event with the Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire branch on Friday 26 October in Leeds, 'How portfolio management can deliver the corporate strategy and goals’. It will be based on two real case studies followed by a workshop. The event is by invitation to corporate members.

July was also a key month for us as we welcomed our new 2018-19 committee. Many stayed on from last year, but we are really pleased to have several new faces joining us and bringing new ideas to our SIG.

As always, please let us have any thoughts, comments, and suggestions etc. to portfoliosig@apm.org.uk

Lynne Ratcliffe and Steve Leary
APM Portfolio Management SIG Co Chairs

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2019 Portfolio Management SIG Conference

The 2018 conference Maximising value from portfolio management was the main event of our year, and we intend to build on the success from previous years.  We are looking at the format for 2019 but there will continue to be plenty of time to mix with our excellent speakers and a variety of guests.

This will be the sixth Portfolio Management SIG annual conference.  We are working on the theme at the moment, but if you have any suggestions let us know as soon as possible please. We are planning on a similar format to this year, with five high profile speakers and presentations on portfolio management, structured break out sessions, followed by our informal networking at a local pub. We hope to confirm the venue  shortly.

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Thought Leadership reports

There are four reports in the series,

• Recognising the need to change: six telling signs – published May 2017
• Making sense of change and gaining visibility: six signals of success – published May 2018
• Prioritising and compromising: shaping the pathway
• Leading and optimising the change: delivering the overall prize

The first two have already been issued and the third is planned for publication in September, and we are aiming to be in time for the “APM National Conference for Women in Project Management”. They are aimed at a wide business audience, including senior executives, change managers, operational managers and project, programme and portfolio professionals, to provide an end to end perspective and address practical challenges on how to think differently about portfolio management.

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SIG guide - Introduction to Portfolio Management

We are addressing the points from the external reviews, which has helped us clarify some aspects of the guide and will improve its readability. It will then go to the APM for publication.

The guide will:

• Provide an overview of what portfolio management is, at a level appropriate for anyone interested in the subject;
• Explain its potential value and benefit to an organisation;
• Relate briefly to other findings, e.g. PMI, PWC, our survey;
• Show the key processes as a generic business model;
• Include examples from our conferences, events and from the experience of our authors and the committee.

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SIG, branch and volunteer liaison

As mentioned above we are leading a corporate session with the Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire branch in October.

Tanya, who joined our committee this year, is also on the Benefits Management SIG committee and we intend to strengthen our ties and work on joint events with this SIG.

Links with the PMO and Governance SIGs are also in place and we have some follow-on actions with various branch contacts.

As the new committee settles in, SIG and branch liaisons will be one of our key areas to focus on.

If you would like your SIG or branch to be included in our plans, please let us know.

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2018-19 committee

We now have 15 on the Portfolio Management SIG committee.

Lynne Ratcliffe and Steve Leary are Co Chairs, Petula Allison was voted as Secretary, and the other members are:
Adam Skinner, Anna Byrne, Dwain Morgan, Gemma Parker, Mike Florence, Nancy Olson, Paul Morgan, Peter Glynne, Richard Moor, Simon Darby, Stephen Parrett and Tanya Durlen.

Welcome to the new committee members.

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Lynne and Steve
APM Portfolio Management SIG Co Chairs

Emails: portfoliosig@apm.org.uk