"You get a mad underspend in Q1; then you spend Q2 and Q3 trying to catch up on the questions about your Q1 underspend. This is variation waste, and causes massive issues in terms of the ability of the system to absorb the work" - Mark Richards

In this episode, we turn our attention to the application of lean to Portfolio Operations and Governance. Eric focuses on improving flow, while Mark wants to reduce waste. We start by looking at aggregating and analyzing patterns from portfolio members. Discussing moving from PMO to VMO is a prelude to exploring the lean evolution of portfolio events and governance.

We cover:

• (00:00) Intro
• (2:16) How does the systems view of the portfolio help you find points of leverage?
• (10:31) What happens when you aggregate and analyze problem data from portfolio members?
• (15:10) Why are standards so important to portfolio insights?
• (19:38) What typical patterns does a portfolio-level view of Inspect & Adapt events reveal?
• (23:51) How can you learn from analyzing escalation patterns?
• (32:10) What’s the difference between a PMO and a VMO?
• (38:01) What happens when you apply the classic lean waste definitions to portfolio operations and governance?
• (46:42) How does monitoring and governance change in a lean world?
• (51:41) How do you improve the data that supports effective operational governance?
• (1:02:04) Is empathy still important for strategic portfolios?

Cast:

Eric Willeke

Mark Richards

Book References:

Lean Product and Process Development – Allen Ward

From PMO to VMO – Augustine

"In most cases, the portfolio itself is under a fog of war. You can't actually see what's going on unless you take your telescope and really zoom in on an area" - Eric Willeke

This episode concludes the initial six-part arc laying the foundations of lean portfolio management. The first five episodes were devoted to building a clear picture of your portfolio ecosystem. Picture in hand, we explore the insights it might yield and the ensuing interventions they should trigger. The conversation dwells primarily on strategic insights, exploring the concept of 'acting this fiscal year' with operational interventions and preparing to activate strategic interventions next fiscal year.

In this episode, we cover:

• (00:40) Episode Intro
• (01:56) How do you avoid just having great conversations?
• (05:14) How do you pick the right interventions and get support to act on them?
• (16:13) Why start with strategy? What are some typical insights, what kind of interventions do they yield, and how does the fiscal year influence things?
• (33:26) How do you leverage operational interventions to act on strategy insights?
• (38:24) What happens when you focus on portfolio-level strategy insights rather than the ecosystem?
• (51:13) How do you move from executive hunches to data-driven insights and interventions?
• (58:05) What about outcome-based insights?
• (1:03:51) Wrap

Cast:

Eric Willeke

Mark Richards

Show Notes

"It's common for people to say they have a platform strategy that doesn't necessarily resemble a platform strategy so much as a center of dependency hell" - Mark Richards

In Episode 3, we explored the influence of Moore's Zone to Win model on understanding the portfolio ecosystem. Episode 4 explored the role of purpose, context, and structure in modeling the ecosystem you have and starting to look at it through Lean eyes. In this episode, we combine these ideas with the portfolio examples defined in the SAFe Portfolio article Eric contributed to last year. This sets the stage for exploring leveraging the examples to make sense of the portfolio ecosystem you have today and begin to think about the one you'd like to have tomorrow.

In this episode, we cover:

• (00:39) Episode Intro
• (02:51) Why is understanding the portfolio ecosystem so important?
• (05:31) What was the thinking behind SAFe's Portfolio examples?
• (15:49) What is the Single Portfolio example, and when is it too simplistic?
• (26:37) Which portfolio examples live in the Performance Zone?
• (54:10) Why are the Productivity Zone examples so useful?
• (01:06:31) How do you avoid the misconception that an Innovation Portfolio is the only place where innovation happens?
• (01:13:07) Why do none of the examples naturally map to the Transformation Zone?
• (01:18:43) Wrap

Cast:

Eric Willeke

Mark Richards

Show Notes

Book References:

• Zone to Win – Geoffrey Moore

Other References:

• SAFe Portfolio Article