Organizing Portfolios Competency
Business Problem
Our organization struggles to execute our desired strategy across the existing portfolio structure, resulting in lost revenue, inability to meet our strategic goals, and decreased market share.
Business Outcomes
- Organizing portfolios around value increases the flow of strategic work.
- Clarifying the scope and responsibility of each portfolio promotes decentralized decision-making and increases responsiveness to emerging opportunities.
- Portfolio Leaders proactively find ways for cross-portfolio collaboration in support of the organization's strategic goals.
- Wasteful work and duplication of efforts across portfolios are minimized.
Why is it important to be competent in Organizing Portfolios?
In today's volatile market, organizing around value to match the company's strategy and vision is essential for success. This alignment ensures everyone is working towards the same goals, preventing wasted resources and missed opportunities. By coordinating efforts, organizations can adapt quickly to market shifts, seize new opportunities, and outperform competitors. It also unlocks the ability to have clear visibility into progress and performance through understanding where the value is flowing and which teams are associated with what major elements of the strategy.
SAFe defines a portfolio as a set of value streams that deliver products and solutions to customers within a common funding and governance model. Each portfolio has a purpose, a context, and a structure. The aim of the portfolio is twofold: to support existing business and drive new strategies across the organization. Organizing your portfolios effectively plays a crucial role in ensuring these aims can be achieved and enables a continuous flow of value to your customers.
A well-organized set of portfolios also enables better strategic alignment, which supports improved execution and empowers your teams and Agile Release Trains (ARTs) to make informed choices. This enables decentralized decision-making in line with SAFe Principle #9 and helps prioritize work that delivers the most value. Additionally, effective portfolio structures lead to optimized resource utilization, enhancing your investment decisions.
Which roles would benefit from mastering this competency?
The Organizing Portfolios Competency enables leaders responsible for strategic value delivery and alignment. The specific roles that generally require mastering this competency are Portfolio Leadership, the Value Management Office (VMO), Enterprise Architects, the Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE), and SPCs supporting the implementation of Lean Portfolio Management.