Strategic portfolio management (SPM) is becoming a well-established discipline in leading organizations. The reason for this is that it works, especially when supported by a world-class software solution through ServiceNow. However, the best organizations aren’t stopping there, they're also embracing the idea of lean portfolio management (LPM). LPM is a recognized and formally defined discipline within the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) which businesses are aligning with to create a structured approach.
As with many lean disciplines, LPM allows organizations to adapt and adjust quickly in order to avoid process and policy infrastructures that harm the ability of a business to respond to shifting environments. It also allows opportunities to be seized and capitalized on before competitors have realized that they exist. In addition, LPM reduces disruption and waste when change is needed, and it supports an environment where employees can engage because they are empowered to act in a way that helps them to be as productive as possible, unconstrained by unnecessary process.
As the name suggests, LPM is about streamlining. It applies governance at the investment or value stream level, providing work teams the freedom to act as they see fit within those value streams and investments. It also applies funding at the same level, which helps make adjustments to that funding easier and quicker to accomplish.
The result is the creation of self-contained delivery environments. Products, programs and services delivered within a value stream or investment that operate within the guardrails established by lean governance, but are otherwise allowed to deliver unencumbered. We then see improved productivity, better solutions and shorter time to value.
Multiple delivery streams are managed through a portfolio management function that is solely focused on optimizing value for the business. Often seen as a value management office (VMO) rather than a traditional PMO (project management office), this function helps ensure that lean principles are consistently followed, while also guiding the business on how best to leverage LPM through everything from appropriate OKRs and KPIs, to consistent communication to all stakeholders through roadmaps and similar tools.
Lean portfolio management also helps support an optimized agile operational environment. Through continuously improving value streams LPM helps ensure that processes, business practices and human efforts are always making the best possible contribution to overall performance excellence. This doesn't happen in a vacuum though. It takes committed business leaders and determined employees, but many organizations have that. It also takes the right technologies, and that’s more than simple a portfolio management tool. ServiceNow SPM integration with the Now platform supports all your LPM endeavors and transforms from simply a portfolio management solution to an integrated part of a technology driven business and technology operating model that eliminates risk, costs and delays. To see how you can envision your digital transformation with ServiceNow SAFe LPM, see the video here.
