Operating in the Project Workspace vs Portfolio Planning Workspace

[DeAndreH]

Part one, I am looking to determine the difference between operating in the Project Workspace vs Portfolio Planning Workspace. If there is a difference, what is the difference? What are the pros and cons of each workspace?

[Namita Mishra]

Hello @DeAndreH ,

Thanks for reaching out to the community to seek the response.

Feature / Focus Area	Project Workspace	Portfolio Planning Workspace
Primary Audience	Project Managers	Portfolio Managers / Strategic Planners
Purpose	Manage execution of individual projects	Prioritize, plan, and govern investments across initiatives.
Scope	Single project level (tasks, milestones, resources, risks, report)	Cross-project/program level (demand, projects, programs, portfolios)
Core Capabilities	- Task management - Gantt charts - Resource assignment - Risk/issues tracking	- Demand intake - managing the dependency across the investments - capacity planning - Funding allocation
Work Elements	Task boards, Gantt view, status report tracking	Planning and roadmap investments along with the capacity management and financials.
Real-Time Updates	Project execution status, resource workload	Roll-up metrics from demand and project execution at the program level or maybe at the portfolio level
Business Value	Ensures on-time, in-scope project delivery	Ensures right investments are funded over the roadmap

In summary:

• Use the Project Workspace when you're executing a project and need to manage tasks, milestones, resources, risks, issues, decisions, change requests and timelines.

• Use Portfolio Planning Workspace when you're deciding which initiatives to fund or prioritize, especially across multiple programs, portfolios, business units etc. Then track the progress of roadmap items from one centralized place.

NOTE: SPM pro license provides the access to Strategic Planning Workspace (SPW) & then strategies, goals association while prioritizing and planning the investments also plays a crucial role from SPW. 

Hope this helps and if it does, please mark as correct answer to help me and the community.

Thank You!

Namita Mishra

[DeAndreH]

@Namita Mishra This is very helpful information, especially the table with the focus areas between the two.