Chapter 12
Portfolio Management
In This Chapter
Prioritizing portfolios with scrum
Applying scrum to entrepreneurial endeavors
Scaling scrum using vertical slicing, SAFe®, and LeSS scaling options
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
— Peter Drucker
Most organizational efficiency problems are not at the execution team level and are not fundamentally efficiency problems; they are effectiveness problems at the executive level. The number-one issue in portfolio management is a failure of leadership to properly prioritize projects and therefore allocate talent appropriately. This failure of leadership is then masked by thrashing people across several projects. Communication fails, priorities get dropped, and the squeaky-wheel syndrome takes over — where the loudest stakeholder gets the most attention and resources.
You only have one way to handle the situation of more projects than talent — prioritize. Effectiveness over efficiency. If an organization is highly efficient, but working on the wrong features, what good does it do? It’s far more critical to be effective. Work on only those highest-prioritized projects and those highest-prioritized ...
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