SAFe: Program Portfolio Management

PPM, which stands for Program Portfolio Management is representing people who come with superior-level strategy as well as fiduciary decision-making liability within the framework. In bigger enterprises, there could be different SAFe Portfolios and each of them assists to manage a series of initiatives, usually in the department level or business unit. Every SAFe portfolio comes with a PPM function in which the responsibilities for SIF (Strategy & Investment Funding), Program Management & Governance rest with business executives and managers who understand the enterprise commercial strategy, financial constraints and technology.
They have ultimate responsibility and obligation for defining or implementing their share of the general enterprise strategy. They are usually assisted in such duties through a Project/Program Management Office or PMO that shares liability for guiding governance and program execution. The enterprises may make use of different roles and titles for fulfilling these functions. Or, perhaps, there are no departments and official names for some. Nevertheless, efficient fulfillment of duties and responsibilities is important for success.
PPM or Program Portfolio Management represents people with primary duty for Strategy & Investment Funding, Governance and Program Management in a particular SAFe portfolio. The organizations can use various roles and titles to fulfill such responsibilities or there could be an official section for PPM. Program Portfolio Management comes with the liability to join within the establishment as well as communication of strategic themes which guide the enterprises strategy and investment, determine the related value streams then allocate budgets to them, describe and prioritize through KPIs or key performance indicators.
The effective and successful fulfillment of such responsibilities is the prerequisite for the success of your business. On the other hand, the historical usage of a waterfall model, combined with quite natural proclivity to institute top and down authority on software development triggered the industry to accept and adopt some behaviors and mindsets like maximize utilization, are widget engineering are discussed at length in one and two.
SAFe defines the series of 7 transformational patterns which be utilized to move the company to Lean Agile Program Portfolio Management, shown in Figure 3. Such transformational patterns assist people to better understand the right way to fulfill primary responsibilities which involve strategy & investment funding, governance and program management yet in a more efficient Lean Agile approach. The resolution of investment and strategy funding is supporting the execution of business strategy by means of programs which are developing and maintaining the value added services and products of the company. The streams of value are fostered, identified, monitored or consistently enhanced. Investment funding has been allocated to ongoing, current programs as well as the new initiatives in line with recent strategic themes and business strategy. Supplementary lean practices assist the enterprise meet the economic goals of it. These involve the following:
– Lean-agile budgeting
– Demand management & consistent value flow
– Epics & lightweight business cases
Program management supports & guides efficient program execution. Whilst this responsibility depends primarily inside the Agile Release Trains, VSE, Value Streams & Release Train Engineer, the Program Portfolio Management could help in creating, developing, harvesting and applying effective program implementation patterns all over the portfolio. In most organizations, the RTEs and VSEs are part of PMO, in which they could share best practices, typical program reporting and measures. In some other cases, they will report this to the development association.

–Slimane Zouggari