PortfolioPlan

PortfolioPlan is a formal document used in portfolio management to define how an organization selects, prioritizes, funds, and governs its portfolio of projects, programs, and other investments. It links the portfolio to strategic objectives and provides a framework for consistent decision making across initiatives.

Key components typically include strategic objectives, prioritization criteria, funding models, governance structure, risk and dependency management, capacity planning, and a benefits realization plan. It also specifies data sources, reporting cadence, and the tools or dashboards used to track performance.

Development of a PortfolioPlan involves articulating strategy, establishing evaluation criteria, identifying candidate initiatives, assessing and scoring them, selecting the portfolio, and allocating resources. It sets monitoring and review cycles and is updated periodically (for example quarterly or annually) to reflect strategy changes or new information.

Governance and roles defined in a PortfolioPlan usually involve a portfolio owner, a steering committee or equivalent governance body, a program management office, finance, and representative business units. The plan defines decision rights, thresholds for approvals, funding rules, and change control processes.

Relation to project or program plans: the PortfolioPlan informs and constrains individual project and program plans, providing overarching priorities and funding guidance without replacing day‑to‑day project management.

Benefits and limitations: a PortfolioPlan supports strategic alignment, optimized resource use, risk aggregation, and improved visibility into performance and tradeoffs. Limitations include data quality and availability, organizational complexity, the need for ongoing governance, and potential delays in updating the plan as conditions change.