After the project portfolio review, the real work begins. Realigning priorities, making tough calls and empowering the EPMO to ensure each project contributes meaningfully to the organisation’s long-term goals.
A thorough project portfolio review can feel like reaching the finish line – but in truth, it’s just the starting block.
The review offers a valuable snapshot: which projects are lagging, which are delivering strong results, and which are shifting in ways you didn’t anticipate. With these insights in hand, the real work begins – realigning the portfolio to drive maximum value and embedding a cycle of continuous improvement into your project management approach.
Reassessing and realigning your portfolio
The first step and most immediate step – realigning the portfolio – calls for decisive leadership across multiple levels. Ideally, these decisions should reach the highest level of sponsorship or even the investment committee to ensure that each strategic shift is backed by a solid risk assessment and has buy-in from key stakeholders.
This high-level oversight is essential because tough choices will need to be made. Balancing competing priorities and rethinking resource allocation are never easy tasks, but with executive guidance, these decisions have the best chance of staying aligned with the organisation’s broader goals and resources.
By this stage, projects often fall into clear categories: those that are underperforming, those ticking along as expected, and those that hint at new opportunities. It’s this last group that brings the most excitement – when the review shines a light on potential projects or untapped growth areas.
For projects that aren’t hitting their targets, leaders need to ask whether the issues are just one-off challenges or signs of something more systemic. This might mean scaling back resources, adjusting timelines, or even calling “time” on the project if the benefits no longer stack up. It’s essential here to steer clear of the sunk cost fallacy – the urge to keep investing simply because you’ve already poured time and money into it, rather than focusing on what the project can still realistically deliver.
Brave organisations – and the leaders within them – know when to hold and when to fold. Stepping back from a project, even after a hefty investment, takes a clear focus on strategy rather than clinging to past efforts. While these decisions can be challenging, they ultimately allow the organisation to redirect time, funding, and effort towards initiatives that better fit its vision and have a stronger chance of achieving portfolio goals.
While it’s natural to focus on projects at both ends of the performance spectrum, a well-balanced portfolio will also include projects delivering steady, strong returns. This group may seem low-risk, but it’s crucial not to let them run on autopilot. Regular health checks at both the portfolio and project level will help to prevent surprises and keep high-performing projects in peak form.
The role of the EPMO: referee and coach
Throughout the realignment process, the Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) plays a vital role, stepping in as both referee and advisor to keep decisions objective and fair. Their role in upholding transparency across the board is crucial.
But the EPMO has another key role to play: that of a coach, focused on lifting future performance. Continuous improvement is at the heart of the EPMO’s responsibilities. Rather than viewing each portfolio review as a one-off exercise, the EPMO should be looking out for recurring themes and tracking them over time.
For instance, if issues like scope creep or budget blowouts are common, it might be a sign that tighter scope management or better forecasting is needed. Likewise, if certain sponsors are consistently overseeing underperforming projects, it could point to gaps in oversight or the need for sponsor training.
And then there are the dreaded “watermelon projects” – the ones that look green on the reporting dashboard but are red on the inside, progressing under overly optimistic assumptions. If this pattern keeps showing up, it could be a sign of a good news culture, where project leads hesitate to report issues. Tackling this requires fostering a culture that values transparency and constructive feedback.
Sometimes, having an independent perspective can make all the difference. An impartial view- whether in the form of an external advisor or integrated into processes like your investment committee – can bring to light issues that may otherwise go unnoticed or ignored, because “that’s the way we’ve always done it here”.
Moving beyond the review
In the end, a portfolio review only matters if it sparks action. Realignment, tough calls and fearless leadership turn insights into progress. With the EPMO’s support, organisations can stop simply managing projects and start steering the portfolio towards real, strategic impact – and ultimately, ensure that every project contributes meaningfully to the bigger picture.
For more information about a portfolio review or support with realigning your projects, please Contact us here or call 02 1300 841 048 to talk to the team.