Portfolio Analysis¶

Portfolio analysis is used to evaluate all running projects together. It answers questions such as: Which projects are on track? Where do resource bottlenecks arise? Which projects endanger other projects because of their dates or resource situation?

Perform Portfolio Analysis¶

Goal: Get a reliable overview of status, priority, schedule position, and resource situation for all projects.

Workflow:

Open the portfolio.
Click Start > Properties > Info.
Open Portfolio overview.
Check projects with category, status, priority, customer, start, and finish.
If required, use Select portfolio to choose another portfolio for the overview.

Portfolio overview in project information

In the portfolio overview, you can control which projects are included in capacity calculation. Active projects are considered. Deactivated projects are hidden and are not included in resource availability calculation.

This is useful for simulations. Example: Temporarily hide a project and check how the resource situation changes without it.

Compare Projects¶

Do not compare projects only by finish date. Portfolio decisions need several perspectives.

Perspective	Question	Suitable view
Status	Which projects are planned, active, paused, or completed?	Portfolio overview, filters in the Gantt chart
Priority	Which projects should be preferred when bottlenecks occur?	Project sorting by priority
Dates	Which projects overlap critically?	Gantt chart, critical path, late tasks
Employees	Which employees are overloaded across projects?	Human Resource Capacity Balancing, project-specific employee utilization
Roles	Which professional qualifications are missing across several projects?	Project-specific role utilization

Identify Bottleneck Projects¶

A bottleneck project is a project that blocks other projects because of its schedule or resource demand, or that can trigger a chain reaction in the portfolio if delayed.

Signs of a bottleneck project:

The project uses a high share of a scarce professional qualification in specific periods.
Finish dates are close to start dates of downstream projects.
The project contains late tasks on the critical path.
The project causes overload for key employees.
Cross-project dependencies show little reserve or negative intervals.

Workflow:

Open the individual project or check it in the portfolio.
In Human Resource Capacity Balancing, check which roles or qualifications are undercovered in critical phases.
Open Start > Properties > Info > Late activities.
Analyze the critical path.
Check whether bottleneck resources are involved in critical tasks.
Decide whether resources must be redistributed, dates moved, or priorities changed.

Project-specific capacity balancing for bottleneck analysis

Derive Risks From Schedule and Resource Situation¶

Portfolio risks often arise from the combination of schedule situation and resource situation.

Schedule risks: Projects with late tasks on the critical path are especially critical. Each further delay can move the project finish date and affect downstream projects.
Resource risks: Projects with few key employees or rare professional qualifications are vulnerable to absence, vacation, illness, or parallel load from other projects.
Dependency risks: Cross-project dependencies can make a delay in one project directly affect another project.
Priority risks: If priorities are not maintained, resource decisions become unclear. Projects then compete for the same employees without a reliable decision rule.

Prepare Decision Basis for Management and PMO¶

Portfolio analysis should not only collect information. It should prepare decisions.

For a portfolio status report, these items are especially relevant:

portfolio overview with status, priority, and finish date of all projects
list of late projects
projects with resource bottlenecks
critical professional qualifications
cross-project dependencies with little reserve
simulations, for example the effect of pausing a project or changing priority

For resource decisions, these items are especially relevant:

Human Resource Capacity Balancing across all projects
project-specific employee utilization
role utilization for critical qualifications
priority of affected projects
effect on finish dates and downstream projects

Export and Further Processing¶

Portfolio evaluations can be processed for external reports. Use export functions when results are needed in Office documents, presentations, or coordination material.

Typical export targets:

Microsoft Excel for tables and evaluations
XML if data should be processed in other project management systems
PDF or print output for static reports

Typical Mistakes¶

Portfolio analysis is understood only as a schedule overview.
Resource bottlenecks are not connected with project priorities.
Individual projects are evaluated without checking cross-project dependencies.
Simulations are not documented.
Status reports list risks but no decision recommendation.