From plan-based to discovery-based Agile portfolio management
summary
Ten concrete controls move portfolio management along a spectrum from plan-based to discovery-based: shorten cycle time to a quarterly heartbeat with same-day escalation, cap work-in-progress (example: reduced a 600-project list to 600 to 150 projects), measure outcome not output using OKRs, run continuous validation with small experiments (use RATS then MVP then MVP → MMP), shift decisions toward product/value owners, shrink batch size, remove dependencies via architecture (microservices), and aim for steady 1% improvements.
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chapters (17)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:07Plan vs discovery portfolio
- 2:54Portfolio management differences
- 5:26Ten control variables
- 5:47Cycle time and heartbeat
- 9:59WIP and multitasking impact
- 16:26Managing by value and outcomes
- 19:18Strategic options and decisions
- 22:14Data-driven decisions and OKRs
- 23:58Execution flexibility and MVPs
- 28:12Decision structures and team roles
- 31:03Value management office vs PMO
- 33:08Continuous validation and experiments
- 34:11Execution mindset and team growth
- 36:17Portfolio improvement and retrospectives
- 39:08Assessing current state and transitions
- 41:13Q&A
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