The SIIA is delighted to introduce the newest member to SIIA’s Software & Services Division, Kivue Limited, a project and portfolio management (PPM) software provider. I had a chance to sit down with Rupert Taylor, Project Manager at Kivue Limited, to learn a little more about how technology is changing portfolio management. Please find my interview below.

Rhianna: Tell us a little about Kivue and what makes you unique.

Rupert: After 30 years of managing complex projects and portfolios, the Kivue team have been in the shoes of people who are accountable for delivery. Kivue know their frustrations and have built a solution to a very specific problem around giving credible and compelling visibility of the performance of a portfolio of projects.

Kivue Perform offers senior execs the concise and visual portfolio intelligence they need to take informed decisions, risk mitigations and prioritization calls that relate to their project portfolio. Perform is a tailor made solution for companies looking to streamline delivery of their projects and portfolios.

The outputs from Perform are visually engaging, easy to navigate and accessible anytime, anywhere. The inputs of Perform are easy for anyone to work with, whether a qualified project manager or not. Perform can be configured in hours and rolled out across the team within weeks. Rhianna: What do you think is the central piece to effective management of project portfolios?

Rupert: The absolute key to delivering portfolios of projects is to gain and retain strong engagement from the senior management team and keep things simple. Most senior executives don’t come from a project background and don’t have much time so don’t blind them with project terminology, 500 line Gant charts that they will never read or long winded and text based project reports that they simply don’t have the time or the inclination to sift through.

Rupert: Create an environment that delivers concise and visual reporting on the performance of the portfolio, consistent formats for tracking progress on all projects across the portfolio and keep the ‘PowerPoint and Excel reporting industry’ to a minimum by using a simple, consistent platform which reduces time wasted on reporting and releases time for focus on delivery.

Rupert: There are 3 key areas to prioritize tracking across a portfolio of projects

1. Benefit Realization: Track when benefits are due to be realized so that you are focused on outcomes not just on delivery milestones
2. RAG trends: Monitor the trends of RAG status not just the current, view the history and get a feel for what is happening over time
3. Financials: track the financial performance of the portfolio via an effective and credible roll up across multiple projects so that you can assess financial performance by project manager, department, portfolio and many more. Make sure you are in the best position possible to control your cost of delivery as early and effectively as possible

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA. Follow the Software team on Twitter at @SIIASoftware.