Project portfolios

A project portfolio groups projects so you can assess, compare and monitor them together. Portfolios are in the main menu, under Project portfolios. The list shows portfolio names and their projects. Clicking a name opens the portfolio on the Projects tab. A portfolio has the tabs Overview, Projects, Schedule, Budget (when the Budget module is switched on), Risks (when the Risks module is switched on) and Simulation.

Access to portfolios depends on the Project portfolios permission in the user permissions (see Users): a Member sees only the portfolios they are assigned to, a Creator can also create new portfolios, and an Administrator sees and changes all portfolios. A project can belong to several portfolios.

Remembering the view. The order, width and visibility of columns and the Gantt chart settings are saved in the portfolio by a person with edit rights to the portfolio, and they apply to all users of the portfolio. Filters are remembered by the browser separately for each user.

Creating and configuring a portfolio

Creating

1. Go to Project portfolios in the main menu. The add button is visible to users who may create portfolios.
2. Click Add portfolio. The Project portfolio window opens.
3. Enter the Name and click Add.

After the portfolio is created, its Projects tab opens with the window for adding projects (see Adding projects to a portfolio). A user who is not a portfolio administrator automatically gets the right to edit the new portfolio.

The portfolio list has the columns Name (sortable) and Projects (project avatars, and with more of them a +N marker with the list in a tooltip). The Filter by name field narrows the list, and the filter is remembered.

Portfolio settings

The cogwheel next to the portfolio name opens a menu with Edit, Permissions and Delete. The menu is available to users who may edit the portfolio. The Edit project portfolio window has the fields:

• Project portfolio name,
• Project portfolio goal (description),
• Portfolio costs – the amount that the sum of project costs is compared with on the Simulation tab.

Deleting a portfolio requires confirmation. It deletes the portfolio and its links to projects, and the projects themselves stay unchanged. Portfolio permissions are described in Portfolio permissions.

Project list in a portfolio

The Projects tab shows the portfolio projects. By default it shows the columns Name, Workspaces (only when the organization has more than one workspace), Project status, Project health, Milestones, Progress, Project manager, End date, End date – current baseline, Budget and Budget – current baseline (the last two when the Budget module is on). The Columns button adds more data, for example dates and differences against the initial and current baseline, allocation, time tracking, risks, creation date and project attributes. The total row at the top of the table sums the numeric values.

The list is narrowed with the Filter by name field and the filters for status, project manager, workspace and project attributes. Archived projects are hidden by default. Clicking a name opens the project.

The row menu has a Delete item that removes the project from the portfolio. The project itself stays in the system. Note: the removal from the portfolio happens immediately, without a confirmation window. Adding and removing projects requires the right to edit the portfolio.

Adding projects to a portfolio

1. Go to Project portfolios and open a portfolio (a new portfolio is described in Creating and configuring a portfolio).
2. Open the Projects tab and click Add project. In an empty portfolio the button is in the message No elements. Click.
3. Select projects on the list.
4. Click Add.

The list contains only projects in which the user has the right to change project settings (usually as project manager or administrator) and that are not yet in the portfolio. Each project can belong to many portfolios.

A user who may create projects has an arrow next to the button with the menu Blank, From template, From Microsoft Excel, From Microsoft Project and, when the feature is on, With AI. The new project goes to the portfolio immediately (see Creating a project).

A portfolio shows all its projects on all tabs to people who have access to it.

Portfolio schedule

The Schedule tab shows the portfolio projects on a Gantt chart. Each project is a row with a bar from its start date to its end date. The filter narrows the list of projects.

Chart settings

1. Click Chart. A list of switches expands.
2. Switch on or off the elements: Milestones, Dependencies (dependencies between tasks of different projects), Dates, Project manager, Current baseline and Initial baseline (baseline bars), Today line and Project status.
3. Optionally, in the Color field, choose what the bars are coloured by: Progress, Project health, Project status or a list-type project attribute. The field is available when the organization has at least one such attribute.
4. The slider sets the zoom.

Export

The Export button saves the chart as Document (.pdf) or Image (.png). The file contains the chart in the current view. The PDF document opens in the browser PDF viewer in a new tab, where you can save or print it.

Portfolio budget

The Budget tab is visible when the Budget module is switched on in the organization. It puts the budgets of the portfolio projects in one table with a Total row.

Table columns:

• Name (always visible),
• Actual, Forecast and Amount (actual together with forecast),
• Cost [%] and Revenue [%] (percentage bars),
• Baseline (budget from the baseline) and Diff.

By default the columns Name, Actual, Cost [%], Forecast and Amount are shown. Switch on more with the Columns button by ticking the checkboxes next to their names, and hide unneeded ones by clearing them. The filter narrows the list of projects. Amounts are in the organization currency. The budget of a single project is described in Project budget.

Project risks in a portfolio

The Risks tab is visible when the Risks module is switched on in the organization. It collects the risks of all portfolio projects in one table.

• By default the columns Name, Status, Owner, Impact, Probability and Project are shown. The Columns button adds, among others, the project status, category, description, budget impact, schedule impact and final product impact.
• Above the table there is a risk matrix. The Hide matrix (Show matrix) button switches its visibility. Clicking a matrix cell filters the table to risks with the chosen impact and probability.
• The filter narrows risks by name, owner, project, status, category, impact and probability.
• Clicking a risk opens it in the project it belongs to (see Risks).

When the portfolio has no risks, the message No risks allocated to the portfolio appears.

Project assessment in a portfolio (simulation)

The Simulation tab helps you assess whether a set of projects fits the portfolio costs and how the projects score.

Project table

• The default columns are Name, Project status, Project health, Progress, Project manager and Baseline costs (when the Budget module is on). Change the columns with the Columns button, and narrow the list with the filter (name, status, health, manager).
• The checkbox in each row decides whether the project counts in the total. By default all projects are ticked, and the column header ticks and clears all of them. The ticks are not saved.
• With the Budget module on, there are three rows at the bottom of the table: Total (baseline costs of the ticked projects), Project portfolio parameters (portfolio costs from its settings, with a minus sign) and Differences (the difference between them). They show by how much the set of ticked projects exceeds the portfolio costs or leaves room (see Creating and configuring a portfolio).

Chart

With the Scoring module on, the Hide chart (Show chart) button switches the chart, on which projects lie on the axes Benefits and Complexity according to the current scoring version of the project (see Scoring). The point colour is the project status colour. Clicking a row highlights the project point and shows its data next to the chart: name, portfolio, planned costs, project manager, baseline start and end and the number of days.

Portfolio graphical summary

The Overview tab is a grid of charts (widgets) that show the key indicators of the portfolio projects. The same mechanism works in portfolios, reviews and project reports, so the details are described in Reports: data range and chart types, charts for numeric attributes, chart filters and layout, editing and deleting charts.

1. Click Add chart (visible to users who may edit portfolios). The Add chart window opens.
2. Choose the Data Range (the Projects, Schedule and Risks groups) and the Chart type: Pie, Bar, Counter, Percent or List. For pie and bar charts you can set Group by (for example project status, health and manager, project progress, budget overrun or a project attribute of the list type), Labels (Value, Percent) and Color.
3. Optionally set a filter that limits the projects or risks on the chart.
4. Click Add. The chart appears on the grid.

When you point at the title bar of a chart, a menu icon appears with the Edit, Clone and Delete commands. Charts are moved by dragging the title bar and resized by dragging a corner. The layout is saved in the portfolio and applies to all users; changing the layout and the charts requires the right to edit portfolios.

Portfolio permissions

The cogwheel menu next to the portfolio name has the Permissions item. It opens the Permissions window with a list of users and their level of access to the portfolio: View or Edit.

1. Click Add. The Add user window opens.
2. Choose a user and an access level, then click Add.
3. Save the changes in the Permissions window. Removing a user from the list takes away their access to the portfolio.

People with the Administrator permission for portfolios are on the list permanently and always have the right to edit (the tooltip The permissions come from the project portfolios administrator functions). The Edit level allows changing the portfolio settings, its projects, permissions, layout and charts, while the View level only allows viewing the portfolio tabs.