Y4 – Conduct a focused communication

What

This is the time to send a short message to everyone in the organization, informing them of the portfolio management highlights:

• Planned improvements (if relevant to the broader audience)
• Progress of the ongoing programs and standalone projects
• A list of programs and standalone projects that have started or stopped

Why

This focused communication keeps everyone in the organization up to date, which can help reduce conflicts and surprises and generate useful ideas from a larger audience.

Who

Focused communications in the portfolio management system are done by the portfolio manager.

How

The content of this focused communication can be sent via email.

This activity can be ignored if its content is communicated in the program and project layers (e.g., activities A10 and F06 of P3.express). However, when there are many ongoing programs and projects, it’s usually better to move those focused communications into this layer and send a unified message to reduce the number of focused communications and keep them more effective.

The portfolio manager should encourage recipients to share their opinions after receiving the message.

Remember that this communication targets a broad range of audiences in the organization. Therefore, it should be kept simple, short, and non-technical.