As a business owner, I balanced an IT project portfolio of customer projects, product needs and operational commitments. I had to decide what we could promise, what came first and how new work would affect people's time and the company's finances. I use that experience to make priorities clear to leaders, teams and customers.
At Modified Solutions, we worked on several project-based customer assignments at the same time. avecdo also had its own product needs and operational commitments. I had to look across all of it: which deliveries had been agreed? Where was the risk greatest? What would a new task cost in time and focus? And who needed to be able to make a decision if the plan changed? That is the practical side of portfolio management I come from.
Choosing between projects in the portfolio
I start by distinguishing between four things: what has already been promised; what is necessary for stable operations; what creates new value; and what we do not yet know enough about. They cannot all be treated as identical tasks in a single queue. If a customer wants faster delivery, we have to show what that changes for other agreements. If a technical risk grows, it has to be brought into the open, even if the work is not as visible as a new feature.
I have prioritised together with a partner, a product owner, developers and customers' decision-makers. I want to listen to their different knowledge and then help make a choice. A priority list only becomes useful when someone can explain why it looks the way it does and when it should change.
Time and money are connected
As a starting point, we booked around 80 percent of the developers' time for customer work and left the rest for unforeseen events, learning and coordination. That choice was not only about wellbeing. It was also financial responsibility: if all time is sold in advance, bugs, changes and internal development are paid for with delays or overload. The specific model is explained on the page about capacity planning.
Across projects, finances are also about knowing the difference between revenue and good business. A project can look interesting at first glance but require an expensive integration or a lot of maintenance afterwards. I am used to assessing scope, delivery commitments and total cost with both the customer's and the company's perspective in mind.
Create a basis for decisions that actually gets used
A company with many projects needs an overview, but not necessarily more reports than people can act on. I would start with the actual deliveries, the available capacity and the biggest risks. Which few decisions are missing? Who owns them? What is the consequence of postponing them? Only when those questions are clear does it make sense to choose formats, meetings and metrics.
I bring practical responsibility from a project and product business, where priorities affected real customers, employees and money. That experience can be used in a larger organisation that wants a clearer connection between strategy, projects, capacity and execution.
Contact: kontakt@tomc.dk · +45 299 297 67