This getting started article will help users to learn about interacting with Portfolios using the TDNext interface. The user must have access to the Analysis application.
Overview
In the Analysis application, portfolio managers can create portfolios to manage a group of programs, projects, project requests, tickets, issues, and risks. A portfolio is a record that is used to group these related items together.
Features
- Allows a portfolio manager to quickly see the overall status of all projects in their portfolio.
- Makes reporting on similar items easier as you can see at a glance details of overall list of items when its tab is selected.
Where to Find This
This feature appears, and is interacted with, in the TDNext interface within the Analysis application. Navigate to Analysis from the application menu in TDNext, then select the Portfolios option in the left-hand navigation pane.
Where to Start
Creating a New Project Portfolio
- In TDNext, navigate to the Analysis application.
- Click +New in the toolbar and select Portfolio from the menu.
- In the New Portfolio window, complete the fields marked as required.
- When finished, click the Save button at the top.
- On the Success page, you can select View the portfolio you just created.
Configuring and Managing Your New Portfolio
- Within the Analysis application, click on Portfolios in the sidebar to refresh the Portfolios listing
- Click the Name of the newly created Portfolio
- The Portfolio will open in another browser tab.
You will now be able to configure your Portfolio to include any existing Programs, Projects, etc. currently in the TeamDynamix system. The following options are available to you:
- General - Lists the basic information about your Portfolio that you completed during setup. Click Edit to change any of these settings.
- Programs - Displays all Portfolio-related programs to your Portfolio view. Click +Add button to add programs to your Portfolio.
- Projects - Displays all Portfolio-related projects to your Portfolio view. Click +Add button to add projects to your Portfolio.
- Requests - Displays all Portfolio-related project requests to your Portfolio view. Click +Add button to add project requests to your Portfolio.
- Tickets - Displays data related to one or more Ticketing Profiles. Information will come internally from a TeamDynamix Ticketing application, or from an external source. The source can be configured under the General tab.
- Issues - Allows you to create as well as manage Portfolio issues, including assigning responsible persons and / or Issue risks.
- Click the Manage button to manage Issue categories
- Click the +New button to creat Porfolio Issues
- Risks - Allows you to create as well as manage Portfolio risks, including a Risk Matrix overview
- Click the Manage button to manage Risk categories as well Show/Hide the Risk Matrix
- Click the +New button to creat Porfolio Risks
- Cost/Work History - Report on the Portfolio Cost/Work History from this tab. This tab exists as an aggregate of items added under aforementioned categories
- Work - Report on the Portfolio Work from this tab. Work consists of the Portfolio itself, including Projects and Tickets
- Time Types - Manage Portfolio Time Types from here.
Portfolio Management Permissions
Portfolio Permissions are managed within TDAdmin under Users & Roles > Security Roles. There are a few permissions that are relevant to portfolio management, and so you may want to create a distinct Security Role just for those individuals who will be managing Portfolios. . In order to access Portfolios, users must have access to both the Analysis and Portfolio Planning applications.
Once a user has access to those applications, the following permissions apply:
- Edit All Project Portfolios - This allows a user with the Analysis and Portfolio Planning applications to edit portfolios that they do not manage.
- Manage all projects in my Portfolios - This gives the user permission to manage the projects that are in the portfolios that they manage. Some project actions will still require that they are a member of the project, but this will give them permission to modify the project itself.
- Issue and Risk permissions (multiple) - These permissions are required to create issues and risks on portfolios (as well as on projects).
The Portfolio Manager Role
A portfolio manager is in charge of all of the projects and other work items under their portfolio. These will often be users who have knowledge of those work items, but may not necessarily be involved directly with each of them.
- The Portfolio Manager can add, remove, and manage projects and project requests within the portfolio. A manager of a portfolio may not be able to edit or manage the projects themselves. This will depend on whether they are the manager of a project or whether they have the security role permission for “Manage all projects in my Portfolios and Programs”.
- There can only be one manager per portfolio.
- During the creation or editing of a portfolio, the Portfolio Manager can toggle the start and end dates of the portfolio.
- The data for the Budget and Work sections of a portfolio comes from the projects and requests. It will show in a graph view.
- Using Analysis, the Portfolio Manager can run reports on their portfolio and see the data points it includes.
- Portfolio Managers can track issues and risks to the portfolio as part of the portfolio, instead of as part of one of the component projects.
Gotchas and Pitfalls
Portfolio and Program Conflicts
The system prevents you from adding any project or request to the same portfolio twice, such as by adding it directly to the portfolio and adding it to a program that is included in that portfolio. Any time when you modify a portfolio, program, project or request, the system will check to see if this creates a conflict before it saves. If there is a conflict, an error or warning message will appear.
Conflict Scenarios
Scenario One – If a program is already associated with a project, and you try to add it to another project in that same portfolio, this will results in an error message.
Scenario Two – If a project is already associated with a program in the same portfolio, it will not be available for selection on the Projects tab of the portfolio.
Scenario Three – Cannot cause conflict when editing a Project/Request.
