After a project portfolio review, organisations often face tough decisions and the need for decisive action. While some initiatives can be handled internally, others may benefit from augmented teams to drive results and lay the foundation for stronger portfolio management in the future.
A project portfolio review is a powerful tool for aligning initiatives with strategic goals, but the hard work begins once the insights are in.
It’s common for a portfolio review to reveal gaps in governance, delivery capability, or resource availability across the portfolio. At a project level, some projects will be performing well and may demonstrate a strong case for expansion and greater return on investment, while other projects might be veering off track – or in some cases, may have already hit the wall. Whether the challenges are at the portfolio level or specific to individual projects, addressing them internally isn’t always feasible due to skill gaps or resource constraints. Here’s why.
EMPOs and the projects within them are made up of teams with complex structures. Unlike BAU teams, which are often function-based and consist of members with relatively similar capabilities that perform the same function, a project is cross-functional. A project can only perform because it possesses a combination of required capabilities that are needed for the project’s unique purpose.
Each capability adds value in different ways and may be needed full time, part time or only during certain points in the project. Sometimes that project is so unique that the necessary capabilities are not readily available in the pool of resources the company has, and compromising on resources generally leads to compromising projects.
Similarly, EPMOs tend to be even smaller than many project teams, even though they may be responsible for a vast range of different types of projects. Adding value to each project can be difficult without the access to relevant expertise, and continuous improvement can be constrained by group think.
Augmenting your existing team with external specialists can reinvigorate stalled projects, tackle specific pain points and offer a fresh perspective on portfolio management. Let’s explore how the right expertise can help achieve this.
Strengthening the portfolio backbone
Good governance is the backbone of a strong and healthy portfolio, but sometimes your health check might reveal weaknesses – sluggish processes, unclear oversight, or gaps in portfolio management maturity. Left unchecked, these flaws can undermine even the best strategies. Often, strengthening this backbone requires more than internal fixes. Augmentation can help align governance with industry best practices and future-proof the portfolio.
Augmenting an internal EPMO or portfolio function can bring insight that is simply not possible to attain internally. The right partnership can bring the collective experience of hundreds of governance models, applied across multiple contexts and industries. It can also provide a level of independence that is useful for solving issues or challenges that may be quite politically charged and difficult to take on alone.
Mature organisations often leverage augmentation in several impactful ways:
- Independent Health Checks and Post-Implementation Reviews (PIRs): Engaging external experts for quality assurance on critical initiatives provides an unbiased perspective, eliminating the “us vs them” dynamic often seen with internal teams. This approach delivers objective project intelligence that might not otherwise be accessible within the organisation.
- Capability Reviews and Uplift: Bringing in fresh thinking and external expertise can help address internal challenges in governance and delivery. Internal teams can sometimes become too immersed in their work to see solutions clearly. A skilled practitioner can offer a broader perspective, helping teams reimagine processes and technology to optimise performance and unlock their full potential.
- Sponsorship Training: Sponsors and business leaders play a pivotal role in project success, yet it’s not uncommon for leaders with little or no delivery experience to be thrust into sponsorship roles. Coaching, training and upskilling in project leadership and sponsorship represent valuable investments in leadership capability, boosting both project success rates and the realisation of benefits.
While this is not an exhaustive list, augmentation provides ways for EPMOs and portfolio leaders to gain cost-effective access to particular skills and capabilities, when it’s needed, and for as long as it’s needed.
Stabilising projects and managing risk
Most project portfolio reviews are likely to uncover projects that need immediate attention – whether due to failure, high risk, or sheer complexity. These projects can derail the broader portfolio if left unchecked, creating ripple effects across the organisation. By tapping into augmented teams, organisations can access the required expertise and capacity to address these risks quickly and effectively, ensuring that the project stays on track.
For example, project recovery teams can step in to correct the course on struggling projects, tackling issues such as budget overruns, scope creep, or misaligned goals. For high-stakes initiatives, it might also be helpful to bring in risk assurance resources, offering external reviews and project health checks to ensure alignment and provide all-important stakeholder confidence, while reinforcing governance and oversight.
Bridging skill and capacity gaps
Even high-performing projects can benefit from external support. Whether it’s through specialised expertise or additional capacity, specialist resources can provide the critical skills to address specific challenges without disrupting core teams.
Complex technical initiatives like ERP/HCM replacements, cloud migrations and other core platform projects are significant undertakings with a high risk of failure or substantial time and budget blowouts – risks no leader wants to face. These large-scale investments are often once-in-a-generation events for an organisation. It’s not unusual for a decade or more to have passed since the last ERP upgrade or replacement, leaving many team members without direct experience in managing such a project. While assigning your best internal talent to these projects is essential, it may not be enough on its own.
For projects of this scale, experienced project and change managers with a proven track record in core platform delivery bring more value than deep business knowledge alone. Augmenting your teams with external expertise ensures that project experience and business understanding work together to deliver outstanding results.
However, when it comes to initiatives closely tied to core business operations or competitive advantage, the reverse holds true. In these cases, intimate knowledge of the business is more critical, with external augmentation providing the specialised technical or vendor expertise needed to complete the team.
Ultimately, setting up projects for success is about finding the right balance of skills, capability and experience – drawing from both internal teams and carefully selected augmented resources.
Culture fit: The eternal X-factor
Critically, successful augmentation hinges on selecting the right people with capabilities that complement the existing team dynamic. Skills alone aren’t enough – cultural fit and teamwork are essential for any success.
Seamless integration into your team and corporate culture is what turns a good resource into a great one. Augmented team members should enhance, not disrupt, the existing team dynamic. Bringing in someone who doesn’t fit the culture can hinder progress and harm morale – no matter how skilled they may be in other respects.
In the world of project delivery, culture is the key to successful delivery. The best augmented resources amplify this cohesion, adding more value than the sum of their parts.
Unlocking the potential of your portfolio with augmentation
By addressing gaps in governance, delivery and resource alignment with precision and adaptability, augmentation enables organisations to turn insights from the review into meaningful action – both immediately and in the longer term.
The value of augmentation goes beyond filling immediate gaps and stabilising at-risk projects – with the right resources, you may find new ways to unlock the potential of your portfolio to deliver lasting impact. The question isn’t whether you can benefit from augmentation, but how far it can take you.
For more information about a portfolio review or project resourcing, please contact us here or call 1300 841 048 to talk to the team.