From request to launch: how to specify project portfolio management software
A project portfolio management system should connect demand, decisions, evidence, and capacity. It should show the work an organization receives, the projects it funds, the evidence behind each decision, and the resources needed to deliver the work. From request to launch is a handbook for the people who write PPM RFPs or URSs for product development organizations.
Product development teams receive requests from customers, sales, plants, regulatory teams, and leaders, and their projects share people, equipment, budgets, and technical results. Broad statements such as “the system shall manage projects” or “the system shall provide dashboards” cannot show whether a supplier manages those connections.
What should a PPM RFP or URS include?
A PPM RFP or URS should include requirements for request management, stage gates and project governance, portfolio prioritization and scenario decisions, resources, scheduling, and time, and connected data and reporting. It should also cover implementation and governance: process, data, resource, integration, report, and access owners.
Ask suppliers to demonstrate one piece of work end to end: a request routed, merged, and converted to a project, a gate closed on evidence, a portfolio ranked and checked against capacity, and delivery tracked against plan. In Uncountable project portfolio management, projects link to the experiments, test results, deliverables, and costs that gatekeepers need.
Who this handbook is for
Portfolio and PMO leads, R&D managers, IT teams, and project sponsors writing a project portfolio management RFP or URS.
For a one-page overview of how Uncountable approaches this, read the solution brief PPM at Uncountable: a portfolio that knows its own status.
What's inside
Inside this handbook:
- What PPM must manage across customer requests, new products, reformulations, cost reduction, regulatory work, and research
- Requirements for request intake, routing, duplicates, conversion to projects, and service levels
- Requirements for stage gates, deliverables, gatekeepers, evidence, and conditional decisions
- Requirements for portfolio scoring, ranking, strategic balance, and what-if scenarios
- Requirements for resources, equipment, scheduling, capacity, and time tracking
- Requirements for connected R&D data, costs, integrations, and access-limited reporting
- A supplier demonstration scenario and common mistakes for each chapter
- Implementation and governance requirements, plus a final evaluation checklist
Download the handbook to specify a PPM system that connects strategy with the work in the laboratory.
FAQs
From request to launch is a handbook on how to write a practical RFP or URS for project portfolio management. It covers request management, stage gates and project governance, portfolio prioritization and decisions, resources, scheduling, and time, connected data and reporting, and implementation and governance, with requirements, supplier demonstration scenarios, and common mistakes for each chapter.
The handbook is for people who write project portfolio management RFPs or URSs, including portfolio and PMO leads, R&D managers, IT teams, and project sponsors.
A PPM system should connect demand, decisions, evidence, and capacity. In product development it must represent customer requests, new products, reformulations, cost reduction, regulatory work, technical service, and research as connected but distinct records, because these types of work compete for the same people, equipment, and budget.
A PPM RFP or URS should include requirements for request intake and conversion to projects, stage gates with deliverables, gatekeepers, and evidence, portfolio scoring, ranking, and scenarios, resource and equipment capacity, scheduling, and time tracking, connected R&D data and reporting, and governance for processes, data, integrations, reports, and access.
A portfolio can look balanced by value and strategy while exceeding the people, teams, skills, and equipment available to deliver it. A PPM system should compare project, request, and routine demand with capacity, and show the effect of starting or stopping projects on budget, capacity, and launch dates before a decision is approved.
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