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Agile Portfolio Management focuses on how an organization identifies, prioritizes, organizes, and manages various products. This is done in a streamlined way to optimize value development in a manner that is sustainable over the long term. It ensures that a company delivers the best value for their clients’ investment. A skilled portfolio manager understands and adheres to agile principles while also considering the factors needed to effectively manage multiple teams and projects.
The project management offices of many organizations are increasingly dealing with agile deliverables as part of agile transformations; however, they often lack the knowledge to handle these tasks. Researchers and practitioners have a solid understanding of project, program, and portfolio management from a plan-based perspective. With common standards from Axelos, PMI, and others, they are familiar with best practices. The understanding of agile at the team level is fairly mature, and knowledge of scaling agile teams is growing. However, agile portfolio management knowledge remains limited. The aim of this book is to provide readers with an understanding of managing a portfolio of agile deliverables, exploring options (theory), what is known (research), and what others are doing (practice).
Many organizations, such as those in banking or insurance, are undergoing major agile transformations with limited experience in the practice. In this book, the author gathers and analyzes common practices across various industries, offering both theoretical insights and practical aspects of agile portfolio management through case studies.”
Rating: 5.2 – The book provides some insights into portfolio management for agile delivery but lacks a focus on agility within portfolio management itself, leaning more toward traditional or plan-based approaches. There are occasional clarity issues, some disorganized content, and a few tables containing incorrect information. For example, one paragraph contains 28 sub-paragraphs, which disrupts the flow, and some visual figures are blurry or misplaced. While the language is generally appropriate, there are moments where it hinders understanding, leading to engaging and tedious passages. Though this creates the impression of a self-published book, it is not, and more editorial effort could have enhanced its quality.
While the content offers practical insights, they are sometimes broad or vague. For instance, in explaining Lean Portfolio Management (SAFe), the book lacks details on the portfolio Kanban, canvas, and participatory budgeting. The guidance on decision-making is somewhat narrow, and certain models, like the Stacey matrix or Cynefin model, are not ideal for determining project portfolio approaches, as they assume uniformity in project complexity.
Including nine case studies is a highlight, as they present a range of scenarios showing how agile PPM principles can be applied. However, they could be improved by providing more context on challenges, solutions, and lessons learned, enhancing the book’s utility. The book’s frameworks and techniques lack clear guidance on when and how to use them, reducing their practical impact.
The author is a respected expert in their field, contributing to the IT University of Copenhagen and actively engaging in discussions on social media.
The references are comprehensive, with around 160 sources ensuring accuracy, but the visuals lack appeal. The same table recurs frequently (about 20 times) without proper explanation or context, diminishing the effectiveness of its presentation. Potential readers should consider their needs and experience when assessing the book’s value.
The cover design stands out due to the bold display of the book’s title, which draws attention, especially considering the rarity of books on this subject. However, the lack of color detracts from its overall visual appeal.
The topic is highly relevant for organizations. The book offers some insight into portfolio management of agile delivery but lacks insight into the agility of portfolio management itself. The focus is more on traditional or plan-based portfolio management.
The text encounters occasional clarity challenges. A few tables contain incorrect content, and one paragraph has as many as 28 sub-paragraphs. There are instances where the flow of ideas could be smoother to facilitate easier reading. Overall, the book succeeds in capturing the reader’s interest, despite some occasional moments of tedium. At times, a book may give the impression of being self-published. This book, with its uneven chapters and paragraphs, inconsistencies, issues with figures, blurred images, misspelled names, typos, and incorrect numbers, creates a similar impression—though it is not self-published. We would have hoped for a higher level of quality from the author’s publisher.
The content provides practical insights and applications, occasionally rather broad or vague. For example, when explaining Lean Portfolio Management (SAFe), we would expect explanations of Kanban, portfolio canvas, and participatory budgeting. The material provides a degree of support in decision-making, though its practicality is somewhat narrow. We don’t believe you can use the Stacey matrix or Cynefin model to choose between project or agile portfolio management. This only works if all your projects are the same (e.g., simple), and we guess you will have simple, complicated, or complex projects in your portfolio. Additionally, it presents a few problem-solving methods, but these have a confined range.
The variety of insights into agile and traditional landscapes helps readers understand different applications and contexts, making the book more readable from this perspective. Since the book aims to deliver agile approaches in portfolio management, it provides limited coverage of Agile Portfolio Frameworks. Since more organizations operate in hybrid environments, a comprehensive approach to how agile practices and traditional project management maps is needed.
The book’s significant strength is its inclusion of nine case studies. These provide a wide range of scenarios, allowing readers to see how agile PPM principles can be applied in various contexts. While the insights are valuable, the case studies could be more clearly demonstrated regarding the challenges faced, problem statement description, solution approach, and lessons learned. A deeper delve into improving the case studies can elevate the book’s utility.
The author holds advanced qualifications and is widely recognized as an expert in his field, enjoying national esteem and international acknowledgment for their significant contributions. He serves as an external lecturer at the IT University of Copenhagen and has authored several books and articles. Additionally, he maintains a reasonable presence on social media, engaging in conversations and contributing to discussions within his area of expertise.
While the content touches on important educational topics, it lacks thorough coverage or depth. The author offers many frameworks and techniques, but when to use which one is not always explained clearly, resulting in limited impact on the reader’s personal development. Throughout the text, several small exercises are given. The content provides some inspiration and motivation, but it may be inconsistent or not deeply impactful. Potential readers may want to consider their knowledge level and specific needs in relation to the content provided to determine whether it is a suitable purchase.
The book is well-supported by up-to-date and pertinent references, ensuring the content’s relevance and accuracy (around 160 books or articles). All are listed at the end of the book, and the citation style is consistently applied throughout the text.
The visuals do not effectively engage or attract due to their lack of aesthetic appeal, which limits their ability to capture the audience’s attention. Some are difficult to read or appear blurred. In many paragraphs, a table is used to show the Portfolio Life-Cycle Stages (initiation, planning, executing, optimizing, monitoring, and controlling), Portfolio Kanban (funnel, review/analyzing, portfolio backlog, implementation, done), Projectized, and Recurring, yet there is no reference or explanation in the text. This table appears repeatedly in exactly the same form. We believe only Table 3.9, The Portfolio Kanban High-level Overview, is relevant. The table is repeated 20 times, with only minor changes in the field titles such as Projectized or Recurring, and even the title is occasionally incorrect (repeating the same as the previous table).