Portfolio Management Assignment: Strategic Object of CQU

Question

Task: Propose a Portfolio Management Framework to manage the portfolio implementation The report on portfolio management assignment must have all components related to system thinking.

Answer

1. Portfolio Strategy
The vision behind providing sustaining the education system at CQU effective enough to work directly with the requirements and needs from the community and industry to delivering proper training programs and designing a proper education system that will strengthen the capacity building to achieve success in the future. The long-term objective is to make a project portfolio management framework in enhancing the designing and training process appropriately to make the students achieve their future goals by learning from the improved education structure. In the current scenario of portfolio management assignment, the management is emphasizing on project portfolios to achieve strategic objectives that required an extensive research process. It is making the projects and programs to be dependable on the project portfolio management process that can significantly make an impact on the portfolios (Bilgin et al., 2017).

The main areas under the mentioned strategic objective are to understand the required development areas in the training and education system in CQU to make it more career and development-oriented of the students, and explains a collaborative aspect with the community. The new emerging portfolio strategies are more independent 'top-down' strategy processes that emphasize the organization's adaptability and its 'control' mechanism (Kopmann et al., 2017). In the portfolio strategy process, there are some specific steps, such as – give the students to express their requirements to the institution, take autonomous decision based on required factors, assess the current performance of the institution to identify the flexibility, implement improvement factors to the current system in achieving the requirements, and continue with the development for acquiring sustainability.

Fig 1: Portfolio Strategy Cycle for the Current Strategic Objective(Created by Author)

The portfolio strategy will also help in the current complexities, potential risks, and value factors on providing effective training and education design infrastructure to the students of CQU by understanding the community's requirements. The management of the current project examined in the segments of portfolio management assignment needs to create a proper categorization that mentions the main groups related to the current project. It can be achieved by implementing an effective information systems process. The implementation of project portfolio management in an organization is paying more attention to the issues in several projects and programs to provide 'multi-criteria' decision-making process (Danesh et al., 2018).

The strategies regarding the investment process can be consisting of strategies related to reducing the 'operational' costs. The portfolio management related to innovative works always comes with a 'dynamic' decision-making process that evaluates and enhances the existing resources to achieve success(Kock & Georg Gemünden, 2016). In the current assessment, it will help the authorities and management of CQU in conducting an effective collaboration with the community and students in assessing their requirements to provide better education and training programs.

2. Portfolio Scope Management
The scope management in a project portfolio primarily indicates the current market background related to the mentioned strategic objective, the perspective of the investors regarding the development of current education design and training program, and other preferences and constraints. The scope of the portfolio is also related to the achievement and target in acquiring the mentioned objective. It has been identified that the portfolio management of a specific project has a more effective scope and objective lists that continuously changes with the requirements of strategic objectives (Piterska & Kramskiy, 2017). The initiatives that have been taken by CQU in achieving the mentioned strategic objective are provided below within this portfolio management assignment,

• Effective Communication: In the current discussing strategic objective, some techniques related to the communication process can be developed by CQU in conducting effective interaction with the students and other community members in understanding their requirements. The management can use IT mechanisms in conducting conversation over online to sustain the discussion process to make accurate scopes in project development.
• Performance Measurement: It is important to understand the current performance structure of CQU in identifying the required education structure design and appropriate training programs. A successful portfolio is consisting of different components, such as selected projects, assigned stakeholders, delivery data, and potential risks to provide an effective commitment in supporting the new project changes (Rautanen, 2019). The performance measurement will enhance different opportunities in current portfolio management.
• Reformation: The objective of the current project and portfolio management is to forming a new training program according to the student’s requirement and creating an improved education design to enhance the personal and professional skills of the students at CQU for achieving a better future.

3. Portfolio Delivery Schedule and Milestone
The delivery schedule at the portfolio is indicating the duration of completing the project. It is acquired by conducting effective planning on the underlying tasks of the projects, organize them according to the importance, identify required resources, and create a proper budget and schedule plan. The milestones are the parameter for completing each project in achieving the objectives at the portfolio.

• Proper Communication Process:Effective communication process between the students, teachers, community members, institution authority, and project management are important in clearing any doubt or emphasizing areas in new education design and training process implementation.
• Implementation of Technical Infrastructure:The implementation of technologies in the communication process can sustain the interaction process for a long time and clear up any internal doubts regarding the development process. The characteristics of 'information and communication technology' (ICT) helps in conducting sustainable development in a socio-economic environment (Jones et al., 2017).
• Identification of Objectives and Problems:The implementation of the portfolio in project management primarily indicates the objectives that are associated with several uncertain problems to overcome. The composition of the portfolio is important in linking the organization's strategies and structure of the projects (Kaczorowska et al., 2019). The objectives related to the current strategic achievement can be started by understanding the lacking areas in education and propose an effective design to resolve them.
• Planning evaluation:The planning will be related to the current education structure of CQU and the required infrastructures according to the students and teachers. Some students can propose irrelevant demands in their education structure and training program, which needs to be solved by the expertise with appropriate logic.
• Appropriate Method Selection:The appropriate method will be constant engagement with the community, students, and teachers to work on the portfolio effectively.
• Content Prioritization:The key prioritizing areas are related to the education curriculums, training programs, educational structures, association of students with the authorities, and support from the community to achieve the strategic objective.
• Logical and Theoretical Balance:Both the students and authority should propose logical and practical changes to the current system for development. The theoretical evidence will help in understanding additional factors while working on the projects.

4. Portfolio Governance Plan
In the current governance plan developed herein portfolio management assignment, the responsibilities of the governance board, sponsors, portfolio stakeholders, project, and program managers will be discussed. They will acquire the requirements from the students, teachers, and community members to make effective plans. The studies have mentioned that the IT-led governance process enhances the performance of a project process (Sirisomboonsuk et al., 2018). The performance of each stakeholder related to the current project will optimize the success factor of the strategic objective related to new education design and improved training programs.

Fig 2: Authorization and Controlling Flow in Portfolio Governance(Rezende & Gonçalves, 2017)

There are two different bodies under the governance process as stated in the portfolio management assignment – the defining body that defines and develops the objectives under the strategic development, and the aligning body that incorporates different resources and humans in the project to discuss requirements, address important areas, take decisions, make processes transparent and embrace potential risks to mitigate during the development process.

5. Portfolio Capacity and Capability Management

Table 1: Capacity and Capability Management

6. Portfolio Value Management
The portfolio build in the context of portfolio management assignmentis always defined by the lifecycle of the portfolio value management which is considered as the first phase of the portfolio management. It guarantees the investment associated with the portfolio that delivers the return and defines the components of portfolio expressing the direction of the stakeholders. The values that are required to be focus are referred to as tangible and intangible value regarding the value management. Moreover, it is required to be followed by some significant issues.

• Report and Review:Scheduled reporting are one of the most significant elements of “Portfolio value management.” To enhance the performance of the students, reporting the university management is important. Regular review and reporting that is associated with the project provide advantages to the university management to improve the student’s standard. For identification of risks and its solutions, report and review play a vital role. Moreover, this element of value management can improve and enhance the strategies associated with the project and can make changes within the portfolio.
• Strategy Changing:It is very possible that the management of the university is not satisfied with the project results and it is not beneficial. It has been noted that unauthentic resources have been used by the students in many cases. To resolve this issue, the management of the university can change the overall strategy and the method of working (Stettina & Schoemaker, 2018). Several scholars are working over the selection process and the prioritization methods. Portfolio value management is also associated with project framing which identifies the major problems and prioritizes the components of the major problem.
• Data Collection:It is important to set up the portfolio to collect data. It could be referred to another key component of portfolio value management which is required to be conducted by the team of the students to identify the problems which could be solved partially with this process.
• Data Analysis: It is another crucial component of portfolio management depicted in the portfolio management assignment as with the analysis of data, the students could gather the resources and focus on it under the supervision of the teachers of the university to develop the project properly
• Decision-making Process: Portfolio management has been considered as a significant decision-making process which is required to select and evaluate the project. Resources are allocated to the students from the management of the university and this is referred to as the final step which is required to be done by the students (Kock & Georg Gemünden, 2016). In this matter, the teachers of the university are needed to monitor the overall decision-making process as there is a higher chance of conflict arousal. If the project is based on practical matters, the students pay more attention to the project as they can showcase their talents in making different types of digital charts and models.

7. Portfolio Risk Management
Risk management plays a significant role in portfolio management. However, additionally, the risk management is completely oriented with achieving the goal of the project objectives (Hofman et al., 2017). In the present days, portfolio management is gaining a higher frequency of attention regarding the academic field practice and researches.

Table 2: Portfolio Management

8. Portfolio Stakeholder Engagement and Communication

Table 3: Stakeholder Management and Communication

9. Change Control and Management
The project could be referred to as a temporary factor that is required to create any product or service. For the developing countries, it is one of the critical problems that for each projects resources are not managed properly (Shirazi et al., 2017). However, in such cases changes are required to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the project. Several measures are also required that will result in the "critical success factor" regarding the project. According to the scholars, an adequate plan and strategy should be implemented in the very beginning that will support the new changes. It should be considered that the budget of the university must not exceed that is allocated for making the changes (Platanakis & Urquhart, 2019). The management also needs to strategize properly and efficiently with an alternative plan so that the project must not fail. Thinking systematically is another solution to solve dynamic problems. Several scholars considered that thinking traditionally is one of the significant factors for the universities which they implement to identify and solve the greater problems and difficulties. However, the traditional thinking system is not an upgraded method for system thinking. To resolve the issue, several “system thinking tools” have been invented by the researchers to make a logical decision which justifies the reason and rectifies the problem regarding the current scenario. Moreover, the “system thinking” tools also have advanced features which are helpful in the problem-solving system.

10. Conclusion
This portfolio management assignmentis focusing on a portfolio management plan for one of the famous universities of Australia (CQU- “Central Queensland University”). The portfolio plan mainly focused on the students learning criteria so that they could improve their quality in their studies. Along with that, the plan also includes better teaching support. The report discussed the "portfolio management plan" of CQU and adopted a set of objectives. The strategy of the portfolio has been discussed in this report by managing the scope. The milestones and the schedule regarding the portfolio also have been clarified according to the current scenario. Technical and time management risks have been briefed with the possible mitigation process that plays a significant role for all the stakeholders of the university. Moreover, the communication strategies and expectations of the stakeholders have been explained in this report to evaluate the plan regarding portfolio management.

11. References
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