The Portfolio Manager is where the budget forecast planners in your company can gather cost and schedule information on projects (both planned and in execution) and perform analyses on "what if" scenarios. These scenarios are used to propose an optimal mix of projects for a portfolio, based on available budget targets and the strategic goals of the company.
Portfolio planners can create a portfolio for a specific "planning horizon" (for example, from 2014 through 2020) and then create multiple scenarios in that portfolio. Each scenario can use forecast numbers and actuals, as well as schedule dates, for both planned and active projects in a specific shell type across a hierarchy in the company.
Budget forecast planners create these scenarios on sheets, one for each scenario. The scenario sheets can pull in the following data from any shell type in a hierarchy:
- Project information from the shell attribute form or single-record business process
- Project start and end dates from the shell attribute form or single-record business process
- Cash flow data (both forecasted and actual) from each project’s Cost Manager
With this data, you can forecast costs over a specific time period (called a "period structure"). You can then manipulate scenarios by:
- Including or excluding projects
- Pushing start dates for planned projects into the future
- Modify project end dates to change the project’s duration
- Proposing different cash flow distribution numbers by manually editing the cash flow columns
- Negotiating proposed budgets with project managers
Note: The numbers the planner proposes in a scenario will NOT affect a project’s live data. The proposed numbers are stored only in the Portfolio Manager and will not affect live project data until a scenario has been approved by your company management.
Once these scenario analyses have been completed, the best (or several best) scenario(s) can be sent to the executive decision makers for approval.
Once a scenario has been approved, Unifier:
- Marks the approved scenario "shared" so that project managers can see the approved dates and numbers. The scenario is set to read-only mode and can no longer be modified or deleted.
- Updates each project's original budget numbers with the proposed numbers on the approved scenario.
- Updates each project's monthly or yearly cash flow numbers with the proposed numbers on the approved scenario.
- Updates the project start date (if it was changed) for any planned projects that will begin during the portfolio’s planning period.
- Locks the budget and cash flow numbers to prevent any further changes.
To set up the Portfolio Manger
Before you begin: A portfolio attribute (detail) form is designed in uDesigner and deployed to Unifier. This attribute form is what you and other users will use to create new portfolios in Unifier.
Step 1: Design the Portfolio Manager attribute form in uDesigner and deploy to Unifier. This is similar to any other design deployment in uDesigner.
Step 2: Grant yourself permissions to configure the portfolio and create period structures. See Create Period Structures.
Step 3: Create period structures under the Standards & Libraries node. Primavera Unifier uses these period structures to calculate costs for the portfolio’s forecasted budget. See Create Period Structures.
Step 4: Configure the portfolio.
Step 5: Grant Portfolio Manager permissions to users.
Once you have completed these steps, the Portfolio Manager is ready for use in Primavera Unifier’s User Mode.