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The Portfolio Manager leads a collection of programmes or projects that support the achievement of departmental or business area objectives. They focus on prioritising and effectively allocating resources across the portfolio to ensure optimal delivery of strategic objectives in line with government priorities.
| Responsibility | Detail |
|---|---|
| Project pipeline | Works with business areas to identify and categorise new projects for a decision on inclusion in the portfolio and provide regular updates on the pipeline to the Portfolio Board. |
| Governance and reporting | Establishes a clear governance framework and reporting system aligned with portfolio best practice. Coordinates reporting from projects and analyses performance at the portfolio level for review by governance bodies. Provides secretariat support for senior governance boards. |
| Business cases and assurance | Collaborates with project teams to coordinate the production of business cases, ensuring appropriate specialist input and timely approval through the governance framework. Offers best practice advice and guidance. |
| People and leadership | Communicates and builds commitment to a shared vision and sense of purpose. Support business areas in making independent decisions and lead in their area of expertise. |
| Planning, scheduling and resourcing | Maintain the portfolio delivery map and critical path to monitor project progress. Identifies and tracks interdependencies across change projects. Recommends the allocation of financial and other resources across initiatives to optimise the organisation’s return on investment. Develops strategies to address resource gaps. |
| Risk and opportunity management | Identifies and monitors portfolio risks, threats and opportunities, and plans and implements responses to them. |
| Stakeholder management | Maps stakeholder interest and influences to set priorities for engagement and communication. Communicates regularly and gathers input on issues such as communication methods. Engages in discussions to resolve issues and differences between stakeholders and challenge assumptions. |
| Benefits management | Supports the business in developing data-driven mechanisms for measuring benefits. Establishes ownership and responsibility within the business for benefit realisation. Regularly reviews business cases to assess progress towards achieving benefits. |
| Digital and data | Oversees governance and management of the data standard across the portfolio of projects, including enabling and holding projects to account against the standard. Uses digital tools to analyse data to allocate resources efficiently across projects, ensuring optimal use of personnel, budget, and time. |
Suitable for individuals with experience in managing complex projects and programmes and using portfolio management as a tool for organisational change.
Not typically suitable for individuals without previous project delivery experience.
None: No knowledge and no experience.
Awareness: Basic knowledge and limited or no experience. You understand how it can be applied. You can describe the benefits and importance. You may have applied it in a low complexity project under supervision or assisted others in delivering it.
Working: Working knowledge and practical experience. You have a good understanding of this competence. You have applied this independently in low complexity projects and/or under supervision in more complex projects.
Practitioner: Detailed knowledge and significant experience. You have a deep understanding of this competence. You have applied this independently in medium and/or highly complex projects. You advise and may supervise others in the delivery of this competence. You can adapt your approach to meet the requirements of the project.
Expert: Expert knowledge and experience. You are considered an expert within government and in the wider profession. You have applied this competence in multiple complex projects. You have been responsible for developing unique variations to suit specific situations. You champion capability development in this area.
| Competency area | Level |
|---|---|
Planning
The ability to define the fundamental components of the work in terms of its scope, deliverables, time scales, resource requirements and budget. It also includes the production of broader plans incorporating risk and quality to provide a consolidated overview of the work.
|
Practitioner |
Scheduling
The ability to develop, produce and maintain schedules for activities that take account of dependencies, resource requirements and constraints in order to enable the efficient realisation of benefits.
|
Practitioner |
Resource management
The ability to identify, profile, secure and manage the resources required to deliver the work.
|
Working |
Budgeting and cost management
The ability to estimate costs, produce a budget and control forecasts and actual spend against budget.
|
Working |
Risk and issue management
The ability to systematically identify and monitor risks and issues, planning how to mitigate or respond to those risks and issues and implementing the responses.
|
Practitioner |
Business change and implementation
The ability to integrate the solution into operations ensuring that activities are planned and completed to enable the business to implement the change and realise the benefits.
|
Working |
Governance
The ability to clearly define roles, responsibilities and accountabilities and establish controls and approval routes appropriate to each stage of the work to monitor progress and compliance.
|
Practitioner |
Frameworks and methodologies
The ability to identify and amend appropriate frameworks and methodologies to enable a consistent and efficient approach to delivery at all stages of the lifecycle.
|
Working |
Stakeholder engagement
The ability to systematically identify, analyse and communicate with stakeholders, using appropriate channels, to ensure all those impacted by the change are engaged, taking account of their levels of influence and particular interests.
|
Working |
Assurance
The ability to establish, plan and manage reviews at appropriate points through the life cycle to provide confidence that the work can be delivered to the agreed outcomes and benefits within time, cost, quality, and other constraints.
|
Working |
Change control
The ability to establish protocols to manage and document all requests for changes to scope, timescales, costs, benefits or other approved baselines for the work. This includes the capture, evaluation and approval or rejection of change requests.
|
Awareness |
Business case development
The ability to prepare, develop, commission and update business cases to justify the initiation and continuation of projects in terms of benefits, value for money and risk.
|
Working |
Asset allocation
The ability to recommend how financial and other resources should be allocated between projects in order to optimise the organisation's return on investment (ROI). This includes the determination of which projects should be initiated, continued or closed to best support the organisations strategic objectives.
|
Working |
Benefits management
The ability to identify, value, plan and track benefits to justify investment and ensure the expected outcomes and social value are realised.
|
Practitioner |
Knowledge management
The ability to identify, share and promote best practices and lessons learned to create a culture of learning and good practice that supports continuous improvement to optimise project delivery.
|
Working |
Digital and data
The ability to effectively leverage digital tools and data analytics for better project delivery outcomes. Combining an understanding of digital technologies with the ability to manage, interpret and utilise data to make informed decisions, improve efficiency and achieve outcomes and benefits.
|
Practitioner |
Sustainability
The ability to incorporate environmental and social considerations into the strategic objectives of the work and to effectively identify, assess and manage these throughout the lifecycle, seeking to maximise benefits and mitigate negative impacts.
|
Working |
None: No knowledge and no experience.
Awareness: Basic knowledge and limited or no experience. You understand how it can be applied. You can describe the benefits and importance. You may have applied it in a low complexity project under supervision or assisted others in delivering it.
Working: Working knowledge and practical experience. You have a good understanding of this competence. You have applied this independently in low complexity projects and/or under supervision in more complex projects.
Practitioner: Detailed knowledge and significant experience. You have a deep understanding of this competence. You have applied this independently in medium and/or highly complex projects. You advise and may supervise others in the delivery of this competence. You can adapt your approach to meet the requirements of the project.
Expert: Expert knowledge and experience. You are considered an expert within government and in the wider profession. You have applied this competence in multiple complex projects. You have been responsible for developing unique variations to suit specific situations. You champion capability development in this area.
| Competency area | Level |
|---|---|
Visible leadership
The ability to engage, motivate and coach others. To act as a role model and inspire and empower others. Aligned to the leadership Civil Service behaviour.
|
Working |
Credible action
The ability to promote the wider public good in all actions and to act in a morally, legally and socially appropriate manner at all times. Challenges unacceptable behaviour. Aligned to the leadership Civil Service behaviour.
|
Practitioner |
Working with ambiguity
The ability to work in an environment of uncertainty and continual change. Able to feel comfortable making decisions and setting direction without having the full picture and re-focus as details emerge. Can apply knowledge and techniques to reduce ambiguity. Aligned to the making effective decisions Civil Service behaviour.
|
Practitioner |
Collaboration
The ability to establish and develop productive relationships with internal and external stakeholders, bringing people together to benefit the project. Aligned to the working together Civil Service behaviour.
|
Practitioner |
Influencing
The ability to influence, change and impact decisions with both internal and external stakeholders. Aligned to the communicating and influencing Civil Service behaviour.
|
Practitioner |
Conflict resolution
The ability to recognise, anticipate and effectively deal with existing or potential conflicts at an individual, team or strategic level. Aligned to the working together and leadership Civil Service behaviours.
|
Working |
Inspiring others
The ability to create and present a compelling vision and set clear direction, that motivates others to work towards a common goal. Aligned to the leadership Civil Service behaviour.
|
Working |
Resilience
The ability to adapt to changing circumstances and adverse situations whilst remaining calm, reassuring others and maintaining performance. Aligned to the delivering at pace Civil Service behaviour.
|
Working |
Innovation
The ability to think of, research and apply new ideas and ways of doing things. Encourages and supports innovations from others, is willing to experiment and follow ideas through to implementation. Aligned to the changing and improving Civil Service behaviour.
|
Practitioner |
Culture change
The ability to plan, lead and effect positive cultural change, securing commitment and buy-in, and promoting a positive long term vision. Recognises when broader culture change is necessary to deliver a project. Aligned to the seeing the big picture, and changing and improving Civil Service behaviours.
|
Practitioner |
This role profile is for a portfolio manager at Grade 7. This is the typical job title for this role.
Hiring managers should refer to the standardised job titles framework for guidance on which titles to use for recruitment.