APM Portfolio Management SIG – The first decade

The APM is delighted to recognise the 10th anniversary of the APM Portfolio Management SIG’s founding, proposals for which were agreed by the APM Board at their meeting on Tuesday 14 September 2010.

To celebrate the occasion, a “history” of the SIG is being prepared by the current committee, edited by the only remaining member from the inaugural committee in 2010, Stephen Parrett.

During this period 47 APM members have served on the SIG committee, giving a cumulative 113 years of service. This represents a tremendous overall effort in both time and commitment from everyone involved, who have shared many enjoyable and some challenging experiences along the way.

In addition to the committee, a large number of other people have played a key part in creating the successful record of delivering a range of practitioner-focused activities, events and publications. These include all the support team at the APM and over 60 speakers who gave valuable time in support of SIG conferences etc.

A few highlights include:

• Five full-day PfM SIG conferences, plus two joint ones and one for a half-day in 2012.
• Over 30 Blogs, and 20+ visits to APM Branches, discussing/sharing PfM thinking etc.
• Many joint events with other SIGs, reflecting how PfM connects across the APM.
• Several events that brought specialists or practitioners together, from early ones such as sessions on prioritisation, risk etc, and the more recent highly-rated “Portfolio Directors Dinners”.
• Regular “thought leadership” articles for Project magazine etc; from Stephen Jenner in 2010 through to the “Managing the Portfolio” series from Peter Glynne in 2019.
• Well-supported webinars, most in 2020, marking a shift in how the SIG is reaching out to members.
• Around 20 Newsletters published for SIG members/followers and others.
• The SIG’s highly-praised prestigious publication – “Portfolio Management – A practical guide”.

A few observations covering the SIG’s first 10 years suggest that:

• Fundamentally, the need for PfM has increased as risks and uncertainty have increased.
• The basics of PfM best practice, however, remain sound and testament to their validity.
• Organisations have become more PfM-aware overall, and some have made great strides.
• However, more work is needed to persuade many senior executives of the value of PfM.
• The best organisations have shown how PfM can be flexed to meet specific needs.

The committee plan to issue a number of discussion pieces in 2021 reflecting on lessons from the 2010-2020 portfolio management journey, as well as considering what the next 10 years might bring.

Finally, the current PfM SIG committee would like to thank all those who have supported the SIG during the last 10 years and hope that you and many others will continue to do so in future.

Adam Skinner and Petula Allison
APM Portfolio Management SIG co chairs 2020-2021 

The first ten years (2010-2020) - view the full reflection piece