To manage a portfolio of projects you need an air traffic control system. Any airport (company) will have a range of aircraft (projects) of different sizes, capability, and capacity. Small ones will be buzzing around on routine activities. Medium‐sized aircraft will be doing the boring repeat shuttled trips. There will also be a few larger aircraft, which are the more interesting ones to fly, but being unusual they need a lot of support. However, you can't have them all flying around doing their own thing because accidents will happen and disaster ensues. Like projects, most people prefer their flights to be uneventful.

Air traffic control (project portfolio management) is needed to track and monitor the pilots (project managers) and define the air corridors and flight rules (methodologies and project procedures) to be used. This ensures that flights are correctly prioritized, pre‐flight checks (feasibility studies) carried out, and collisions avoided so that whole programmes can be coordinated. The air traffic controllers aim to launch and then successfully land the right flights on time and in budget so that the key stakeholders are satisfied. Sometimes air traffic controllers look after several flights at once and, similarly, some managers will often find themselves members of several steering groups.

All aircraft, big or small, need a destination (an objective), passengers (stakeholders), and a payload of goods (benefits) to be delivered. Further, there must be a business case; all flights must add value to the airport's business objectives. All flights need to plan their route and file a flight plan. Finally, all aircraft will need permission to take off (project launch).

Some airlines (departments) may be allowed discretion to do their own thing as long as they steer clear of controlled air space. Similarly, smaller aircraft can do what they like, where complex tracking and coordination systems are not required. However, they must register a flight plan and will have to conform to procedures when taking off and landing (handover). They must conform to some of the rules, particularly if they want help landing or when they get into trouble.

The control tower staff (portfolio/project office) will carry out a capability check. They will ensure that the airport has the right competencies to launch a flight. It will estimate the fuel (budget) required for each airplane and the number of crew (team members) involved. Further, they will keep a log of the payload for each flight.

The 80/20 rule says that you carry the maximum payload and hence, make the most money, out of large aircraft.³ Thus, air traffic control may amalgamate some flights for more efficient use of fuel, numbers of crew, and delivery of goods. If there are too many small or medium aircraft, there may not be enough crew for the larger aircraft.

Large aircraft are high risk. Consequently, more and more thorough pre‐flight checks need to be done before launching the larger aircraft. The pre‐flight checks reduce the probability of failure, but if they do crash, the impact is high and it can bring down the business. Since there are many more small aircraft, there is a higher probability of accidents but, fortunately, the impact will be relatively lower.

Air traffic control (portfolio management) will provide a weather forecast of the risks involved and advise the crew on the actions to be taken. Pilots study weather forecasts in detail to ensure that the risks are identified, avoided, and controlled to provide as smooth a flight as possible. Further, if you fly into a storm, the ground and senior staff in the control tower are available to give you advice.

Sensibly, no pilot is allowed to fly unless they have done the necessary hours on a flight simulator (managing a smaller project). Naturally, pilots go to great lengths to ensure that their flights go smoothly. As on all projects, project management skills training for the project manager is essential. The crew, with specific roles and responsibilities, will also have attended appropriate training courses. They will have participated in team building and will have learnt to communicate effectively.

On the small aircraft doing the routine activities, there may only be a pilot and co‐pilot to do all the jobs – they have to be more multi‐disciplinary. With larger aircraft the crew have specialised roles and responsibilities.

The pilot of the aircraft will review the status of the flight compared to the flight plan and advise the passengers (stakeholders) accordingly. However, most of the time the pilot will find that flying the aircraft is boring. It is when the aircraft is hit by a storm that it gets exciting, and the aircraft might be in trouble; it is then that all of the pilot's skills will be needed.

At regular intervals air traffic control updates the plots on their computer screens to see if everyone is sticking to their flight plan. Also, at regular intervals the chief executive of the airport will visit the control tower to review the general status and examine some flights in detail.

1

Portfolio management sometimes includes (major) programmes and major projects. However, I would exclude these two categories and manage them as stand‐alone endeavours in their own right.

It is the multi‐project programmes of medium and small projects that should be managed by a portfolio manager with the support of a portfolio/project office. Here are some suggestions, in order to maximise the throughput of projects in this multi‐project environment:

2

It is interesting to note that the medical world's multi‐project environment implements some of the above. Could improvements be made by implementing more of the principles of multi‐project management? Start with the fundamental requirement of at least one person (preferably a few) totally dedicated to each project.