MoP™ (Management of Portfolios)

MoP™ is a framework for understanding, prioritizing and planning a portfolio of business change initiatives; it is a coordinated collection of strategic processes and decisions that together enable the most effective balance of organizational change and ‘business as usual’.

The MoP guide was published by the Cabinet Office in 2011. The guide addresses the question of what changes, programmes and projects should be undertaken by an organization today and tomorrow, and those it should support in the future. Its primary aim is to support those with strategic or change portfolio responsibility to make appropriate change investment decisions in a logical, transparent and efficient way.

Portfolio management is not concerned with the detailed management of the projects and programmes: rather, it approaches the management of change projects and programmes from a strategic viewpoint.

MoP addresses the challenges of ‘Run the Business vs. Change the Business’. Organizations expend energy on running their operations well. Most organizations also adopt and embed consistent programme, project and change management methods. MoP provides the interface between these elements. Portfolio management aims to address the following fundamental questions:

•   Are we doing the right things?

•   Are we doing these things right?

•   Most significantly, are we realizing all the benefits in terms of more effective services and efficiency savings from the changes we are implementing?

The mechanisms by which these questions are answered are incorporated in the MoP framework (see Figure). This framework brings together the key activities required to successfully define and deliver a portfolio of change whilst ensuring resources are used efficiently.

This framework consists of two portfolio management cycles, portfolio definition and portfolio delivery, and of five portfolio management principles:

•   Senior management commitment

•   Governance alignment

•   Strategy alignment

•   Portfolio Office

•   Energized change culture

Senior management, people responsible for governance and all those with strategic or change portfolio responsibility.

The scope of the method comprises the different decision – making processes around strategic change initiatives within organizations. MoP is part of the Best Management Practice methods developed by the Cabinet Office. This means that it is fully aligned with PRINCE2®, MSP® and P3O®.

The MoP guidance claims that it helps organizations to understand which change initiatives contribute most to their strategy and enables them to make informed decisions about their overall status, prioritization, risk and benefits.