Effective portfolio management with insights and tools.
On this page, you can read about the latest trends and developments in portfolio management. You'll discover how our tools add value and help you manage your portfolio more effectively. You can also watch the video in which Waterbedrijf Evides demonstrates how they use our tools and the benefits they gain.
Articles
Article
The term Project Management Office (PMO) evokes a variety of associations. For some, it's synonymous with reporting and control. For others, it represents structure, prioritization, and acceleration. This difference in perception explains why more and more organizations are considering a new name.
Bas van Lieshout
October 2, 2025
Article
Many organizations launch more projects than is logical. It looks energetic, there's movement everywhere. Yet, progress stalls when attention is spread too thinly. Teams frequently switch topics, dependencies pile up, and results lag behind. Ambition without focus rarely yields what you intend. This blog post is about two mutually reinforcing factors: sharp focus and results-oriented work.
Bas van Lieshout
October 2, 2025
Article
It's a familiar scene: a board meeting where projects are being scored in an Excel spreadsheet. Calculations are busily performed, weightings are adjusted, and ultimately, a neat list of priorities emerges. Everyone nods, but as soon as the meeting is over, discussion resumes.
Bas van Lieshout
October 2, 2025
White paper
The PMO is evolving, and the professional is moving with it. Organizations are under pressure to move faster, smarter, and more strategically. Changing customer expectations, technological acceleration, and increasing complexity in decision-making demand a different way of organizing.
Bas van Lieshout
September 17, 2025
Article
Agile working is now deeply embedded in many organizations. Fifteen years ago, it was still an experiment; today, it's the norm. Scrum, SAFe, and other frameworks are widely used, teams run their sprints, and management effortlessly discuss PI planning and value streams. But with this maturity comes a shift. A striking one indeed: the role of the Agile Coach is slowly but surely disappearing.
Martin van Langen
September 15, 2025
Article
It's a familiar scene: a board meeting where projects are being scored in an Excel spreadsheet. Calculations are busily performed, weightings are adjusted, and ultimately, a neat list of priorities emerges. Everyone nods, but as soon as the meeting is over, discussion resumes.
Bas van Lieshout
September 10, 2025
Article
In theory, portfolio management revolves around prioritization, budgeting, and coordination. But in practice, success hinges on people. The willingness to collaborate on shared goals and let go of self-interest is crucial. And that's precisely what often proves to be the most challenging aspect. Yet, there are ways to turn this around – without major reorganizations or new tools. Three surprising interventions can make all the difference.
Bas van Lieshout
September 1, 2025
Article
The PMO evolution is in full swing. Where the PMO once primarily functioned as a reporting desk or project controller, it is now evolving into a strategic sparring partner and navigation center. This isn't a luxury, but a necessity: in a world where priorities shift rapidly, stakeholders expect immediate value, and data is always available, the PMO must evolve.
Martin van Langen
August 27, 2025
White paper
How do you connect strategy and execution in an agile organization? At PGGM Investment Management, we faced this question when IT adopted agile working practices and simultaneously introduced a new strategy. To effectively support this, we introduced agile portfolio management, the most visible component of which is the Quarterly Planning Event (QPE).
Bas van Lieshout
August 18, 2025
Article
Budgeting is often seen as a purely financial process, but it's much more than that. When used effectively, budgets are a powerful strategic management tool that aligns with your PMO's maturity levels.
Bas van Lieshout
August 18, 2025
Article
In many organizations, decision-making is slow because almost all initiatives are managed through the portfolio. This delays even small changes for months. This blocks teams, slows down improvements, and limits agility. The solution lies in striking a good balance between centralized control of large initiatives and sufficient decentralized decision-making leeway for smaller, operational priorities.
Bas van Lieshout
August 12, 2025
Article
A Project Management Office (PMO) can significantly strengthen your organization—if you design it correctly. Yet, many leaders struggle to get the most out of their PMO. What exactly should you invest in as a leader, and what expectations should you place on the PMO to maximize its potential?
Bas van Lieshout
August 12, 2025
Article
Over the past few months, I've been involved in setting up portfolio management at an organization with serious ambitions. We started with something basic: mapping all ongoing projects. The outcome was, to say the least, confronting. It turned out there were 132 active projects, ranging from large to small, requiring a total of an estimated 260 FTEs. The available capacity? Only 103 FTEs.
Martin van Langen
July 23, 2025
Article
Many organizations invest heavily in projects, change programs, and strategic initiatives, but often overlook the link that connects everything: the Project Management Office (PMO). The PMO can be a powerful lever for making project investments more effective. A mature PMO not only strengthens control and decision-making but also elevates the executive power of your entire organization.
Bas van Lieshout
July 18, 2025
Article
Many PMOs want to improve but lack the space, change expertise, or mandate. Collaboration with experts in change, behavior, and strategy is crucial for making real progress. Smart choices and collaboration create space for learning, innovation, and greater impact.
Martin van Langen
July 15, 2025
Article
PMOs are evolving from operational support to strategic direction, with increasing influence on decision-making and the achievement of organizational goals. This growth occurs at three levels: providing structure, creating connections, and providing direction. Thus, the PMO is becoming a key player in accelerating strategy, not as an additional layer but as an engine of change.
Bas van Lieshout
July 15, 2025
Article
The PMO is evolving from an executive project controller to a strategic navigation center that prioritizes value, agility, and impact. Five trends—such as AI, ESG, and outcome management—call for short-cycle portfolio management as a framework for rapid decision-making and continuous alignment. This makes the PMO an indispensable link in achieving strategic goals.
Martin van Langen
July 15, 2025
Article
Organizations are giving the PMO a new role as a bridge between strategy and execution. It's shifting from control to providing direction and support, thus strengthening focus, coherence, and agility.
Bas van Lieshout
July 15, 2025
Case study
Evides Waterbedrijf has been committed to agile and effective working for years. Agile is firmly anchored within teams and the organization, with big room and PI planning as fixed components. The portfolio process is now also more flexible and better aligned. In this way, Evides is growing step by step towards a future-proof organization. We are proud that the Xeleron Cockpit plays a role in this. This tool connects strategy and execution and offers the right insights at every level at the right time. Curious about how Evides Waterbedrijf tackles this? Watch the video!
April 3, 2025
Case study
Wigo4it is a Dutch government organization that develops social ICT solutions for the four largest municipalities. In this case study from the book: Agile portfolio management – The bridge to strategic agility by Henny Portman and Rini van Solingen. we look at how Wigo4it organizes its portfolio management process.
Rini van Solingen
March 17, 2025
Article
Data quality issues in systems like Jira and Azure DevOps cost organizations time and frustration. Xeleron's DQA tool automates checks, increases data reliability and saves managers valuable time. Discover how this innovative solution can help your organization work more efficiently.
Martin van Langen
January 24, 2025
White paper
For the second time we are publishing a Trends Report! This report examines the state of affairs of portfolio management in the Netherlands. It examines to what extent the desired flexibility and adaptability that is necessary in the complexity of everyday life is actually experienced in practice. This report was created based on more than 25 interviews with portfolio managers.
Martin van Langen
November 22, 2024
White paper
For the third time, Prowareness has conducted a market survey (hereinafter referred to as 'survey') on portfolio management. This survey covers various aspects each year, such as steering on value, the connection with strategy, the portfolio process that has been set up and the connection of the portfolio function with the rest of the organization.
Martin Vodegel
October 14, 2024
Case study
Centric is an IT service provider with a significant market share in the public sector. Centric Public Sector Solutions is an organizational unit with more than 800 employees, responsible for all services for the public sector. Centric and Prowareness Xeleron have jointly invested heavily in recent years in increasing the agility of their organization at team and department level.
Martin van Langen
July 29, 2024
Article
Imagine you are running a goldmine. This goldmine is your organization, and the nuggets you hope to find are the valuable outcomes of your projects and initiatives. Let’s use this analogy to illustrate the difference between output-driven work and outcome-driven work.
Martin van Langen
July 19, 2024
Article
The second of the ten dimensions of Agile Portfolio Management is about limiting the amount of 'Work in Progress' (WIP). Many organizations work on too many initiatives at the same time, which makes the lead time of those initiatives too long. The trick is to not work on too much at the same time to speed up the lead time. This requires transparency and making choices, but also improving collaboration so that acceleration takes place.
Bas van Lieshout
July 17, 2024
Article
In today’s dynamic world, flexibility and adaptability are crucial. The book “Agile Portfolio Management” by Portman and Van Solingen describes how organizations can increase their strategic agility. The first of ten dimensions is about the time horizon of portfolio management. There are good reasons to get started with this, such as increasing the possibilities for adaptability and improving responsiveness.
Bas van Lieshout
July 15, 2024
White paper
In his latest whitepaper, Henny Portman reveals the steps and methodologies that demonstrate the importance of prioritization, with a tailor-made prioritization model. Practical examples from the Xeleron Cockpit Tool provide direct insight into how to implement these concepts. Curious? Read it now and discover how to improve your prioritization strategy.
Henny Portman
June 17, 2024
Case study
PGGM is working on improving strategy execution with a multidisciplinary change team to increase transparency and sharpen decision-making. This allows the organization to add more and more value. Prowareness Xeleron supported PGGM Pensioenbeheer for six months in 2023 in improving strategy execution and increasing transparency.
Bas van Lieshout
May 17, 2024
White paper
Do you want to know what the current trends are in portfolio management? Then download our trends report now. In this report we have conducted 12 interviews with various portfolio managers from various organizations. With them we investigate the state of affairs of portfolio management in the Netherlands and look at the desired flexibility and adaptability that is necessary in practice.
Martin van Langen
March 25, 2024
Article
The core of portfolio management is that the connection is made between strategy and execution. Many organizations are improving their portfolio management function, inspired by the need to be more agile in the translation of strategy to execution. This improvement is often supported by implementing Scrum, including the associated events.
Martin Vodegel
January 30, 2024
Article
The core of portfolio management is that it connects strategy and execution. Many organizations are improving their portfolio management function, inspired by the need to be more agile in the translation of strategy to execution. This improvement is often supported by the implementation of Scrum and the associated roles within the team.
Martin Vodegel
January 28, 2024
Article
The core of portfolio management is that it connects strategy and execution. Many organizations are improving their portfolio management function, inspired by the need to be more agile in the translation of strategy to execution. Scrum is often used to realize these improvements through the framework.
Martin Vodegel
December 10, 2023
White paper
The Agile Portfolio Management 2023 guide describes the APfM framework without covering specific methods, techniques and tools, as success is context-dependent. Formulating goals is recognized as important, but the guide does not provide specific guidance. APfM functions as a whole and serves as a container for various techniques and methodologies. The goal is to share understanding, improve APfM implementation and receive feedback.
Martin Vodegel & Rini van Solingen
December 1, 2023
Article
In most organizations, strategy determination is a task for the top. The greater the dynamics and unpredictability, the smaller the chance that a successful strategy can be fully devised in advance. Rini van Solingen and Martin van Langen discuss why and how organizations in highly changeable environments can better opt for a purpose-oriented management, in which employees are given more autonomy.
Martin van Langen & Rini van Solingen
November 14, 2023
Case study
A medium-sized insurer in the Netherlands has a renewed strategy to position itself in the market as a service provider focused on prevention in addition to insuring customers. This requires an active role from the portfolio team to achieve and implement the new strategic goals. This allows the insurer to distinguish itself in a competitive market and at the same time add more value.
Michelle Hermsen
July 4, 2023
Article
With the rise of Agile and scaling frameworks such as SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework), executives are increasingly faced with a hybrid change environment. This is also increasingly noticeable at the portfolio level, where traditional and agile methodologies need to be combined for effective execution. The goal is to leverage the benefits of both approaches.
Michelle Hermsen
June 8, 2023
Article
The more an organization uses an agile method, the more the need arises for a different management of the portfolio of programs and projects. The way of working requires adjustments if the portfolio is executed agile. In practice, this is called agile portfolio management, which requires an integrated approach to effectively translate strategy into action.
Henny Portman
May 22, 2023