Portfolios & Programs
Portfolios
A Portfolio is the top-level container for projects, programs, and strategic initiatives. It represents a collection of related work managed together to achieve strategic objectives.
Every portfolio has:
- Name and Description
- Status — Lifecycle state (see Portfolio Status Lifecycle)
- Date Range — Start and end date, set by activating and closing the portfolio
- Roles — People assigned to portfolio-level roles
- Scoring Model — Optional active scoring model used to score projects in the portfolio
- Project Ranking — Stack-ranked order of projects in the portfolio
Portfolios contain:
- Programs — Groups of related projects
- Projects — Individual initiatives
- Strategic Initiatives — High-level strategic efforts tracked with KPIs
Portfolio Roles
| Role | Description | May manage the portfolio? |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsor | Executive sponsor of the portfolio | No — sponsors fund and oversee, but don't run delivery |
| Owner | Person responsible for portfolio outcomes | Yes |
| Manager | Manages portfolio execution | Yes |
Owners and Managers may change the portfolio's status, edit its details, assign its roles, rank its projects, and manage every program and project inside it. See Permissions for the full rule.
Portfolio Status Lifecycle
| Status | Description | Date Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Proposed | Early planning stage | None |
| Active | Approved and operational | Start date required |
| On Hold | Temporarily paused | Start date required |
| Closed | All work done | Start and end date required |
| Archived | Retired, read-only | Start and end date required |
Transition rules:
- The portfolio page's Actions menu offers Activate on a Proposed portfolio, Close on an Active one, and Archive on a Closed one. It has no action to put a portfolio on hold or resume it; a portfolio reaches On Hold only through the portfolios import
- A portfolio's dates come from its transitions: activating sets today as its start date, and closing sets today as its end date
- All programs and projects must be completed or canceled before closing a portfolio
- Programs, projects, and strategic initiatives can be created only in an Active or On Hold portfolio
- Only Proposed portfolios can be deleted
- Archived portfolios are read-only
Portfolio Project Scoring
A portfolio can be assigned one active scoring model. Assigning a model enables Priority Score on every project in the portfolio; clearing the assignment disables new scoring but does not delete existing project score history.
Use Actions → Set Scoring Model on the portfolio detail page to assign or clear the model. Assigning and clearing take portfolio Owner or Manager (or PPM administrator), the same delivery leadership every other portfolio change takes. Only active scoring models can be assigned. If the assigned model is later archived, existing project scores stay intact, users can still see the recorded history, and new scores can still be recorded with it — the score form warns that the model is archived.
Project scoring uses immutable snapshots: every recorded score stores the model name, each criterion rating, and every output value at the time it was recorded. This keeps prior scores meaningful even if the portfolio later switches to a different model.
Portfolio Project Ranking
Every project has a Rank within its portfolio. Rank is a human-managed ordering used for prioritization and is independent of the calculated Priority Score. A newly created project is placed at the bottom of the portfolio's ranking.
Use the Ranking section on the portfolio detail page to review and adjust the order of Proposed, Approved, and Active projects. The board shows:
- Display position, project name, program, status, dates, project managers, and owners
- Score columns from the portfolio's current scoring model, when one is assigned
- Criterion ratings and output values from each project's current score, but only when that score was recorded with the portfolio's current scoring model
- A score badge on the primary output column, which project managers can use to score or re-score a project
Portfolio Owners and Managers — and PPM administrators — can drag one or more projects to reorder them. Dragging is available only when the board is in its natural rank order; clear sorting, filters, and search to enable ranking. Completed and Canceled projects are not shown in the Ranking section, but they keep their underlying rank so historical order remains stable.
Wayd stores ranks as fractional sort keys so drag-and-drop can insert projects between existing rows without renumbering the whole portfolio every time. The Portfolio Rank Rebalance background job periodically re-spaces dense ranks back to clean whole-number gaps.
Portfolio Detail Page
The portfolio detail page has an identity bar naming the portfolio, a section rail down the left, and a details panel holding the portfolio's stable facts. Each section is addressable — the URL carries ?section= so a link can point at the section you were reading.
Record facts panel — Sponsors, owners, managers (sorted alphabetically), scoring model, description (Markdown), and links to related entities. Toggle it from the button at the right of the identity bar; below tablet width it moves into the page content.
Overview — A tab per child collection: Programs, Projects, and Strategic Initiatives. Each tab carries its own status filter, a count tile, and charts breaking that collection down by status and — for programs and projects — by strategic theme. Strategic initiatives carry no themes, so their tab shows the status chart alone.
Each tab's filter is shared with the matching section below, so a count tile always agrees with the list it links to. Selecting a tile opens that section.
The filters live in separate tabs because the three collections have different status vocabularies — a project can be Approved, a program cannot, and Approved means a different stage on a strategic initiative than on a project. A single shared filter could only ever be correct for one of them.
Both the tab and the filters are held in the URL, so a filtered view can be shared or bookmarked.
Programs — Grid of programs with Key, Name, Status, Start/End dates, PMs, Owners, Sponsors, and Strategic Themes. Supports List and Timeline views. Filtered to show Active programs by default.
Projects — Grid of projects with Rank, Key, Name, Status, Health, Portfolio, Program, Start/End dates, PMs, Owners, Sponsors, Strategic Themes, and Lifecycle. Supports Card, List, and Timeline views. Card view can sort by name or rank. Filtered to show Approved and Active projects by default. The Timeline view groups projects by program.
Strategic Initiatives — Grid of strategic initiatives with Key, Name, Status, Start/End dates, Sponsors, and Owners. Supports List and Timeline views. Filtered to show Approved and Active by default.
Ranking — Rank-ordered board for Proposed, Approved, and Active projects. Supports drag-to-rank for portfolio Owners/Managers (and PPM administrators) and includes score breakdown columns when a scoring model is assigned. The board runs on its own fixed status set, so the Overview filter does not apply to it.
Activity — The portfolio's recorded history: what changed, who changed it, and when. See Activity Log.
Programs
A Program groups related projects within a portfolio for coordinated management.
Every program has:
- Name and Description
- Status — Proposed, Active, Completed, or Canceled (see Program Status Lifecycle)
- Date Range — Optional start and end date, set together
- Roles — Sponsor, Owner, Manager
- Strategic Theme Tags — Links to strategic themes for alignment
Program Roles
| Role | Description | May manage the program? |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsor | Executive sponsor of the program | No — sponsors fund and oversee, but don't run delivery |
| Owner | Person responsible for program outcomes | Yes |
| Manager | Manages program execution | Yes |
Owners and Managers of the parent portfolio may also manage the program, and may manage every project inside it. See Permissions.
Program Status Lifecycle
Business rules:
- Only active programs accept new projects
- All projects must be completed or canceled before an active program can be completed or canceled
- Projects cannot be moved out of a completed or canceled program
- Only Proposed programs can be deleted, and only while no projects belong to them
- Active and Completed programs require a start and end date
Program Detail Page
The program detail page has an identity bar naming the program, a section rail down the left, and a details panel holding the program's stable facts.
Record facts panel — Portfolio link, date range, sponsors/owners/managers, strategic themes, description (Markdown), and links.
Overview — A status filter, a Projects count tile, a timeline progress bar, and two charts breaking the program's projects down by strategic theme and by status. As on a portfolio, the filter is shared with the Projects section and held in the URL.
Projects — The program's projects in Card, List, and Timeline views, opening in Card view; a card can be expanded or clicked to open a project drawer. Filtered to Approved and Active projects by default.
Activity — The program's recorded history: what changed, who changed it, and when. See Activity Log.
A warning alert appears on Overview if dates are missing: "Program Dates are required before activating."
Timeline Views
Programs, Projects, and Strategic Initiatives all support a Timeline view accessible via the view toggle in each section. The timeline shows items as horizontal bars grouped by program (for projects) or as a flat list.
Default Window
The timeline opens showing today ±6 months as the default visible window. The full domain extends to the earliest item start minus one month and the latest item end plus one month — you can zoom out to see this full range.
Controls
| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| Click + drag on empty space | Pan the timeline |
| Ctrl/Cmd + scroll | Zoom in / out |
| + / − buttons | Zoom in / out (toolbar) |
| Reset view button | Return to the default window and zoom |
Settings Menu
Click the gear icon in the toolbar to toggle:
- Show Current Time — Red vertical line marking today
- Show Vertical Gridlines — Gridlines per zoom unit
- Highlight Weekends — Shaded weekend columns (visible at week/day zoom)
- Compact Mode — Reduces row height to fit more items without scrolling
Common Tasks
Creating a Portfolio
- Navigate to PPM > Portfolios
- Click Create Portfolio
- Enter Name and Description, and optionally the Sponsors, Owners, and Portfolio Managers
- The portfolio is created in Proposed status
- Activate the portfolio from its Actions menu (today becomes its start date)
Creating a Program
- Navigate to PPM > Programs
- Click Create Program
- Choose an Active or On Hold Portfolio, then enter Name and Description
- Optionally set the Planned Date Range, Sponsors, Owners, Program Managers, and Strategic Themes
- The program is created in Proposed status
- Activate the program from its Actions menu (the planned date range must be set first)
Enabling Project Scoring
- Create and activate a scoring model in Settings → PPM → Scoring Models.
- Open the portfolio detail page.
- Select Actions → Set Scoring Model.
- Choose the active model and click Save.
- Open a project in the portfolio and use its Priority Score panel to record the first score.
Ranking Projects
- Open the portfolio detail page.
- Select the Ranking section.
- Clear any sorting, filters, or search terms.
- Drag one or more projects to the desired position.
- Review the Rank column in list views, or sort card view by rank, to see the updated order.