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Tag: affect on capital market

Why Project Portfolio Management Is Important?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

PPM or Project Portfolio Management means the collective project management of an entire portfolio of projects rather than managing a single project from start to finish. The PPM is responsible for the entire project portfolio process, which projects to choose and include in it, how to budget and allocate resources to each project in the portfolio when to take on such projects, what is the impact of the time taken and such. Let us explore the best features and mistakes that happen in the PPM process.
The PPM benefits:

1. Decision Making:

PPM drives the business decisions which are taken based on data forecasts and insights. The visibility of data needs to be from the tactical perspective which is a bottoms-up model and the strategic perspective which is a top-down model. Only when this integrated perspective and model is visible and presents the past metrics of PM will one be able to forecast the future trends and draw insights from the strategy. This also helps weed out those projects that are misaligned with corporate objectives.

2. Risk Management

This critical criterion is essential to project portfolio process and PM. The amount of risk-taking needs to be optimal and between safe and risky to ensure profitability. But, PPM is a safe bet to check overspending caused by no visibility into project data, inaccurate scheduling, poor project estimating, and improper resource allocation. Forrester reports suggesting a decrease of 10 percent in overspending on an average in organizations by using effective tools and techniques of PPM.

3. Faster turn times:

Efficient project portfolio process training can help lessen project turn-times by a median value of 10 percent. Repeatable processes such as standardization, governance, and workflow are proven and by aligning PPM with such processes the ambiguity is removed and leads to productivity and business value.  The shortened time to market often prove to be decisive factors in being competitive and getting through earlier.

4. Increases success:

Project failures are oft because of unsuccessful project delivery. The delivery itself depends on schedule delays, cost overruns, ill-managed resources, badly defined requirements, lack of strategy alignment, technical limitations and unresolved issues.  PPM ensures minimization of these factors. The PMI reports affirm project failures reduce by 60 percent and projects executed increase by 30 percent with PPM.

5. Increases collaboration:

Many organizations till date use manual tools for PPM like Excel worksheets located on a client’s computer and not available to the organization in real-time. This can lead to inconsistent and conflicting data. PPM streamlines the data channels in real-time. PPM can help reduce by 25 percent the volume of administrative tasks while improving team collaborations for data streamlining.
The PPM mistakes:

1. Not having a tangible investment strategy:

It is a common practice in many companies, whether start-ups or larger corporations, to directly Starting with funding and budgeting is common in many industries. The priority list of projects is spent on till the budgets are exhausted and a project lower the list often do not see the light of day. PPM works on the resource allocation to all prioritized projects after listing projects aligned with the organization’s productivity and achievement goals.

2. Not dividing large projects into smaller ones:

The agile method is to break large projects into smaller achievable tasks and then prioritize the tasks. This provides smaller releases for testing and action even when the large project is still on-going rather than allowing the whole project to reach a stage of no return. Assigning and allocating team members to each task is also easier and achievable.

3. Not prioritizing tasks:

When multiple projects run it is often easy to ignore those with lower visibility. It is important to prioritize all tasks small and big on to a backlog list which is reviewed often to allow for realigning projects, prioritizing them and getting them done.PPM ensures just this.

4. Letting change get out of hand:

PM is always full of scope-creep which slips in gradually and escalates only when such projects need extra resources to restore their scope. When done late in a project this leads to project failures. PPM is adept at managing scope creep and hence leads to better productivity and efficient time-keeping.

5. Not using a PM tool:

PM tools envisage the status of a project and its visualization using graphic-tools. They enable better opportunity finding, efficient resources allocation, and spot problems before they become critical. Regular reviews even on a daily basis can ensure the smooth process of the project portfolio process. 
In parting, PPM is a very good course you can take up at Imarticus Learning. They also train you to undertake PPM certification from PMI and assure your placements.

The Impact of Elections on The Capital Markets

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

 
Every investor is watching the capital and stock markets carefully ever since the 17th Lok Sabha elections were announced. How the markets will react to the election announcements and what will be the fallouts of the declaration are the top questions on all financial analysts minds.
The stock markets are very sensitive and fluctuate with changes in policy, governmental investments, and general economic stability indices. Elections would mean there would be a policy change that could be or may not be friendly for investors, may cause temporary economic instabilities, and are generally indicators of economic stability. The people’s verdict and the new government will thus definitely influence the stock markets pan India and globally too and depends heavily on the policies, reforms introduced by it and the stability of the government at the helm for the next 5-year plan.
Let us have a quick look at the factors and effects in the two stages of the election announcement.
The pre-election phase:
This phase is purely speculative and perceptive. The outgoing BJP government did bring in investor and consumer-friendly reforms like digitization of payments, GST and black-money removal among others. The demonetization and GST reforms did run into snags and hurdles. But the overall perception of the governmental policy was that it was investor and reforms friendly. Hence markets responded positively. In the run-up phase to elections, it appears the stock markets respond positively to news that the BJP will score another term. 
Foreign-investor sentiments also play a big role in economic development and stock market fluctuations. The press-sentiment reflected globally influences investor sentiment. A stable and long-lasting government sans fractured mandates is always good for institutional foreign investors and investments from them. Stocks tend to decline when foreign investors perceive a threat to their investments and withdraw their investments. Fluctuations occur due to change in perceptions and speculations that run rife in the pre-election stage.
During the last election, the stock markets reacted violently plunging downwards when the favored BJP lost the key bastions of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. Thankfully the effects were short-lived and the stock markets recovered when news emerged of defeat margins being low and the mandate clear.
The recent India Pakistan tensions and skirmishes also affected the stock markets when the NSE and Sensex nose-dived after the Pulwama attacks. The markets rallied when a BJP-win was predicted after its counterinsurgency strikes which boosted positively the public sentiments and perceptions of the BJP government. 
Thus fluctuations should be considered the rule and not the exception in the pre-election phase.
Post-election results stage:
A clear mandate from the people always augurs well for the stock market prices to rise and stabilize. The results will decide if BJP will win the confidence of the voters and allow their implemented measures for economic reforms to yield fruit. It is predicted that the stock markets, foreign investments, Sensex and Nifty will surge upwards if BJP does win the elections with an unambiguous mandate for a second term as they did in 2014.
If the mandate is a wee bit short of a clear majority and the BJP does manage to form a stable government at the center, one can expect volatility in stock markets till stability is established with the new coalition government formation.
When the people’s mandate is ambiguous and fractured the stock markets will continue a fluctuation filled run up and until people see a stable government formed at the center. Then recovery will be slow and cautious and investors will follow the wait and watch policy. Especially the foreign investments pattern will take a hit. 
Concluding notes:
In parting, it is a fact that stock markets fluctuate and rely on perceptions of a stable government at the center. How the results will pan out is mere guesswork. However, analysis and trends do predict a second consecutive win for the BJP and this is good for the stock market prices. 
Are you interested in being able to analyze stock market trends and financial investment patterns? If so, do a skill- course with Imarticus Learning who offers a variety of financial globally certified and industry accepted degree and diploma courses. Their syllabus is comprehensive and teaching methodology excellent. They even have an assured placement program in place. Why wait when you too can cash in on a career in data analytics and finance?