Governance, Roles and Portfolio Board

Even the best software cannot manage a portfolio if it's unclear who makes the decisions. Governance defines where, by whom, based on what data, and how often decisions are made.

Roller

Role	Responsibility	Decision-making authority
Portfolio Board	Strategic allocation, gate decisions, portfolio balance.	Investment approval, suspension, prioritization
Portfolio Manager	Process management, data integrity, review preparation.	Process rules do not make investment decisions.
Product Owner	Business case, roadmap, and performance of a single product or line.	In-product scope and priority decisions
R&D / Engineering	Technical feasibility, effort estimation, reuse.	Selection of a technical solution
Financial Affairs	Business case methodology, cost allocation, progress tracking.	Confirmation of financial assumptions.
Sales and Marketing	Market data, demand forecasting, price positioning.	Ownership of commercial assumptions
Production and Supply	Capacity, cost, availability	Feasibility assessment
Quality and Compliance	Legislation, certification, product safety	compliance veto

Meeting Rhythm

Monthly

Operational review: items awaiting gate approval, projects showing deviations, capacity warnings.

3-Month (Quarterly)

Portfolio review: comparative evaluation of all items, resource reallocation, rationalization list.

Annual

Strategic allocation: bucket-based budgeting, portfolio balance targets, roadmap reframing.

The golden rule of the application

No one should need to fill out spreadsheets to prepare data for a portfolio board meeting. If the data doesn't come from the system, the meeting becomes a consensus meeting, not a decision-making meeting.