Portfolio and project management tools and Assettia
Assettia is the data and AI programme record: one place where an organisation keeps what its programme owns, what it has decided, and what it has proved.
A portfolio or project management tool holds delivery: projects, workstreams, tasks, dates, resources and status. Assettia holds the programme's substance: what the use cases are for, why they were chosen, what data they need, what risks they carry and what value they have shown. Delivery tools answer "are we on track". The record answers "are we doing the right things, and can we prove it".
What a portfolio management tool holds
Projects and programmes, their schedules, dependencies, budgets and resources. Status reporting, usually as red, amber and green. Portfolio views for choosing between projects on cost, effort and timing. Its readers are delivery leads, project offices and the executives who sponsor projects.
What Assettia holds
The reasons. Each use case scored against the same criteria, the decision that prioritised or deferred it with the person and the reason, the data it depends on and the state of that data, the risks it carries, and the evidence of the value it delivered. The board report is produced from these records.
Side by side
| What is compared | Portfolio management tool | Assettia |
|---|---|---|
| Unit of record | A project or task | A use case, and everything linked to it |
| Primary question | Are we on time, on budget, on track? | Are we doing the right things, and can we prove it? |
| Primary readers | Delivery leads, project office, sponsors | Chief data officer, executive team, board |
| Status | Red, amber, green, assigned by a person | Owned, Decided, Proved, derived from the record |
| Where reasons live | Rarely recorded | Beside every decision, with the person who took it |
| Where value shows | Benefits fields, often unpopulated | Value evidence linked to each use case |
| What it produces | Plans, dashboards, status reports | Board reports in which every figure names its population |
| Typical owner | Head of the project office | Chief data officer |
Where they overlap
Both hold a plan. Assettia's plan is the spine on which decisions are recorded; a delivery tool's plan is the schedule on which work is managed. Both can show a roadmap. The difference is what a roadmap item points at: in Assettia, at the use case and its evidence; in a delivery tool, at the tasks and their dates.
When an organisation needs both
Almost always, once use cases move into delivery. The delivery tool runs the projects. Assettia records why each project exists, what it depends on, what it has proved, and what the board was told. A project can be green in the delivery tool and unproved in the record; that is exactly the difference a board needs to see.
How they work together
A use case in Assettia can name the project delivering it. Milestones from delivery can be recorded as decisions or evidence in the record when they mean something to the board. The record does not track tasks and the delivery tool does not hold reasons; each stays with what it does well.
Questions people ask
Is Assettia a project management tool?
No. It does not schedule work or track tasks. It records what the work is for, what was decided about it, and what it delivered.
Can the record replace red, amber and green status?
For the board, yes. Owned, Decided and Proved are derived from records rather than assigned, so they cannot drift from the evidence.
Where does the roadmap live?
The programme's roadmap lives in Assettia, pointing at use cases and their state. The delivery schedule lives in the delivery tool, pointing at tasks and dates.
Does Assettia hold budgets?
It records the benefits case and value evidence for each use case. Cost and resource management stay in the delivery tool.
See where the record fits beside your tools.
A walkthrough takes forty minutes and uses a synthetic organisation, so nothing of yours is entered until you decide it should be.