Watch the exclusive presentation: Epicflow Portfolio Optimiser: The New Era of Portfolio Management

 

Most organisations still try to deliver too much with too little. They approve more projects than they have people for, stretch key engineers and scientists across competing priorities, and then wonder why deadlines slip, quality drops, and people burn out.

Epicflow has changed that. For the first time, decisions about which projects to run and when can be based on value per constrained resource hour. Not deadlines. Not politics. Actual value.

We call it the Epicflow Portfolio Optimiser (EPO). It is an AI-driven engine that models your real resource limits and continuously recalculates the optimal portfolio delivery plan to deliver maximum organisational benefit with the capacity you truly have.

The Formula 1 Example: Value per Bottleneck Hour

To understand what this means, imagine a Formula 1 team preparing next year’s car. They have multiple parallel R&D projects: a revised front wing, a high-efficiency rear wing, new suspension geometry, and driver feedback systems — all drawing on the same limited pool of aerodynamic engineers and wind tunnel hours.

Each project has at least one measurable benefit:

  • Front Wing – 60 points of downforce
  • Suspension – 40 points of cornering grip
  • Rear Wing – 15 points of downforce and 35 points of drivability
  • Driver Feedback – 55 points of drivability

But the constraint, the aerodynamic test team, is overloaded. Running them all together simply is not possible.

Traditional scheduling would shuffle dates or prioritise by stakeholder pressure. EPO does something different. It calculates the value delivered per constrained hour. That translates to how much benefit each project generates for every hour of the bottleneck team’s time.

One project might deliver 60 points of downforce but consume 1,200 hours. Another might deliver 15 points but need only 100 hours.

EPO instantly recognises that the second project provides a far higher value density. The system then automatically sequences projects so that the total value output of the portfolio is maximised, delivering the highest performance gain (or profit, or CO₂ reduction, or lives saved, or whatever your organisation measures value in) with the same finite resources.

This is what we mean by Value Optimised Portfolio Management.

And it is a world first.

Proven Foundations: The Dutch Ministry of Defence

The principles behind EPO are not theoretical. Epicflow’s earlier innovation, Portfolio Staggering, has already delivered remarkable results in real organisations.

At the Dutch Ministry of Defence, engineering teams were drowning in parallel projects. One 60-person group was carrying a hidden overload of 15 FTE, and cumulative delays had reached 316 days. Using Epicflow’s portfolio staggering, they:

  • Identified and visualised true resource bottlenecks.
  • Deferred lower-value projects to free up scarce capacity.
  • Focused available resources on the projects that mattered most.

Results:

That success was achieved by dynamically sequencing projects to eliminate overloads.

Now, EPO takes this to an entirely new level. Optimising not just for flow, but for value.

Imagine the potential when the same intelligence that delivered those results is extended to calculate, in real time, which combination of projects delivers the greatest measurable benefit to your organisation.

That is what EPO does.

From Portfolio Strategy to Daily Execution

What makes Epicflow unique is that optimisation does not stop at the high level. Once the AI determines which projects deliver the greatest value under constraint, it automatically translates that strategy into an executable task-level plan.

Every engineer, designer, or analyst sees a dynamically prioritised task list in Epicflow. That translates as the precise order of work that keeps the entire portfolio aligned with strategic value delivery.

It means that the board’s decisions instantly cascade into day-to-day action, without manual replanning or meetings to realign teams.
The system continuously recalculates as progress, estimates, or priorities change, ensuring that strategy and execution remain synchronised in real time.

From Theory to Reality

For decades, project professionals have talked about resource-constrained optimisation. Academics modelled it on paper, and practitioners guessed their way through it.

Now, Epicflow’s AI makes it real. EPO evaluates countless scheduling possibilities in seconds, balancing:

  • Business value (profit, innovation, sustainability, impact)
  • Finite capacity (the real bottlenecks in your workforce)
  • Predictive scheduling (AI driven feasibility under load)

The outcome is not a static plan; it is a living model that continuously rebalances as projects evolve and resources shift.

Why This Matters

Traditional tools chase deadlines.

EPO changes the question: “With the capacity we have, which combination of projects produces the greatest overall value?”

That shift transforms portfolio management from guesswork into science. It aligns every decision with strategic benefit, protecting staff from burnout, and turning delivery planning into a measurable investment decision.

This Is the Moment

Every organisation faces the same truth: resources are finite; demand is not.

EPO gives leaders the clarity to decide which work truly deserves those hours and the confidence that every hour spent drives measurable benefit. It also provides the visibility to make the right recruitment decisions.

By clearly showing where genuine capacity shortfalls exist, and where productivity can still be unlocked, leaders can invest in new talent only where it delivers a clear, measurable return. Because the future of project delivery is not about hiring more people, it is about unlocking more projects, more profit, and more value with the team you already have, and recruiting only where the data proves it will deliver a return.