In the past five years the management of projects has risen to a new prominence. Projects are now seen as critical to success in all three sectors: public, private and non-profit.Unfortunately, the evident wastage through improper selection of projects and/or their improper formulation and execution is immense and represents a serious drag on our economies. An emerging school of thought believes that the solution to this wastage is to be found in effective Project Portfolio Management, ("PPM").
Does your company's senior management practice project portfolio management in it's purest form?
(source: Institute of Project Management
“Survey of Practitioners 2010”)
PPM is "above and beyond" project management. It extends all the way from the vision of the executive suite, through project management to the actual realization of benefits, to the enterprise and consequent successful competitive positioning.
Key to this new project portfolio lifespan is selection of the right projects in the first place.
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What mix of potential projects will provide the best utilization of human and cash resources to maximize long range growth and ROI for the firm?
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How do the projects support strategic initiatives?
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How will the projects affect the company value?
Will it work?
There are some mixed views on whether this renewed face of project management will succeed in breaking through into the executive suite at the level required to implement it effectively. Bill Duncan (primary author of the original 1996 PMBoK) thinks,
"that the attempts of the project management community to make project management “strategic” will fail. I expect that Project Portfolio Management will be assigned to the Finance Department and will beintegrated with capital budgeting. On the plus side, this means that fewer projects with weak business cases will be approved. In particular, chronic over-commitment within IT will cease.”
PPM attempts to bring projects into harmony with the strategies, resources, and executive oversight of the enterprise by providing the structure and processes for project portfolio governance. The concept makes absolute sense. However, it will take a lot of fortitude and commitment from executive management to embrace some of the rigorous processes it entails if it is to adopted in totality.
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