Project Management in Discussions Week, Project Portfolio

Project Management

In Discussions week, project portfolio management selecting projects. Explain meaning statement. The books suppose additional resources: Kerzner, H. (2010) Project management practices: achieving global excellence.

"Project portfolio management is more than selecting projects"

Managing a project portfolio can be analogized to managing an investment portfolio. While the selection of the component entities of the portfolio are certainly important, it is not enough to merely select good investments -- these 'investments' or projects must be managed. "By optimizing, balancing and continually fine-tuning their portfolios, active investors try to maximize short- and long-term returns and reduce overall risk, thereby achieving larger financial and/or business objectives" (Hays 2011). Similarly, the managers of the project "can identify, evaluate and rank investment opportunities. They can direct resources to the highest-payback projects and cull marginal ones. They can target expenditures more effectively to the most worthwhile initiatives and optimize their performance and execution" (Hays 2011).

Furthermore, projects should be justified much like investments on a cost-benefit analysis -- their likely 'return' is projected and the benefits of the project should be in excess of the costs of pursuing it. Managing the project with an eye upon the greater macro environment, including other projects, better ensures that the project will continue to meet its desired benchmarks in a timely fashion, and that exterior circumstances have not changed to such a degree that the project is no longer justified.

Managing different projects also requires an astute understanding of the different psychological needs of the workers involved in the project. The manager can learn from other projects and use those lessons, both psychological (in terms of teamwork) and logistic in the management of his or her current endeavors. "You may need different approaches for different groups. One group might need to limit the work in progress, especially if you're in a serial life cycle and people with different specialties cycle in and out of the project" (Rothman 2009). In other words, a project manager cannot simply 'set the wheels in motion' and hope various projects proceed as desired. The interrelationships between projects must also be observed, to see if resources could be better allocated to facilitate the completion of multiple projects, using the same resources.

The concept of project 'management' as a portfolio is also testimony to the fact that projects often fail, not because they are inherently faulty in an internal sense, but also because of systemic organizational problems (Morris & Pinto 2007: 80). There must be an "interrelationship" between larger organizational strategy and the aim of each individual project (Morris & Pinto 2007: 80). Each project strategy and management style must fit into the overall enterprise's strategy and vision (Morris & Pinto 2007: 64). A project cannot be seen as a self-enclosed entity -- rather it is one part of a larger 'jigsaw puzzle.' If projects are viewed in isolation, it is very easy for them to deteriorate into personal conflicts or for the project to lose focus, because the team lacks a sense of vision.