Executive Summary

Having raised the question in a earlier post of why billions of dollars invested in projects were not resulting in the realisation of strategic benefits, this post explores whether project portfolio management has a part to play.

Project portfolio management (PPM) practice may be deficient in two main areas:

1. PPM not is practiced in a way that supports strategy development.
   1. It is common practice to focus on project risk, a lower order concern, but even then fewer than 33% of organisations report they diversify projects to manage portfolio risk.
   2. PPM is mainly used to manage resource conflicts
   3. Investments in software are therefore not justified in most cases.
2. PPM focuses decision-making at the wrong level.
   1. For strategy to be implemented and strategic outcomes realised the key is to select the right programme rather than the right project (projects alone rarely deliver the desired strategy).
   2. PPM must support programme management more adequately.

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Portfolio Management

this post is an extract from an academic paper prepared for the IT Project Management SIG meeting at the 2009  International Conference for Information Systems

Project portfolio management (PPM) is a well established field, particularly in the US. It has an extensive literature and is supported in industry by an established and growing PPM software market. Portfolio management has its conceptual foundations in portfolio theory applied to the selection of financial investments to reduce risks and increase returns [1]. This theory was applied to the domain of project portfolio management to select IT projects [2] and PPM software vendors market on the basis of being able to reduce risk and increase returns on a portfolio of project investments [3].

However, the question is whether PPM adds any strategic value [4]. Portfolio selection has been justified in the context of selecting new product development projects [5], but it is far less convincing when applied to the implementation of strategy. A significant problem arises because there is a disconnect in the way strategy is developed and way the strategic is planned [6].  Strategy development is fluid and emergent. Strategic planning, especially when following the current approaches to PPM is relatively inflexible and mechanical. Project selection tends to be based on first degree criteria identified through risk management tools [7]. In contrast upper level strategic decisions have traditionally relied on non-linear processes and higher level considerations. As a result relatively few organisations use PPM strategically. Fewer than 33% of organisations report they diversify to reduce portfolio risk [4] and in our experience PPM is never used to inform or implement strategy. PPM is mainly used to manage project resource issues.

The potential of PPM appears to only be justified when other aspects are in place such as top management commitment, agreed benefits measurement and a willingness to deal with project interdependencies and resource constraints  [4]. Some believe that PPM, because it is meant to deal with fairly stable environments, can only be effective if combined with programme management which is meant to deal with more turbulent environments and emergent strategies [7]. We would agree and add that by definition, strategic outcomes can only be achieved when a whole program is undertaken. If strategic outcomes are to be realised, it makes no sense to select individual projects, selection criteria must be at the program level.

The Victorian public service investment frameworks are quite closely aligned to the concepts of project portfolio management because they emphasise selecting the right projects. However some Victorian managers believe the tools and frameworks are simply guidelines with little voluntary application and little influence in practice. This conclusion can be applied more generally because Victoria  is a leader in New Public Management and for many represents best-practice. This discussion goes some way to explaining why PPM concepts have not had more influence or lead to the realisation of strategic benefits. The crucial deficiency seems to the absence of meaningful linkages to programme management.

References

[1]    H. Markowitz, “Portfolio Selection,” The Journal of Finance,  vol. 7, 1952, pp. 77-91.

[2]    F. McFarlan, “Portfolio appraoch to informatiuon systems,” Harvard Business Review, 1981, pp. 142-150.

[3]    CA, “Leading Market Research Firm Finds PPM Software Delivering Over 500 Percent ROI – CA,” 2009.

[4]    B.D. Reyck, Y. Grushka-Cockayne, M. Lockett, S.R. Calderini, M. Moura, and A. Sloper, “The impact of project portfolio management on information technology projects,” International Journal of Project Management,  vol. 23, 2005, pp. 524 – 537.

[5]    A. Jamieson and P.W. Morris, “Moving from corporate strategy to project strategy,” The Wiley Guide to Project, Program, and Portfolio Management,  Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2007, pp. 34-62.

[6]    H. Mintzberg, “The fall and rise of strategic planning,” Harvard Business Review,  vol. Jan-Feb, 1994.

[7]    M. Thiry and M. Deguire, “Recent developments in project-based organisations,” International Journal of Project Management,  vol. 25, 2007, pp. 649 – 658.

Tags: Governing programmes and projects, programme management, Project Governance, project management, strategy implementation

This entry was posted on Monday, September 7th, 2009 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Governing Programmes and Projects, Practice Areas, Strategic Programmes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.