W3Q-Executing and implementing project portfolio management - Assignment Example

Executing and Implementing Project Portfolio Management Rouse defines project portfolio management as “a strategic prioritization methodology employed to analyze and manage current or proposed projects within an organization”. The purpose of this approach is to identify the best possible combination and sequence of projects with an aim to align these with organizational business strategy. It is rather a continuous process based on collection of project data for evaluation of project performance and optimal utilization of company’s resources towards execution of work that supports business strategy.

NDT-Solutions, a private sector company specializing in development and construction of facility for non-destructive testing laboratory, takes a conventional approach to project management mainly through assigning projects to departmental managers. This approach functional managers to act as project managers while performing their primary duties in parallel, a practice which was very common in 1960s (Kerzner 2010). A major reason for such an approach was the lack of appreciation for project management methodology and best practices as identified by Project Management Institute in PMBOK (2008).

Thus projects in the company normally initiated within from the departments without considering their relevance to the organizational business strategy. Thus majority of the projects were a result of self-initiative even without support and consent of management. In addition, internal politics and individual interests barred projects and their outcomes to be visible to other departments unless materialized. Thus other departments who may have significant role in the project execution or may have been impacted by the project outcome were, in fact, alienated from the project.

Every department struggled to portray its project as success while endeavoring to undermine the efforts made in other departments. This impacted the overall potential of the company to achieve synergy of its resources. The end result was duplication of projects, inefficient utilization of the resources and discouragement of any innovative ideas at the organizational level. Besides its drawbacks, the approach has advantages in terms of expanding experience in project management and improving the skills; however, lack of training and appreciation of a standardized project portfolio management approach would increase risk of inefficient resource utilization and duplication of efforts especially when the company is managing multiple projects.

According to Kerzner (2010), “portfolio management is critical to ensure that companies are spending their limited resources in the best possible way”. Considering the benefits of the project portfolio management, the company decided to adopt said approach; however, there were various resistances that attempted to halt the progress of the implementation project portfolio management processes. These resistances included:Company Culture. Like any other change project, project portfolio management is likely to introduce some change in the company’s existing business processes and culture.

Since these business processes and cultural norms, that define the way of doing work and interacting internal and external to the organization, have matured, thus a resistance to change was likely.Individual Interests and Politics. Introduction of such a system was likely to highlight any inefficiencies in the projects, meaning inefficiencies of the individuals, there was an expected resistance from the individuals who feared being exposed or more inclined towards internal politics to satisfy individual interests rather than supporting overall business strategy.

Overcoming Individual Resistances. One major setback in the planning was failure to plan for identifying and managing individuals who presented risk of resistance to change during initial stages of the implementation of project portfolio management processes.Lack of Commitment and Executive Support. Commitment and support from company’s executives is equally critical to success of implementing project portfolio management as in case of any other project. Lack of commitment from higher management would result in failure in identification of selection and prioritization criteria for the projects and allocation of resources for optimal utilization with an aim to support those projects that are best aligned to company’s business strategy.

Disruption of Business Processes. The change that resulted from implementation of project portfolio management, somehow impacted the pace of existing business processes. Major challenges to overcome business process disruption included pace of implementing project portfolio management, funding requirements and selection of appropriate tools for regulating the business processes.Fear of Being Watched. Since implementation of project portfolio management required humungous data collection from nearly all parts and corners of the company, this made actual performance and progress of company’s projects more visible to the higher management and all stakeholders.

This situation developed a fear among the employees that the purpose of this new approach is to keep an eye on them and watch their progress that may lead to any punitive actions.Wideman (2007) identified ten major steps for implementing the project portfolio management. These steps included:Step 1 – Categorization. According to Project Management Institute (2008), Categorization is defined as “The process of grouping potential components into categories to facilitate further decision-making” and category is defined as “A predetermined key description used to group potential and authorized components to facilitate further decision-making.

Categories usually link their components with a common set of strategic goals”. Thus the first step is to develop the understanding of the extent, size and complexity of the project portfolio and how it maps in the organizational business strategy.Step 2 – Identification. This step includes the processes for assessment of the current state and mapping the gap with the desirable future state. This processes validates the goals and objectives of the project portfolio management.Step 3 – Evaluation.

This steps involves forming a basis for evaluation of all the projects included in the portfolio to establish the context for prioritizing and approving the project work.Step 4 – Selection. This steps includes the review of all business processes to come up with selection of work that is expected to be conducted during the next steps.Step 5 – Prioritization. One major assumption of the project portfolio management is that there exists more work than the capacity of the organization manage it.

Thus when the best set of the projects has been selected, the next step is to prioritize work that is best aligned with the business strategy.Step 6 - Balancing. This step seeks to answer if the selected and prioritized set of the projects satisfies overall business direction and priorities.Step 7 – Authorization. After the balancing step, the prioritized work is authorized for execution in the authorization step.Step 8 – Activation. Activation is the step for actually planning, scheduling and executing the selected and prioritized work.

Step 9 – Reporting and Review. Senior management and executives would be interested in knowing how the overall portfolio is progressing. This step involves on reporting and reviewing the progress of the overall portfolio.Step 10 – Benefits and Change. Once the portfolio has been implemented, it is essential to collect the results of the process and provide feedback to executives for examination and analysis of these results. The evaluation of these results would allow assessment of the effectives of the project portfolio management and suggest changes for improvement in the cycle for future.

Perry and Hatcher (2008) surveyed 13companies to identify the benefits of adopting project portfolio management. According their report, the benefits included reduction in project cost by 37%, project redundancy reduction by 78%, and increase in productivity of project team by 14%, increase in number of project managed by 35% with decrease in project failure rate by 59%. Project portfolio management can contribute to the overall success of the business by organizing a series of projects into an integrated portfolio.

Project portfolio management is a continuous process aiming to evaluate, select, and prioritize projects based on evaluation in terms of cost, risk, resource utilization and business objectives to ensure that the business obtains maximum value from its limited resources. According to Needs (2013), major benefits of project portfolio management include:Effectively achieving the milestones of business and financial governanceIntroduce new products in the markets that align with business strategy within resources and budgetImprove optimal utilization of resourcesReduction in contractor costsPre-emptive warning of any potential threat to the business strategy and objectivesProvide stakeholders with status of the portfolio relevant to their interestsIdentification of poorly performing projects that are not contributing to overall business strategyEvaluation of financial impacts of terminating or managing a poorly performing projectModifying the portfolio priorities and swift allocation of resourcesImplementation of a standard project management methodologyReduction in project overruns and costsReduction in project duplication and effortsReduction in risks to portfolio successEvaluating impact of changes to one project on other projects contained within the portfolioArchiving lessons learned and using these for improving the overall project portfolio management life cycle for future implementationCooper, Edgett and Kleinschmidt (1998) defined project portfolio management as “a dynamic decision-making process through which an organization can update and revise its list of active projects”.

In summary, the basic purpose project portfolio management is to align the projects with business strategy through selection and prioritization of best projects ensuring optimal utilization of company resources.ReferencesCooper, R., Edgett, S. and Kleinshmidt, E. 2013. Best Practices For Managing R&D Portfolios. Research Technology Management, pp. 23-33.Needs, I. 2013. 20 Great Ways Project Portfolio Management can Benefit Your Business. [online] Available at: http://www.keyedinpmo.com/insights/20-great-ways-project-portfolio-management-can-benefit-your-business/ [Accessed: 16 Aug 2013].Perry, R. and Hatcher, E. 2008. How Project and Portfolio Management Solutions are Delivering Value to Organizations.

[report] Massachusetts: International Data Corporation.Project Management Institute. 2008. A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge. 3rd ed. Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute.Rouse, M. 2013. What is PPM (project and portfolio management)?. [online] Available at: http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/PPM-project-and-portfolio-management [Accessed: 2 Aug 2013].Wideman, R. 2007. Expert Project Management - Ten Steps to Comprehensive Project Portfolio Management. [online] Available at: http://www.

maxwideman.com/papers/ten_step/ten_steps.htm [Accessed: 16 Aug 2013].