The Science of Project and Portfolio Management

Effective project and portfolio management (PPM) requires the implementation and adherence to target-oriented processes.

While different approaches describe project portfolio management as an end-to-end process, I see it as a cycle, analogous to Deming's Plan-Do-Check-Act circle.

This PPM circle contains four process groups, which are described in more detail on the following pages.

• Strategic portfolio management: the strategic level describes how the portfolio strategy is defined and how resources are effectively allocated to the most important value streams.
• Operational Portfolio Management: the operational part of Portfolio Management deals with the collection of project ideas, their evaluation and prioritization with the aim of implementing the projects that bring the maximum value to strategic alignment.
• Program & Project Execution: Multi-project management ensures that approved projects are executed in a targeted and effective manner to generate the highest possible value.
• Operation and benefit realization: this process group is missing in most portfolio management approaches. Essentially, this part is the most important, because it is here that the value of the portfolio is generated. The measurement values provide the input for the strategy alignment and the circle is completed.