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Part 2 of 4: Excerpts from the forthcoming PPM book - Project Portfolio Management: Leading The Coporate Vision by Shan Rajegopal, Philip McGuin and James WallerIs there a business today, no matter how large or small, that can afford to invest in non-performing or non-strategic projects? The importance of investing in the right projects, the need for compliance and the urgent demand for new product and service development all provide reasons why businesses depend on their project management processes to deliver and optimise results.It is a fact that businesses operate in a complex environment with many programmes and projects going on at any one time. Project Portfolio Management is today seen as an essential prerequisite not only for driving and improving project performance, but also for ensuring the business’s success. The reality is that in all organisations decision making is not an easy task for the executive team. Making ‘effective’ and ‘efficient’ decisions about a project, based on rational, accurate and real-time data, can be virtually impossible. For example – projects are often arbitrarily assessed only against the bottom-line financial impact instead of being evaluated according to their health, cost and strategic contribution to the organisation over the short and long term.

Essentially many businesses lack the day-to-day tools and processes needed to facilitate the discussion and resolution of difficult project decisions. They lack the standardised processes which help project stakeholders throughout the organisation understand how and why certain decisions are being made and also enable the business to ferret out socalled ‘pet projects’ that do not contribute to strategic objectives. Even when organisations embark upon developing a formal framework for aligning their projects with the business process it is still fraught with roadblocks. Many organisations are still daunted by the perceived capital and cultural investment needed to deploy PPM, and many organisations still ask whether they need such a process to manage their business projects and whether the cultural and technical impact is palatable.

PPM enables the business to align resources and project investments with corporate objectives. PPM provides a structured environment for deciding which projects, programmes and initiatives to fund, to sustain and to eliminate. PPM is about optimising the investment in change initiatives and subordinating programme and project approval to business strategy rather than departmental and business unit objectives. PPM ensures you are running the right programmes and brings discipline to the project muddle and resource contention that are so common in large organisations. PPM is the management of a portfolio so as to maximise the contribution of projects to the overall welfare and success of the enterprise. 

For business leaders and executives this means that:

• Projects should contribute to a positive cash flow for the enterprise.
• Projects must effectively utilise the organisation’s resources.
• Projects must help position the organisation for future success and growth.

The PPM process enables business users to organise a series of projects into an integrated portfolio. As part of this process the business is able to produce reports based on the various project objectives, costs, resources and risks. This will assist the business in making key financial and business decisions. PPM is a dynamic process whereby projects are regularly evaluated, prioritised and selected, based on the goal of obtaining the greatest possible value from the organisation’s limited resources.

• Authors: Shan Rajegopal, Philip McGuin and James Waller
• ISBN: 0230507166
• Format: Trade Book
• Price: £25.00
• Pub. Date: 15/03/2007
• Publisher(s): Palgrave Macmillan

To pre-order you copy click here