A study exploring the strategic relationship of project, program and project portfolio management.

摘要

IT development has enabled better management functions across all industries, inspiringmany organizations to adopt process-centric business models. Introducing extensive change tobusiness and related processes are usually planed at strategic level and then realized throughinitiatives such as projects or larger programs consisting of several related projects. For largerorganizations involved in many development projects, (companies providing IT-solutions forexample) project portfolios can be used to strategically manage and balance projects. In thiscontext, organizations seek to develop their strategic project management capabilities in orderto stay competitive and ensure strategic goals are successfully delivered. However, there areplenty of methodologies to choose from and also a noted deal of confusion surrounding theconcepts of strategically managing projects, as identified by several sources. This leads to thepurpose of the study; exploring the strategic relationship of project management (PM),program management (PgM) and project portfolio management (PPM). The methodologyselected for the study begun with a theoretical study, creating a framework by exploringconcepts related to the research question. Next, a review of literary sources from majorauthorities within the project management field was consulted, specifically on the subject ofthe research question. Finally, central concepts found in the theoretical study was brought tothe empirical study and further explored in interviews conducted with experienced projectmanagement professionals. The findings of the two studies resulted in a number of key factorsrelated to the concept of strategic project management relationship. The main conclusiondiscovered that the strategic relationship of project, program and project portfoliomanagement depends on the organizational context where it is applied. This context cancomprise of a number of factors, the most prevalent and commonly referred to in the findingsof this study being organizational maturity representing the chosen organizationalmethodology in relation to the size of the organization.