Project portfolio management
Project portfolio management (PPM) is a response to the problems of managing multiple projects within an organisation.
PPM looks across multiple projects to get a consolidated view. This consolidated view allows the organisation to:
- More consistently assess the case for individual projects.
- Assess the impact of multiple projects, and look for overcommitment of money, people or time.
- Match the mix of projects to organisational goals.
- Identify overlapping or conflicting projects.
- Improve quality, by standardising how projects are run and implementing a consistent measurement and monitoring regime across all projects.
PPM requires additional activities over and above project management. This includes building an inventory of projects, and implementing processes to consistently assess the business case, impact, relationships and quality of projects. In many organisations, these activities are carried out by a project management office (PMO), also called a project office.
The system portfolio built by system governance is complementary to the project portfolio. It provides a consolidated body of information about an organisation's IT, which can be used alongside the project portfolio to best guide an organisation's IT investment and improvements.
PPM is a relatively young subject. Most project management tools and vendors provide some PPM capability, and there are some PPM specialists.