What Is Project Portfolio Management?

Project Portfolio Management, or PPM, is a project management discipline aimed at managing project investments in a way that maximizes results, or return, to the organization. 

Each project is considered as an investment that brings the potential for a certain amount of risk and reward to the enterprise. In this way, Project Portfolio Management (PPM) approaches the management of projects much in the same way that a financial analyst or investor would approach the management of a diverse portfolio of financial investments.

Traditional project management can be described as a process for ensuring projects are managed properly to meet time, cost and scope objectives.  Enterprise Project Management is about managing projects in a consistent way across the organization. PPM complements traditional project management by focusing more on the questions of "Which projects should we do?" and "How should we prioritize our investments in human and financial resources to best achieve our enterprise goals?"  In other words, where as traditional project management is about "Doing things right", PPM is about "Doing the right things".  To be competitive, most organizations need to do a better job of both.

Now, PPM is often discussed only in the context of IT organizations and IT projects and we certainly believe it has significant value in that arena. However, we also believe that PPM has tremendous value when applied to portfolios of non-IT projects as well, for example, in portfolios of new product development organizations.  

Project Portfolio Management for IT or Software Development Organizations

When applied in a software development or IT context, PPM is about aligning the investments in IT with the enterprise strategy and objectives. It's about ensuring and being able to demonstrate the investments in IT are aligned with the priorities of the organization and will deliver real value for the investments made.

Project Portfolio Management for New Product Development Organizations

When applied in the context of New Product Development (NPD), PPM is about ensuring the investments in new products meet both the strategic and tactical objectives of the company.

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