TORONTO – Info-Tech Research Group, a global IT research and advisory firm, has published a new research blueprint to help IT leaders develop a project portfolio management (PPM) strategy. By implementing this research blueprint, IT departments can ensure throughput of the best projects and maximize stakeholder satisfaction with IT.
IT departments often face too many projects and insufficient resource capacity to deliver projects on time, on budget, and in scope with high quality. Prioritizing projects against one another is difficult in the face of conflicting priorities and agendas; therefore, projects with dubious value or benefits consume resource capacity.
“Organizations often try to solve portfolio management problems with project management solutions,” explains Practice Lead Barry Cousins. “Symptoms of project failure – late projects, canceled projects, going over budget, etc. – will drive those organizations to increase project management rigor to address those symptoms.”
PPM can improve the business alignment of projects and reduce the chance of project failure. Selecting and prioritizing projects with the strongest alignment to business strategy goals and ensuring that resources are properly allocated to deliver them will enable IT to:
- Improve business satisfaction and its perception of IT’s alignment with the business.
- Better engage the business and the project customers.
- Minimize the risk of project failure due to changing organizational/project vision, goals, and objectives.
“The fundamental problem is that you can do a great job of delivering projects on time, on budget, and in scope but still do a poor job of selecting the right projects at the right time, using the right resources, adding no value to the business,” explains Cousins. “The key to project success is capacity-constrained project prioritization and selection based on what the resource pool can execute to completion.”
The difference between project management and project portfolio management comes down to doing things right vs. doing the right things. Both are important but doing the wrong things well doesn’t provide much value to the business in the long run. The firm recommends the following approach:
- Create a coherent strategy to maximize the total value that projects deliver as a portfolio rather than a collection of individual projects.
- Ensure the steering committee or senior executive layer buys into the strategy by helping them understand why it’s necessary and, more importantly, why the strategy is valuable to them.
- Put in place people, processes, and tools that are sustainable and manageable, plus a communication strategy to maintain the stakeholder buy-in.
“Start with the end in mind: articulate a PPM strategy that is truly project portfolio in nature, i.e., focused on the whole portfolio and not just the individual parts,” adds Cousins. “Then, let your PPM strategy guide your process goals and help to drive successful outcomes, project after project.”
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Supporting Resources
- Download the Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy blueprint.
About Info-Tech Research Group
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory firm, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals. The company produces unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. Info-Tech partners closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
SOURCE Info-Tech Research Group
