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PPM AND STRATEGIC PLANNING 267

• Find out which proposed projects have the highest value to the organization
and therefore should receive priority in resource allocation.

• Evaluate proposed projects in terms of their impact on the overall portfolio,
specifically with regard to resource availability and the performance of
other projects.

• Identify which projects are 25 percent or more behind schedule, and ana-
lyze the impact to the overall portfolio of canceling those projects, again in
terms of resource availability and performance of other projects.

These queries seem to be a bit vague to me. How is value being defined? How
is impact being defined? I understand the importance of being able to get an-
swers to these queries. But has anyone thought about just what data is required to
answer these questions?

Project Portfolio Management and Strategic Planning

We have fought a battle for years to convince senior management that they can’t
implement a project management capability by just bringing in project manage-
ment tools. This holds true for Project Portfolio Management as well. The tools
process information. They don’t generate knowledge that isn’t there. If manage-
ment cannot describe the aspects of value, or define to conditions of impact, the
system will not know what to do.

This brings us to the realization that the true strategic value of a proposed pro-
ject must be determined and quantified before it can be placed into the project
mix. And this step cannot be executed by the supporting enterprise project man-
agement software.

I would hate to think that Project Portfolio Management would be used as an
excuse for lack of good strategic thinking. The fact is that Project Portfolio
Management is part of the normal strategic planning process. We wouldn’t have
the problem of so many failed and aborted projects if the people who autho-
rized these projects were more organized and diligent about their decisions to
proceed. How many times have you seen a business case presented, with a most
likely scenario, a best case scenario, and a worst case scenario? Then the pre-
senter says that “the downside will never happen” and the execs buy it? No
wonder projects fail. How many times have you seen a project authorized and
work initiated, only to learn later that the project scope and objectives (if they
were actually defined) do not fit with the firm’s overall business strategies and
objectives?