Page 42 - Organizational Project Management

Chapter 4—The Organizational Project Management Processes

(themes) and group tactical (operational) efforts separately (e.g., process
improvement, equipment maintenance and replacement, etc.), so that the
resulting portfolios individually exhibit coherence of purpose. Different
portfolios may also be appropriate when grouping projects and programs
by product line.
Portfolio Management, then, is the centralized management of one or
more portfolios; it includes identifying, prioritizing, authorizing, managing,
and controlling projects, programs, and other related work, to achieve spe-
cific strategic business objectives. The organization’s strategic plan and
available resources guide the investments in projects and programs. The
scope of Portfolio Management, however, extends well beyond the support
of projects or program investments, since there is an ongoing balance and
interaction among projects and programs that comprise the portfolio. Port-
folio Management is more closely related to general management and other
management disciplines than Project and Program Management are, and
is the most strategic of the three domains. However, business processes such
as strategic planning are not within the scope of OPM3.
Some of the key activities that are essential to Portfolio Management
from an organizational project management point of view include the fol-
lowing (see Appendix I for additional details):
■ Translating organizational strategies into specific initiatives or business
cases that become the foundation for programs and projects
■ Identifying and initiating programs and projects
■ Providing, allocating and reallocating resources to programs, projects,
and other activities
■ Maintaining a balanced project portfolio
■ Supporting the organizational project management environment.
Much like the process for managing projects and programs, Portfolio
Management has initiating processes and closing processes, which may indi-
cate, for instance, the initiation of a new portfolio of projects, or the closing
of operations in a obsolete product line. But, in most cases, these processes
refer to the beginning of a new planning cycle or to the closure of a pre-
vious planning cycle. The processes are applicable in both cases.
The process groups associated with Portfolio Management are related to
those in Project and Program Management: Initiating processes, Planning
processes, Executing processes, Controlling processes, and Closing
processes. As with Project and Program Management, the idea of matu-
rity within the domain of Portfolio Management is tied to the ability to per-
form each of the processes well. It also includes the concept of establishing
portfolio-level standards, process measures, process controls, and contin-
uous improvement of processes. The existence or attainment of maturity in
any given process depends on the existence of other Capabilities, because
some processes require essential, stable inputs from other processes.
As stated in the section on Program Management, process improvements
in Portfolio Management depend upon process improvements in the other
domains of Project and Program Management. For example, standardizing
Portfolio Management processes depends on standardizing the processes
for all the projects and programs within a portfolio. This same logic can be
extended to process measurement, control, and continuous improvement.
Portfolio management promotes understanding of the interrelationships
between organizational processes and the successful completion of pro-

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