Project portfolio management: balancing risk and performance in turbulent times

Abstract

When economic conditions become more challenging, organisations have fewer resources to deploy on new business or change projects and programmes, reducing the number of such initiatives they can undertake. However, at such times, the projects and programmes they do invest in are often more critical, since they may be essential to deliver efficiency savings, sustain revenue or improve aspects of performance on which the survival of the organisation can depend. The current turbulent economic conditions appear to have caused increasing adoption of project portfolio management (PPM) by organisations. PPM can be defined as: managing a diverse range of projects and programmes to achieve the maximum organisational value within resource and funding constraints, where 'value' does not imply only financial value and includes delivering benefits which are relevant to the organisation's chosen strategy.