Prioritizing IT Project Management Portfolio
The realities of shrinking IT budgets and increasing dependence on IT in organizations in recent years has resulted in a situation in which there is an intense competition for resources needed to execute and complete IT projects. According to Ross (2007), the shrinking IT budget in the face of increasing demand has brought new pressures to the IT function. To gain approval and funding for projects, IT departments must demonstrate that such new project will either result in cost saving, increased sales, or result in greater enterprise-wide efficiency (Ross, 2007). The intense competition for resources makes it imperative that IT managers need to prioritize their projects in order to gain approval and funding. To help them effectively prioritize, many IT managers have embraced IT project portfolio management strategies to enable them insightfully decide what project should get funding and what projects should be postponed, shelved, or cancelled.
What is Project Portfolio Management?
Essentially, Project Portfolio management enables organizations to align their IT and application development projects, resources, and initiatives to corporate business objectives by developing and monitoring measures that treat IT assets as financial assets and to run as a project-oriented business (Reddy, 2004). This statement is supported by Ross (2007), in his submission that many CIOs and IT project managers are applying the principles of investment portfolio management to managing IT project portfolios. This implies that Project Portfolio Management enables IT managers to manage IT project portfolios as one would manage a portfolio of diverse financial investments.
Goal of Project Portfolio Management :
The goal of PPM is to identify and prioritize the projects within an organization, to ensure that appropriate resources can be applied in a timely manner. This is done through the
References: Alberts, R. (2009). Managing the IT Project Portfolio: A Project Ranking Methodology. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERB0903.pdf Ross, M. (2007). Project Portfolio Management Planning:. Retrieved from http://www.compaid.com/caiinternet/ezine/ross-plan.pdf Reddy, A. (2004). Project Portfolio Management (PPM): Aligning business and IT. Retrieved from http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/4779.html