The project portfolio management process is characterised by a series of stages and gates where a project needs to pass the set criteria at that given point in order to continue to the next phase of the process. In this paper it is postulated that project portfolio management, in a multi-project environment, suffers from a core problem referred to as the release-problem. The release-problem serves as the catalyst that causes seven undesirable effects to occur within the project portfolio management environment. These undesirable effects lead to delays that hamper the rate of work the system is able to complete, complicates managerial decision-making and jeopardises the four desired outcomes of project portfolio management. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) / MSc / Unrestricted

Due to the constantly growing interest of the companies in project management, the demand on the available information systems increased. In the past, many IT companies implemented systems for managing projects, but almost 90% of them used only a limited number of available modules. For this reason, the demand for optimization of information systems increased. One of the key requirement was optimization of management of personnel working on the project in order to assure the efficiency which leads to reduction of the company's costs. Now, the companies, and not only those operating in IT area, require that the information system systems that would facilitate the best possible overview of the utilization and availability of human resources working on particular project.

Methods and ways of implementation of changes and innovations in companies through project management are in today's society very well established. There exists methodologies, techniques and tools for the management of individual projects. However in a role of project manager, I very often faced the fact that companies are performing the project portfolio management in very intuitive way. This in itself leads to failed and prematurely terminated projects, initiation of the wrong projects or realisation of correct projects, but at the wrong time. Very often I have also recognized, that there is lack of awareness of fact, that there are also Open Source applications that can help with the organization's portfolio. This thesis deals with the definition of requirements, search and selection of proper OSS application and subsequent implementation. In the first part of this thesis I prepare a theoretical framework about PPM, and on that basis then identify and verify a set of requirements for selection of right OSS PPM application. The next section of thesis describes searching for suitable applications from a variety of sources, assessment against the requirements and the final selection. In the last part the implementation project is drafted, which aims to serve other colleagues in project management as one of the possible implementation paths. The outputs are then continuously confronted with experts in matter of projects and project management in the field of IT in order to maximize symbiosis between theory and real life experiences. Virtually every project management methodology defines the collection of already-proven techniques, best practices or lessons learned from the previous similar implementations. The main contribution of this thesis I see in fact that it contains not only the design of the project implementation, but also describes a logical path, what leads to the result. Therefore this thesis could be used as a base or discussed best practice, when a project of implementation of PPM application in place.

The diploma thesis deals with the design and implementation of a transparent resource management system at the portfolio level. Its primary task is to present and implement this system, but also to describe the situations that occurred during its implementation at Garrett Motion. In order to better understand the issue, the theoretical foundations of project management and resource management are presented at the beginning of the thesis. These serve as the basis for the following analysis of the company's environment, design and subsequent implementation of the system.

The overbridging aspect of this interpretative master thesis is the implementation of a project prioritizing strategy. The concept is subdivided into three processes and entities, which could be seen as tools; project management office(PMO), project evaluation and project selection, which in turn are discussed separately. The thesis investigates how the tools impact the prioritizing strategy and why a company must follow a certain prioritizing strategy. The primary focus has been an IS/IT department at a large Swedish industrial company. Results from interviews at the industrial company have been compared to current theory. In order to map best practice methods a benchmarking study has been conducted at an auto manufacturer, medical company and a telecom company. When implementing a prioritizing strategy it is vital to have a project methodology in order to streamline the project management itself. Also, a PMO with a controlling objective should focus on the task of verifying project information quality and thus minimizing the information overflow to the decision makers. To continuously improve the project mythology and minimize the secondary failures, project should be evaluated. Prioritizing process should not only be made in the project selection phase but continuously during portfolio life cycle by comparing project relevance to risk. A prioritizing strategy would not only highlight the most important projects in the organization, but also make sure that they also receive highest support. A vision for a well defined prioritizing strategy is having project that consume more resources for a shortened time frame instead of having projects consuming less resources but for a longer time frame.

Emerging markets, development of new technologies, sustainability policies and change in customer demand are dramatically changing today’s economies. The business environment is more dynamic than ever before. One particular industry that is currently influenced by significant transformational forces is the automotive industry. These transformational forces, such as autonomy, connectivity and electrification, are driving the change towards a future state where shorter lead times and closer customer interaction will be essential in order to satisfy the needs of the changing market. To deal with external changes, organizations are increasingly focusing on agility as a way to gain new forms of competitive advantage. The benefits of agile methods at the team level has inspired the use of agile practices at a larger scale, all the way up to the portfolio level. Project portfolio management (PPM) connects the strategy of the organization with the distribution of resources across projects in the portfolio. There is little empirical evidence on the agile methods performed in PPM, thus of interest to study. Due to the high complexity at the portfolio level, it becomes increasingly difficult to scale agile methods. This thesis is based on a single-case study within the automotive industry to gain a better understanding of how a mature automotive company can manage the agile scalability to become more agile in their project portfolio management. An abductive approach was applied with gathering methods comprising interviews, documents and observations. The results of this thesis highlight the major deficiencies with the case company’s current PPM, as well as their performance in scaling agile. / Tillväxtmarknader, utveckling av ny teknik, hållbarhetspolitik samt förändring av kundkrav påverkar dagens ekonomi dramatiskt. Affärsmarknaden är mer dynamisk än någonsin tidigare. En viss industri som för närvarande påverkas av bemärkta förändringar är fordonsindustrin. Trender som autonomi, elektrifiering och uppkopplade fordon driver förändringen mot ett framtida tillstånd där kortare ledtider och närmare kundinteraktion kommer att vara nödvändiga för att tillgodose marknadsbehoven. För att hantera externa förändringar fokuserar organisationer alltmer på att arbeta agilt. Fördelarna som agila metoder har på teamnivå har inspirerat användningen av dem på en större skala, hela vägen upp till portföljnivå. Projektportföljstyrning (PPM) förenar organisationens strategi med fördelningen av resurser på projekt i portföljen. Det existerar lite empiriskt bevis på användandet av agila metoder på portföljnivå, därav intresse att studera. Den höga komplexitet som portföljnivån utgör gör det svårare att skala upp agila arbetssätt. Denna avhandling bygger på en fallstudie inom fordonsindustrin för att skapa en bättre förståelse för hur ett moget fordonsföretag hanterar den agila skalbarheten för att bli mer agila i sin portföljstyrning. En abduktiv metod användes med datainsamlingsmetoder som omfattade intervjuer, dokument och observationer. Resultatet av denna avhandling belyser bristerna med företagets nuvarande PPM, samt deras prestanda i agil skalbarhet.

This thesis has its origin in empirical evidence. Some Swedish companies claimed that despite having plenty of proposals for developing new products, they experienced problems when choosing from all those alternatives. Their problem was how to select among new ideas the ones for being developed and the ones to be rejected, how many projects to run according to their capacity, when to start a development project and when to stop one, and how to decide among ongoing projects which the most important ones were. The companies’ problem was decision making in the context of innovation.  According to literature, a deeper understanding is needed of the decision making process in innovation, taking into account its organizational and procedural complexities. The purpose of this thesis is to achieve an understanding of the decision making process in innovation.  The thesis is based on an explorative study, with interviews carried out in three companies that have new product development as a core competitive factor. The empirical study focuses on the decisions made for selection and prioritization of different innovative alternatives.  As a result of the analysis of the empirical data a conceptualization of the decision making process was developed. Furthermore, it was described the relevant problems that decision makers experience, the main characteristics of the decision making process and the role that decision making plays in innovation. The implications of these findings for designing work procedures to support decision making in innovation were discussed; and general descriptions of two practical methods suggested.  The main findings indicate that for making decisions in the context of innovation, organizations must be able to face uncertain and ambiguous situations, and achieve a collective understanding about what is to be done. To do this, different approaches for making decisions and understanding innovation are needed. However, regardless of the appropriateness of these approaches, they receive different levels of acceptance within organizations; and decision makers must deal with the different grades of organizational acceptance of the different approaches. As a consequence, an organization displays certain dynamic using different approaches for making decisions and for understanding innovation. Such dynamic influences the companies’ innovative potential and the output of the innovation process. / QC 20101111

Examensarbetets mål har varit att utveckla en modell för att värdera och prioritera utvecklingsprojekt som verkar för att projektportföljen som helhet ska stödja företagets strategier. För att uppnå målet gavs studien syftet att förklara en process samt vilka styrmedel och parametrar som skapar en projektportföljhantering med koppling till strategin. Bakgrunden till syftet grundas både empiriskt och i vetenskapen. Den empiriska grunden sammanfattas i fyra utmaningar som identifierats genom en förstudie och genom beställaren Propias erfarenhet i följande fyra punkter: a) Företagen upplever en saknad av översikt över hur projekten uppfyller strategin. b) Önskar ökad transparens kring hur strategiska värderingar och prioriteringar görs. c) När externa förutsättningarna genom strategi ändras är det inte säkert att projektet omvärderas. d) Projekt växer och blir mer komplexa utan att omvärderas och har på så sätt svårt att motivera resursåtgång. En förstudie av befintlig vetenskap påvisade att koppling mellan projektportföljhantering och strategi behövde undersökas vidare. För att svara på företagens utmaningar och samtidigt bringa klarhet i hur strategi kan kopplas till projektportföljhantering gjordes en teoretisk utveckling av en modell och analysmodell som sedan låg till grund för att analysera data från en empirisk studie. Den empiriska insamlingen gjordes genom kvalitativa intervjuer på tre företag på koncernnivå och inom ett av företagen gjordes en mer omfattande studie där även enskilda affärsområden studerades.Arbetet resulterade i en modell som innefattar en process som beskriver stegen från identifiering av initiativ till utvärdering samt utifrån vilka styrmedel och värderingsparametrar, prioritering samt beslut inom processen ska baseras på. Stegen i modellen är identifiering, klassificering, balansering, urval, prioritering, optimering, sekvensering, beslut och utvärdering. De styrmedel som kopplas till processen och som lämpar sig för att koppla strategi till projektportföljhanteringsprocessen(PPH) är främst riktlinjer, budget, mål och mätetal samt strategiska perspektiv. Hur stegen kopplas ihop med styrmedel och parametrar visualiseras i Figur 1.För utmaningarna a, och b, föreslås att företag har identifiering, klassificering och balansering av projekt och placerar projekten i rätt portfölj samt att företag använder sig av en projektportföljhanteringsprocess (PPH-process) som skapar transparens och en översikt. För utmaningarna c, och d, föreslås att företag kopplar sin strategi till sina projektportföljer, skapar en synkronisering mellan strategi- och PPH-processen samt parkerar projekt som inte är aktuella för denna iteration av PPH-processen. / The goal of the thesis is to develop a model to valuate and prioritize development projects to ensure that the project portfolio is in line with strategy. To reach the goal the report was given the purpose to explain a process and which management control instruments and valuation parameters that creates a project portfolio management process that is connected to strategy. The background is based both in theory and empirically, which was ensured during the pre-study. The empirical background can be summed up in four main points: a) Businesses experience a lack of overview regarding how projects contribute strategy. b) Businesses wish for increased transparency regarding how strategic valuations and prioritization are being made. c) When external factors incorporated in strategy is changing it does not mean the all projects are re-valuated. d) When projects grow to be gradually more complex there is a tendency of not revaluating, hence resulting in trouble allocating resources for the project.A pre-study was conducted which showed that research finds a gap between strategy and how project portfolios are managed and that gap needs to be further examined. To fill the gap and answer to the empirical challenges a theoretically developed model has been developed combined with a model of analysis which was the foundation of the analysis of empirical data. The empirical data was collected through qualitative interviews from three different companies on corporate level as well from business level in one of the companies.This report has resulted in a process, management control components and parameters to be able to evaluate and prioritize project in a portfolio. The process consists of the steps identifying, clustering, balancing, selecting, prioritizing, optimizing, sequencing, deciding and evaluating. Meanwhile, guidelines, budget, performance measurement with goals and strategic perspectives are suitable formats for transferring strategy into the project portfolio management process.To handle point a) and b) above the study suggests that the process steps identifying, Clustering and balancing are used to place the projects in the appropriate portfolio and by that facilitate balance between projects and initiatives. To ensure transparency and enable overview the process needs to be formal and followed by the users. Regarding point c) and d) it is suggested that the project portfolio management process need to be adjusted for compatibility with the strategy development process and that projects.

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No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese sobre Gestão de Portfolio de Projetos de TI - Claudio Larieira - texto final.pdf: 3210468 bytes, checksum: 7b4be2fc34ce1e992285271a1849d36b (MD5) Previous issue date: 13-12-11 / Organizations may manage their operations more efficiently and leverage business strategies through Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), enabling them to add competitive advantages required for success and enterprise sustainability. Scholars and business leaders often dispute the value ICT brings to businesses because of high investment required for acquisition, implementation, and maintenance. Markowitz’s Portfolio Analysis dealt with financial investments. Other authors extended his proposition to project’s assessment, selection and prioritization, creating Project Portfolio Management. Subsequently, the concept was applied to ICT Project Portfolio Management was proposed. Various organizational factors can influence the execution of this process, beyond inherent technical and methodological issues. This thesis identified organizational factors that affect ICT Project Portfolio Management and analyzed their influence on the process. The research is of an applied nature, qualitative, exploratory and descriptive, and was executed in multiple case studies through analysis of three mid-sized commercial Brazilian banks. This thesis’ main contribution is reached through the creation of a conceptual structure that represents various organizational factors that influence ICT Project Portfolio Management. There are indications that organizational factors have great influence on this process, given the responses obtained in interviews with professionals of the banks analyzed. / A Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação (TIC) permite que as empresas realizem suas operações de maneira mais eficiente, alavanquem suas estratégias de negócio e tragam assim as vantagens competitivas necessárias para o sucesso e perenidade do empreendimento. É constante nos meios acadêmicos e empresariais o questionamento sobre o valor que a TIC efetivamente traz ao negócio dados os altos investimentos necessários para sua aquisição, implementação e manutenção. A partir da proposição seminal de Markowitz sobre a Análise de Portfólio (que tratou especificamente dos investimentos financeiros), outros autores estenderam este conceito para realizar a avaliação, seleção e priorização de projetos, criando o que atualmente se denomina de Gestão de Portfólio de Projetos. A Gestão de Portfólio de Projetos, por sua vez, foi posteriormente estendida para os projetos de TIC e foi proposta então a abordagem de Gestão de Portfólio de Projetos de TIC. Além das questões meramente técnicas ou metodológicas, vários fatores organizacionais estão presentes na execução deste processo e podem influenciá-lo. Este trabalho identifica os fatores organizacionais que envolvem a Gestão de Portfólio de Projetos de TIC e analisa as influências que estes fatores trazem sobre o processo citado. A pesquisa é de natureza qualitativa, de caráter exploratório e descritivo e é operacionalizada através da realização de estudos de caso múltiplos em 3 (três) bancos médios comerciais brasileiros. A principal contribuição deste trabalho é a proposição de uma estrutura conceitual que representa os diversos fatores organizacionais que influenciam a Gestão de Portfólio de Projetos de TIC em uma organização. Há indícios de que os fatores organizacionais têm grande influência sobre este processo dadas as respostas obtidas nas entrevistas com os profissionais dos bancos analisados.

This thesis suggests implementation of human resources management system to manage project portfolio in small organizations. Main gist is implementation and demonstration of the system, that is able to assign human resources to planned projects. The thesis also provides basic theory of projects and human resources management in projects. Based on this theory the system is analysed, designed and implemented.