Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to address the, by scholars and managers alike, expressed need of development in the project portfolio selection. The research will aim to investigate how the selection of innovation projects portfolios could change if flexibility, and with it uncertainty, were added to the project portfolio selection. The aim is further to investigate how options value can be incorporated as additional value to a portfolio selection decision, with the goal to choose projects that maximize the goal function of the firm. Method: This thesis takes a qualitative approach as such approach is favourable when studying social science. The empirical research is carried out at a large international company conducting in an extensive amount of R&D as well working with innovation projects. The data is collected by unstructured and semi structured interviews with management at the company subjected to the study. Results: The results show, that by adapting the real options framework to a static way of selecting projects, the incorporation of flexibility to the selection process can add economic value by accounting for options value and handle uncertainty. The real options framework will substantiate a dynamic approach to the selection process of innovation projects, as flexibility is changing the selection process from individual project selection to the selection of portfolios. / Syfte: Syftet med följande uppsats är belysa och utveckla det, av forskare och chefer, uttryckta behov av utveckling av projektportföljval. Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka hur valet av innovationsprojekt genom portföljvalsmodeller kan förändras om flexibilitet och osäkerhet adderas till beslutsprocessen. Syftet är vidare att undersöka hur ytterligare värde kan inkorporeras i ett beslut, med målet att välja den portfölj som maximerar företagets målfunktion. Metod: Denna uppsats tar en kvalitativ metodansats då ett sådant tillvägagångssätt är fördelaktigt i studier av samhällsvetenskap. Den empiriska undersökningen har bedrivits på ett stort internationellt företag vilket deltar i ett omfattande FoU arbete, samt i stor skala arbetar med innovationsprojekt. Data har samlats in genom ostrukturerade samt semistrukturerade intervjuer med ledningen på företaget. Slutsatser: Resultaten visar att genom att inkorporera reella optioner, i en statisk beslutsprocess, så kan ett bättre beslutsunderlag genereras genom inkluderandet av osäkerhet och värdet av optioner. Ett sådant beslutsunderlag genereras genom att real options adderar flexibilitet till urvalsprocessen. Genom att inkorporera flexibilitet kommer en statisk metod att välja individuella projekt på, skifta till fördel för en dynamisk metod att välja portföljer.

Na última década, o crescimento da aviação, aliado aos insuficientes investimentos em infraestrutura, resultou na necessidade de ampliação e modernização dos aeroportos, o que fez com que o Governo Federal desse início ao seu ao plano de concessão de seus principais aeroportos. Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar os processos de seleção, priorização e acompanhamento da carteira de projetos de um aeroporto concessionado à luz da teoria de gestão de portfólio de projetos, a fim de contribuir com a melhoria de seus procedimentos internos, conferindo maior competitividade e produtividade à organização. O desenvolvimento da proposta é feito com base nas análises realizadas a partir da triangulação de fontes de evidência coletadas (observação, entrevistas e fundamentação teórica). A triangulação visou a obter subsídios para a elaboração de uma proposta para o processo de seleção, priorização e acompanhamento de projetos, capaz de promover o alinhamento com os objetivos de negócio da concessionária e contribuir com a governança e transparência do processo, adequada às particularidades da indústria. A proposta também buscou identificar critérios de avaliação e priorização de projetos adaptada às necessidades da empresa, bem como trabalhar a questão da manutenção e revisão da carteira de projetos. Este trabalho pretende contribuir para a construção do conhecimento a partir da ampliação de relatos sobre a seleção, priorização e manutenção de projetos em aeroportos brasileiros, além de colaborar para que empresas e profissionais em situações similares possam obter auxílio e realizar associações no entendimento de outros casos. / Over the past decade, the growth of the aviation sector, coupled with insufficient infrastructure investment, resulted in the need for expansion and modernization of airports, causing the Federal Government to initiate its concession plan for its main airports in Brazil. This paper aims to analyze the selection, prioritization and monitoring processes of the project portfolio of an airport concession in the light of the project portfolio management theory, in order to contribute to the improvement of its internal procedures, boosting the company\'s competitiveness and productivity. The development of the proposal is based on analyses of three sources of evidence: observation, interviews and literature. These analyses intended to support the development of a proposal for the processes of selection, prioritization and monitoring of projects, which should be suitable for the characteristics of the industry and in line with the concessionaire\'s business objectives, improving governance and transparency. The proposal also sought to identify criteria for the assessment and prioritization of projects tailored to the company\'s needs, as well as to work out the issue of maintenance and review of the project portfolio. This study seeks to help build knowledge from an increased number of reports on the selection, prioritization and maintenance of projects in Brazilian airports, and to collaborate with companies and professionals in similar situations, assisting them in applying this knowledge to better understand other cases

O gerenciamento de portfólios de projetos é adotado por organizações para garantir que sejam priorizados e realizados os melhores projetos para atingir os objetivos estratégicos da organização e para haver um melhor planejamento do uso dos diversos recursos da organização para a execução dos projetos. O setor público tem características que o distingue do setor privado, o que reflete em como as organizações dos dois setores são gerenciadas. O objetivo deste trabalho, além de realizar uma revisão bibliográfica sobre o gerenciamento de portfólio no setor público, é estudar as características e ferramentas utilizadas no gerenciamento de portfólio de projetos no setor público em comparação com o setor privado. Para a realização deste estudo foram realizados estudos de caso em quatro empresas privadas de diversos setores e em quatro organizações públicas de diversas esferas de governo e de atuação. Nos estudos de caso, além da análise de documentação, foram realizadas entrevistas com profissionais de todas as organizações as quais foram transcritas e analisadas com auxílio do NVivo, um programa de análise qualitativa de dados. A análise dos dados levantados frente às proposições de pesquisa permitiu constatar que em ambos os setores o gerenciamento de portfólio de projetos tem como um de seus objetivos principais gerar um alinhamento entre os projetos realizados e os objetivos estratégicos pretendidos pela organização; as organizações do setor público, ao contrário do sugerido pela análise da literatura, possuem uma maior formalização dos seus processos de gerenciamento de portfólio de projetos; existe um indicativo que as ferramentas utilizadas em ambos os setores são semelhantes, sendo que a ferramenta de pontuação e ordenamento é uma das mais utilizadas nas organizações pesquisadas; as classes de critérios mais utilizadas para a seleção e priorização do portfólio no setor público são diferentes das classes de critérios utilizadas no setor privado; a classe de critérios \"financeira\" é a que possui maior quantidade de critérios no setor privado e menor quantidade no setor público, situação que se inverte com a classe \"social e ambiental\" que tem maior quantidade de critérios no setor público e menor número no setor privado; o setor público tem menor atenção ao gerenciamento de riscos do que o setor privado. Não foi possível concluir se há diferença entre a influência das partes interessadas internas e externas à organização no gerenciamento de portfólio nos setores analisados. / Project portfolio management is used by organizations to ensure that they prioritize and execute the best projects available to achieve the organization\'s strategic objectives and to better plan the use of their resources. The public sector has some characteristics that distinguish it from the private sector that influences how organizations in both sectors are managed. This work aims to carry out a bibliographic review on portfolio management in the public sector and also to compare the characteristics and tools of project portfolio management processes used in the public and private sector. In order to carry out this study, eight case studies were carried out, four in private companies from different sectors and four in public organizations from different government´s responsibility and regions. During the case studies, in addition to documentation analysis, interviews were conducted with organizations´ professionals, that were transcribed and analyzed using NVivo, a qualitative data analysis software. The analysis of the data collected in comparison to the research proposals showed that in both sectors the main goal of project portfolio management is to generate an alignment between the projects carried out and the strategic objectives pursued by the organization; on the contrary that were indicated by the literature review, public sector organizations have more formalized project portfolio management processes than private sector companies; there is an indication that organizations in both sectors use similar tools and the scoring and classification´s type is the most commonly used; the selection and prioritization criteria most used by public sector organizations are from different class than the most used by private sector organizations; the \"financial\" class of criteria is the one that has the biggest amount of criteria in the private sector and the smallest amount in the public sector, the opposite situation occurs in the \"social and environmental\" class that has the biggest amount of criteria in the public sector and the smallest amount in the private sector; public sector organizations are less concerned about risk management than private sector organizations. It wasn´t possible to infer if there is a difference in the influence\'s level between internal and external stakeholders in the project portfolio management\'s practices in the analyzed sectors.

Esta dissertação relata o estudo sobre os fatores críticos de sucesso do gerenciamento de portfolio de projetos em empresas que atuam no Brasil e também verifica os impactos sobre os resultados organizacionais. A pesquisa foi realizada através de um levantamento junto a profissionais engajados no gerenciamento de projetos que responderam a questionário elaborado a partir de revisão da literatura pertinente ao tema. Os fatores críticos de sucesso validados são: o alinhamento com a estratégia e o processo de gerenciamento de portfolio. Quanto aos impactos sobre os resultados, foi confirmado que o gerenciamento de portfolio impacta positivamente o gerenciamento dos projetos, a satisfação das partes interessadas e a maturidade em projetos. Embora a literatura tenha sido pesquisada, a linha mestra para a pesquisa, principalmente quanto ao processo de gerenciamento de portfolio, ficou centrada nas publicações do Instituto de Gerenciamento de Projetos, mais conhecido por PMI - Project Management Institute. / This dissertation reports the study about success key factors of project portfolio management in companies which act in Brazil and it also analyses the impacts on organizational results. The research was made through a survey applied to people engaged in project management activities whose answered to questionnaire that was elaborated since a review of the literature related to this subject. The validated success key factors are the following: alignment with strategy and the portfolio management process. About the impacts on the results, it was confirmed that portfolio management impacts positively in project management, in project stakeholder satisfaction and in project management maturity. Although an extensive part of literature was consulted, the main approach mainly to the portfolio management process was focused in PMI issues.

Este estudo se propõe analisar como as organizações utilizam a gestão de portfólio de projetos para gerir a inovação. Para tanto, busca explorar como as organizações identificam, categorizam, classificam, selecionam e priorizam os projetos, e como controlam e medem os resultados de seu portfólio de inovação, em um contexto contendo projetos de diferentes naturezas de inovação. Para atingir este objetivo foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa, através de seis entrevistas em profundidade. O roteiro de entrevista foi criado a partir do estudo do modelo de gestão de portfólio proposto pelo PMI (2013) e revisado por três especialistas. Para esta pesquisa foram entrevistadas três empresas, sendo dois profissionais por empresa, um de cargo gerencial e outro de cargo executivo, ligados à gestão de portfólio de inovação. As entrevistas foram analisadas quanto ao seu conteúdo através da análise temática. A análise das entrevistas é apresentada a partir de quatro grandes temas: o contexto da gestão de portfólio de inovação na organização, o processo de avaliação e seleção de projetos para o portfólio, o processo de monitoramento do portfólio e os desafios da gestão de portfólios de inovação. Como resultados, a pesquisa identificou que as empresas pesquisadas têm como base de influência principal o modelo de gestão de portfólio proposto pelo PMI (2013), além de outros métodos como Stage-gate, Corrente Crítica, Lean, OKR e PDCA. Que as organizações buscam adaptar o processo de gestão de portfólio à sua realidade e são feitas adaptações de acordo com a complexidade do portfólio de projetos de inovação da organização, conforme a natureza das inovações presente nos projetos do portfólio, sua ambição de inovação e os desafios encontrados na implementação da gestão de seu portfólio de inovação; que são utilizadas diferentes técnicas de avaliação de viabilidade de projetos, com o uso do modelo Stage-gate, facilitando a seleção de projetos para o portfólio, de acordo com o grau de incerteza dos projetos; que são utilizadas técnicas como a Corrente Crítica para priorizar o portfólio e reduzir o lead time de projetos, reduzindo o tempo para iniciar a captura de valor advindo destes; que a qualidade do processo de monitoramento do portfólio está ligada diretamente à qualidade do processo de categorização dos projetos e de seus descritores-chave; que a resistência gerencial em reportar desempenho dos projetos é um desafio para as organizações; e, por fim, que todas as organizações reforçam seus processos de gestão de portfólio de inovação de acordo com suas ambições de inovação e de acordo com sua maturidade quanto a importância da inovação para a empresa, de onde se pode sugerir que as organizações com gestão de portfólio mais rígida e formalizada são também as organizações menos inovadoras. / This study aims to analyze how organizations use project portfolio management to manage innovation. To do so, it seeks to explore how organizations identify, categorize, classify, select and prioritize their projects, and control and measure the results of their innovation portfolio, in a context containing projects of different natures of innovation. To achieve this goal, a qualitative research was conducted through in-depth interviews. The interview script was created based on the study of the portfolio management model proposed by PMI (2013) and reviewed by three specialists. For this research, three companies were interviewed, two professionals per company, one managerial and one executive, both linked to innovation portfolio management at their organizations. The interviews were analyzed for their content through thematic analysis. The analysis of the interviews is presented based on four main themes: the context of portfolio management innovation in the organization; the project evaluation and selection processes for the portfolio; the portfolio monitoring process; and the innovation portfolio management challenges. As a result, it was identified that the companies surveyed are influenced by PMI's (2013) portfolio management model, as well as other complementary methods such as Stage-gate, Critical Current, Lean, OKR and PDCA; that the organizations seek to adapt the portfolio management process to their reality, and that adaptations are made according to the complexity of the organization's innovation portfolio, according to the nature of innovations present in the portfolio projects, according to its innovation ambition and according to the challenges encountered in implementing the management of its innovation portfolio; that different project feasibility evaluation techniques are used, with the use of the Stage- Gate model, facilitating the selection of projects for the portfolio, according to the degree of uncertainty of the projects; that techniques such as the Critical Chain are used to prioritize the portfolio and reduce the lead time of projects, reducing the time to start capturing value from them; that the quality of the portfolio monitoring process is directly linked to the quality of the project categorization process and its key descriptors; that the managerial resistance to reporting project performance is a challenge; and lastly, that all organizations reinforce their innovation portfolio management processes according to their innovation ambitions and according to their maturity about the importance of innovation for the company, suggesting that organizations with more rigid and formalized portfolio management are also less innovative organizations.

<p><strong><em>“While project management and program management have traditionally focused on ‘doing work right’, portfolio management is concerned with ‘doing the right work’” (PMI,2006)</em></strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Nowadays organizations are facing problems with too many projects and having limited resources to execute these projects. Therefore the role of portfolio control is gaining more importance to yield the right balance, mix and number of projects, and also to deal with the challenge of maximizing the value of the portfolio. Therefore the organizations rely on effective portfolio management and are developing new methods to deal with these challenges. Hence present study involves study of those organizations that rely on portfolio control techniques to effectively manage their portfolio of projects.</p><p> </p><p>The aim of this research is to investigate the role of portfolio control techniques in achieving efficiency in project based firms, examine relationship between control techniques and the portfolio efficiency, and to find the role of contextual factors like project and governance type in impacting the portfolio efficiency. Three portfolio control factors: portfolio selection, portfolio reporting, and decision making style were identified and portfolio efficiency was explained by two measures: achievement of portfolio results and achievement of project and program level purpose.</p><p> </p><p>The research was conducted at two multinational organizations, a pharmaceutical company in Europe and engineering and contracting transportation company in Asia. Case study research strategy was used, and data was collected through semi- structured interviews to investigate the impact of using these portfolio control techniques in a project based firms.</p><p> </p><p>The results of the research indicate that these control techniques helps to select and analyse the portfolio from strategic, financial and risk perspective. Furthermore it helps to balance the organizational priorities by taking into consideration project type, market sector, resource constraints and product lines. The portfolio control techniques also involve portfolio reporting which is considered as formal way of communication and information sharing and is believed to be significant project-level factor contributing to portfolio efficiency. Lastly, portfolio decision making helps the organizations in making the right decision in the best interest of the organization. All these control variables were found to have a significant impact on achieving results and achieving project and programme level purpose which in our research are the dimensions of portfolio efficiency.</p><p> </p><p>In our study we also found that there exists a positive relationship between the portfolio control techniques and portfolio efficiency which is affected by the contextual variables such as project type, governance type, organizational complexity, co-localization of team members, communication and clarity of goals and objectives.</p>

Product development has become an important competitive factor for most companies. A central task is to select which projects, often from a large number of project proposals, are to be developed in order to achieve strategic objectives without exceeding available resources. Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is the research discipline which focuses on the decision-making processes used to evaluate, select and prioritise projects. Previous research has stated that companies must be able to select and commit resources to different types of ideas and projects. However, it is widely believed that PPM literature has not sufficiently investigated the challenges that companies might face when putting into practice different decision-making approaches to select different types of ideas and projects. This thesis aims to explore how different types of ideas and projects are evaluated and selected in the context of the development of complex technological products. It is based on a qualitative research approach and interviews and observations have been carried out with the cooperation of six companies. The findings of this thesis reveal that because different decision-making approaches encounter different levels of acceptance within an organisation, the dynamics by which an idea evolves are affected by the way in which decision makers deal with the legitimacy of the decision-making approaches that they put into practice. Decision makers use some mechanisms that allow them to avoid drawing exclusively on the highly accepted approaches when they are not considered to be suitable, and to give legitimacy to the decisions that have been made by the less accepted approaches. In addition, the way in which decision makers experience a decision situation influences how it is approached. If they experience ambiguity, they might display a decision-making logic in which actions are allowed to be taken within self-organised social interactions, in order to make sense of the idea, project or criteria. However, the occurrence of self-organised interactions is conditioned by how decision makers negotiate resources with stakeholders that display different interests and decision-making logics. These findings question the objective view that assumes that ideas and projects are already defined at the moment the decision is made and are able to be classified in pre-defined categories. It also led to the question of whether problems in fulfilling resource allocation plans and the risk of biases in decision making are problems that arise due to poor decision-making practices, and whether they should, instead, be understood as probable consequences of a flexible process. Finally, this thesis explores a way of enhancing decision makers’ abilities through scenarios in which decision makers experience decision situations and reflect on their own ways of making decisions. / <p>QC 20120918</p>

New Ventures projects emerge in response to the growing need of countries to develop and grow economically in an environment characterized by rapid changes. The importance of these projects is such that during the last decades they have played a role not only as drivers of the economy but also as sources of new jobs and innovation (Chen, 2009). Due to this importance, there have been multiple studies related to the efficient management of such projects. However, it is not sufficient for these projects to be managed properly, but the presence of limited resources makes necessary to select, prioritize and control these projects strategically within a portfolio.   This strategic management can be carried out by using the theory developed in Project Portfolio Management (PPM). The importance of PPM is the ability to integrate the world of projects with the operation of organizations, helping to minimize failures such as making unnecessary effort to undertake these projects in an appropriate manner when in fact these are not the right projects.  However, there is a lack of knowledge in the application of PPM theory for New Ventures projects, because their characteristics differ from those of any other type of projects in terms of high level of risk and, in many cases, high technical uncertainty (Mac Millan &amp; Gunther, 2000).  This knowledge gap can be minimized using two different approaches. The first one consists in employing the theory developed by PPM in R&amp;D projects, applying it for New Venture projects, as suggested by Mac Millan &amp; Gunther (2000). The second approach corresponds to using the theory developed around the management of projects within Business Incubators (BIs) and Venture Capital firms (VC) in every stage of the PPM process.   This study describes how BIs and VCs in Sweden manage their New Venture projects portfolios in issues such as selection, prioritization and monitoring and control. To achieve an adequate depiction of this process, the study seeks primarily to identify the role of BIs and VCs in the PPM and the proper relationship that should exist between both organizations to ensure an ideal flow of projects at each stage of their development. In addition, it also seeks to find whether tools outlined in the literature are often used in practice.   Among the main findings of the study, the major contribution of the BIs is mainly in the feasibility analysis of projects and the support they give in their development, while VC firms are usually more focused on the selection, prioritization and monitoring and control of their portfolios. In practice there have been shortcomings in the transition of New Venture projects between BIs and VCs. These can be solved by creating a single organization that integrates the entire process of PPM between BIs and VCs, or other alternative is for VCs to start investing mainly in early stage projects.  Another important finding corresponds to the use of the expertise of BIs and VCs members as the most important tool when making strategic decisions. And although there is general satisfaction with the success of these projects in Sweden, some authors have argued that this industry is not totally mature. Therefore, this study suggests using some tools, proposed in a conceptual model, developed to achieve the maturity that New Venture projects industry requires.

“While project management and program management have traditionally focused on ‘doing work right’, portfolio management is concerned with ‘doing the right work’” (PMI,2006) Nowadays organizations are facing problems with too many projects and having limited resources to execute these projects. Therefore the role of portfolio control is gaining more importance to yield the right balance, mix and number of projects, and also to deal with the challenge of maximizing the value of the portfolio. Therefore the organizations rely on effective portfolio management and are developing new methods to deal with these challenges. Hence present study involves study of those organizations that rely on portfolio control techniques to effectively manage their portfolio of projects.   The aim of this research is to investigate the role of portfolio control techniques in achieving efficiency in project based firms, examine relationship between control techniques and the portfolio efficiency, and to find the role of contextual factors like project and governance type in impacting the portfolio efficiency. Three portfolio control factors: portfolio selection, portfolio reporting, and decision making style were identified and portfolio efficiency was explained by two measures: achievement of portfolio results and achievement of project and program level purpose.   The research was conducted at two multinational organizations, a pharmaceutical company in Europe and engineering and contracting transportation company in Asia. Case study research strategy was used, and data was collected through semi- structured interviews to investigate the impact of using these portfolio control techniques in a project based firms.   The results of the research indicate that these control techniques helps to select and analyse the portfolio from strategic, financial and risk perspective. Furthermore it helps to balance the organizational priorities by taking into consideration project type, market sector, resource constraints and product lines. The portfolio control techniques also involve portfolio reporting which is considered as formal way of communication and information sharing and is believed to be significant project-level factor contributing to portfolio efficiency. Lastly, portfolio decision making helps the organizations in making the right decision in the best interest of the organization. All these control variables were found to have a significant impact on achieving results and achieving project and programme level purpose which in our research are the dimensions of portfolio efficiency.   In our study we also found that there exists a positive relationship between the portfolio control techniques and portfolio efficiency which is affected by the contextual variables such as project type, governance type, organizational complexity, co-localization of team members, communication and clarity of goals and objectives.

With the advent of globalization and knowledge economic era, organizations have to face an increasingly competitive business environment. With limited resources, it is imperative for organizations to allocate them effectively, to focus on potential projects, to choose high value-added projects, and to find out the proper project portfolio. The purpose of this research is to investigate the decision model and the operational mechanism of project portfolio selection for military investment and to analyze the characteristics of related projects. Finally, this research mainly proposes a decision model for project portfolio selection and the measurement of portfolio performance and develops a portfolio selection decision support system to provide a communicative platform and information for decision makers and project managers. This will improve portfolio performance, reduce the crowding out effect of organizational resources, and enhance the linkage of both project and organizational goals.