Chapter 17: Project Portfolio Management

Overview

The PMO has fundamental responsibility for coordinating project management activities across the designated organization it serves. A project portfolio is the collection of all projects under the purview of the senior managers of that designated organization. The project portfolio identifies all of the organization's current and pending projects, allowing each project to be viewed and examined individually and relative to all other projects in the portfolio collection.

Project portfolio management is inherently a responsibility of executive and senior managers. Establishing a project portfolio management capability enables the PMO to facilitate the involvement of executives and senior managers in project oversight. It allows the PMO to manage and coordinate ongoing executive and senior manager guidance and participation in processes, deliberations, and business decisions related to:

• Alignment of projects with business strategy

• Approval of the project "business plan" and funding

• Allocation of organizational resources for project work

• Prioritization of projects in the portfolio collection

• Review of ongoing project and portfolio performance

These responsibilities can be assumed by individual executives, such as department heads, or by a group of senior managers comprising a project portfolio review board.

The PMO can develop and implement processes and procedures for each of these project portfolio management activities, consistent with its level of responsibility and maturity. The nature of portfolio management suggests that any portfolio management capability pursued by the PMO will be accomplished in collaboration with the relevant executive or management team.