1.1 Project portfolio management, project management, and line management

Project management, project portfolio management, and line management are three distinct functions; they have different purposes and time frames and require specific knowledge, authority, skills, and tools. Irrespective of the particular organizational form adopted—functional-, product-, project-, or matrix-oriented—all three functions are needed to accomplish an organization's goals. What changes from one organizational form to another is where the specific function is located and who has control over it. For example, in a matrix organization, the project management and line management functions will be performed by persons with different reporting lines, while in a functional organization they will be performed by the same or different people, but within a single scope of control.

Each function has different goals. For the project portfolio management function, this is to complete all projects to best achieve the business goals of the organization. For the project management function, the goal is to coordinate the work of a multidisciplinary team to produce a defined set of deliverables on-time and within budget. For the line management function, the goal is the timely provision of competent resources necessary to carry on the planned projects. Figure 1.4 shows the main relationships between them and with the rest of the organization.

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Figure 1.4: Relationships among project management, project portfolio management, and line management. (After: [4].)

The specific responsibilities laid out in this book for each of the functions are summarized in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1: Proposed Organizational Responsibilities
	Project Management	Project Portfolio Management	Line Management

Time frame	Defined start and end	Ongoing	Ongoing
Focus	Manages team priorities to deliver within time, quality, and cost constraints	Manages workload to keep development pipeline operating efficiently	Develops organizational capability (resources, competencies, and processes)
Key decision areas	Prepares project schedule Prepares project budget Authorizes project expenditures Maintains communications with project sponsor Directs project team	Prepares long-term plans to enable appropriate decisions concerning the allocation of scarce resources Oversees the execution of projects on time and within budget Allocates project management personnel to projects Controls management reserves	Prepares line budgets. Staff development Determines staff compensation Recruiting and termination responsibility Owns functional process