? This is a vital management tool to assist organisations and businesses to collect and sift information on your business projects. The company, business or organisation that categorises projects founded on various criteria will be more effective and will be more likely to increase their profits.
A project management system can be compared to the management of a financial portfolio. Projects can be categorised according to wheir strategic business value. that is will the project be valuable in the competitive market?
How will the project impact the resources of the company? With the information provided you can decide how to best allocate business resources to the individual project. Of course the cost of the project is a vital part of the decision as to whether or not your company will pursue it. But using this system, you will have a much more accurate estimate of the project cost.
Many companies using the project portfolio system appreciate the opportunity to see the project from the large picture. Some employees in your company are big picture people. They are idea people rather than detail oriented. These people are very valuable to your company because they are the visionaries.
The detail oriented employees of your business or organisation will also appreciate the project portfolio management system because they will be able to examine the vital project details, in order to contribute their opinion to the project feasability.
This process should start with a company putting together an inventory of all projects. There should be enough information available to compare the projects. There should be enough facts to analyse any reasonable changes to the project objectives and goals if needed.
The portfolio needs to contain the name of the project of course and the estimated time of project completion. The estimated expense of the project also needs to be listed. The objective of the project is by far the most important information.
The objective of the project must be clearly spelled out and all decision makers need to agree on the objective or it should not be pursued. Market factors need to be included as part of the project objectives. When they are examined side by side, it is easy to determine which project will have priority and which should be shelved for another time.
Once the projects are started, managers are able to use the portfolio to track their progress. Since business can change overnight, the project portfolio system provides a map that can quickly be altered if the company needs to change directions because of market influences or competitive activity. Project portfolio management offers many practical options to today's business community.