Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme, Sixth Edition

Introduction to Project Portfolio Management

In this first section, I set the foundation for an exploration of project portfolio management. While everyone knows what a project is, not everyone may understand that not all projects should come under the purview of the portfolio management process. Defining the types of projects that will be considered for the project portfolio is a very basic tenet for every portfolio. You need to have a clear understanding of what a portfolio is, and in some situations more than one portfolio is advised. I want to make sure everyone is on the same page before I launch into the depths of a portfolio management discussion. In this section, I present a conceptual overview of the portfolio management process. Subsequent sections describe each part of the process in detail.

I first want to take another look at the idea of a project. The definition of a project comes from earlier discussions in this book, but not all projects belong in the portfolio. The word portfolio probably conjures up several different ideas. I have a simple definition that will put everyone on the same page.

What Is a Portfolio Project?

In Chapter 1, I defined a project in the following way:

A project is a sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities having one goal or purpose that must be completed by a specific time, within budget, and according to specification.

This is a technical definition, and it tells you quite a bit about the type of work that can legitimately ...