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

Agile Project Portfolio Management

As maturing organizations begin to implement Agile Project Management (APM), they need to consider how their current portfolio management process needs to be revised in order to accommodate APM, xPM, and MPx projects. At the time I was writing this edition of the book, there wasn't very much literature on Agile Project Portfolio Management. Agile Portfolio Management by Jochen Krebs (Microsoft Press, 2008) was the only book that I could find in print that deals with this topic.

Agile Project Portfolio Management is a logical consequence of the agile movement. Agile projects are those that are continuously redirected to take advantage of the learning and discovery about the solution that arises from the work of the project. Extend that same concept to the portfolio. At regular intervals the contents of the portfolio are changed and redirected to take advantage of the learning and discovery that arises from the performance of projects in the portfolio and from new project initiatives.

Agile Project Portfolio Management includes establishing the investment strategy of the portfolio, determining what types of projects/programs can be incorporated in the portfolio, evaluating alignment of the proposed projects to the strategy, prioritizing proposed projects/programs, constructing a balanced portfolio that will achieve the investment objectives, monitoring the performance of the portfolio, and at regular intervals adjusting the contents of the portfolio ...