Executive's Guide to Project Management: Organizational Processes and Practices for Supporting Complex Projects

Adapting the Project Management Life Cycle Models to the Agile Project Portfolio Management Model

The first order of business is to connect the project landscape discussed in Chapter 1, The Project Landscape, and the Project Management Life Cycle (PMLC) Models discussed in Chapter 2, Project Management Life Cycle Models, to the Agile Project Portfolio Management (APPM) Model discussed in Chapter 8, Agile Project Portfolio Management Process. In order to accommodate the APPM process, you will need to define a very high-level PMLC that embraces the projects in all four quadrants of the project landscape. Fortunately I've already laid the foundation so that will be quite easy. Figure 9.1 displays the PMLCs for all five approaches. Whatever form your portfolio management process takes, it will follow some type of cyclical pattern. My recommendation is quarterly and that is the assumption I am making here. Arguments can be put forth for longer as well as shorter cycles. Shorter cycles add to the management overhead and non–value added work by the project teams while longer cycles can delay getting important information for decision making and potentially wasting time, money, and human resources.

Figure 9.1 The Five PMLC Models

Only two minor adjustments are needed to fit these PMLC Models to the APPM Model. Firstly, traditional projects using the linear model must be planned in quarterly ...