Middle Managers in Program and Portfolio Management

CHAPTER 1

Introduction and Background

Throughout the latter half of the 20^th century, there has been a shift in the management paradigm, from the functional, bureaucratic approach, almost universally adopted in the first half of the century, to project and process-based approaches. This shift has been in response to the changing nature of the work from mass production, with essentially stable customer requirements and slowly changing technology, to the current situation where every product supplied may be against a bespoke [custom-made] design, and technology changes continuously and rapidly (Turner & Keegan, 1999, p. 296).

More and more organizations organize their work by projects in order to achieve their business objectives most economically. ...