This Guest paper was submitted for publication and is Copyright Harvey A. Levine © 2005.
It is based on material in his latest book: Project Portfolio Management, A Practical Guide to Selecting Projects, Managing Portfolios, and Maximizing Benefits, Jossey-Bass, July 2005.
Published here November 2005.

Introduction | Not Any More | The Emergence of Project Portfolio Management
Bridging the Gap Between Operations Management and Projects Management
The Traditional Organization 
Bridging the Gap Between Portfolio Planning and Portfolio Management
The Role of the Governance Council | The Project Portfolio Life Span
Project Portfolio Management as a HUB | The Last Word

The Emergence of Project Portfolio Management

Certainly, it is not news to anyone that the basic concept of project management has evolved to what we call enterprise project management. At first, we thought that this shift was more of a way of aggrandizing project management - sort of a pompous elevating of project management to a higher level of importance. Later, we came to realize that enterprise project management was a reflection of the importance of consolidating and integrating all of the organization's projects - for universal access and evaluation.

Now, we come to find that enterprise project management entails consideration of potential projects as well as approved projects. We also find that the emphasis has shifted from traditional project-centric objectives to higher-level operational objectives. Projects, executives have come to realize, are the basis for future profitability or even viability of the firm.

Hence, there is a growing interest on the part of executives in how projects are selected and managed. They are precipitating an increased demand for more standardization and automation of project management. But what they are asking for is different than the requests from traditional project management sources.

And, what they are calling this emerging project management protocol has also changed. It is no longer just project management, or even enterprise project management. It is now called Project Portfolio Management.

Not Any More  Not Any More

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