Strategic Planning and Project Selection for IT Portfolio Management

Software project proposals, solicited from various sources across an organization, could significantly vary in strategic value, overlap in functionality, and assume conflicting technical infrastructure. Without a holistic approach toward project selection and planning, the resulting project portfolio will likely incur undue risk while delivering poor return on investment. We propose a two-stage optimization procedure. In the first stage, project characteristics such as strategic alignment, perceived benefits, cost, and risk are considered to maximize portfolio value. In the second stage, inter-project dependencies and team expertise are used to determine how projects are assigned to programs and in what sequence they should be carried out. Future extension on the proposed optimization procedure is also discussed

BALANCING ALIGNMENT, ADAPTIVITY, AND EFFECTIVENESS: DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR SUSTAINABLE IT PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

Environmental turbulence puts significant pressure on today’s IT organizations, forcing them to pro-actively respond to changing strategic trajectories and thus to conduct a multiplicity of projects in order to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Although many organizations employ institutionalized IT project portfolio management (IT PPM), they often fail to achieve the desired throughput, struggle with projects that run late, and miss short-term alignment to strategic changes. Further, traditional IT PPM establishes a long-term horizon, which contradicts the organizational necessity to react at short notice. This calls for the refinement of traditional IT PPM towards an aligned yet more flexible dimensioning that is able to adapt to its environment’s dynamism. We apply a design approach guided by activity theory (AT) to investigate a revelatory case, to explore an important phenomenon from a novel perspective. We then conduct a focus group, and perform an applicability check to evaluate and refine our suggestions. Finally, we propose three design goals and 12 design principles to address the issues that so often arise. Our research contributes to the nascent body of knowledge by providing a new analytical view on IT PPM and by suggesting recommendations for a significant problem in practice

Portfolios of Agile Projects: A Complex Adaptive Systems’ Agent Perspective

While agile methods can be extremely effective at a project level, they can impose significant complexity and a need for adaptiveness at the project portfolio level. While this has proven to be highly problematic, there is little research on how to manage a set of agile projects at the project portfolio level. What limited research that does exist often assumes that portfolio-level agility can be achieved by simply scaling project level agile methods such as Scrum. This study uses a complex adaptive systems lens, focusing specifically on the properties of projects as agents in a complex adaptive portfolio to critically appraise current thinking on portfolio management in an agile context. We then draw on a set of 30 expert interviews to develop 16 CAS-based propositions as to how portfolios of agile projects can be managed effectively. We also outline an agenda for future research and discuss the differences between a CAS-based approach to portfolio management and traditional approaches

When agility meets a project portfolio: A study of success factors in large organisations

The iterative nature of agile methods combined with high levels of team and customer interactions and continuously changing IT and software development project requirements make the management of agile project portfolios very complex. To date, the mechanisms under which project portfolio management adapts to these complexities and achieves portfolio success have not been thoroughly investigated. This study explores the notion of success and its impacting factors in large organisations\u27 portfolios of agile IT and software development projects. Using a multiple case study design, we analysed the agile project portfolios of seven large organisations. We identified four success criteria and 15 success factors and categorised them into a unique agile portfolio success framework. Some of these criteria and factors are unique to agile project portfolios. The framework contributes to agile and project management literature by conceptualising the notion of success in portfolios of agile projects while revealing a set of factors that affect the relationship between an agile portfolio with its subcomponents and the surrounding environment. The framework supports managers and practitioners in large organisations in reflecting on their agility efforts to achieve higher success rates in their agile portfolios

Governance of innovation project management : necessary and neglected

The study is motivated by the aspiration to understand project governance in organizations pursuing the development of new products and services across multiple knowledge worker teams. In particular, the following problem statement guides the study: Is governance of innovation project management necessary or neglected? Taking the example of agile teams, I illustrate how the advancements in team based project management approaches force us to rethink governance of innovation project management. The findings are based on eight studies. The data consists of results from a total of 53 knowledge worker teams across 44 organizations in 8 countries. The two main conclusions drawn from this study are: (1) fundamentally different approaches to governance of innovation projects are a prerequisite for a success of projects developing new products and services, and (2) governance, particularly in heavily top-down influenced fields such as public administration, will benefit from advancements in agile project management methods.This research project has been supported by the Living Lab The Hague project co-funded with support from the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union.Algorithms and the Foundations of Software technolog