The management of project portfolio in a company requires the use of specific software, especially when the number of projects is significant. This paper is based on the Methodology for the development of IT projects portfolio management applications research project. This paper presents some of the results of a project portfolio application design.project management, project portfolio management, applications development.

Paul POCATILU

English

Research Papers in Economics

Informatica Economică, nr. 1/2007 
 
58 
Project Portfolio Management Prototype Application Design 
 
Paul POCATILU 
Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest 
 
The management of project portfolio in a company requires the use of specific software, espe-
cially when the number of projects is significant. This paper is based on the Methodology for 
the development of IT projects portfolio management applications research project. This pa-
per presents some of the results of a project portfolio application design. 
Keywords: project management, project portfolio management, applications development. 
 
ntroduction 
Pr
level
oject portfolio management has a high 
 of importance in project oriented com-
panies in order to achieve the business goals. 
The project portfolio management has to be 
supported by software tools that cover vari-
ous needs of the managers. 
Many IT-oriented companies and research 
institutes from Romania are developing soft-
ware systems through the projects. The num-
ber of projects running at a given time is sig-
nificant, which leads to difficulties in ascer-
taining the development stage of certain or 
several projects and the amount of resources 
involved in these projects. By organizing the 
projects in a portfolio, their management be-
comes a much easier task for the persons in 
charge, but this should be done only by using 
specialized software applications.  
The objective of the Methodology for the de-
velopment of IT projects portfolio manage-
ment applications project is to develop a 
methodology for building software applica-
tions for project management portfolios 
based on research of the running IT projects 
inside various organizations. During this re-
search, were analyzed by comparison how 
the projects portfolio management is done in 
some companies and organizations from 
Romania and abroad in order to identify the 
main characteristics that shall represent the 
basis of the software system development. 
The methodology allows the development of 
classical, distributed and mobile applications 
for PPM. One of the deliverable of the Meth-
odology for the development of IT projects 
portfolio management applications project is 
an application prototype for IT project port-
folio management.  
This methodology will help in building ap-
plications for PM and PPM, applications that 
could be customized based on the managers 
and clients’ needs. 
 
The design process 
The design phase had the following levels: 
conceptual design, logical design and physi-
cal design (figure 1). The physical design 
was used for the prototype. 
 
Conceptual design 
 
(users’ view) 
Logical design 
 
 
(design team’s 
view) 
Phsysical design 
 
 
(implementation 
team’s view) 
Scenarios  Services and objects 
User interface 
Logical database 
 
Components 
User interface 
Phisical database 
 
Fig. 1 Design levels and the resulting models 
 
The conceptual model presents the problem 
from the users and business view, and the 
problem are define using scenarios. This 
model identifies the business specifics, user’s 
activities and requirements. The generated 
scenarios have to show the requirements 
I Informatica Economică, nr. 1/2007 
 
59
completely and exactly. The clients, users 
and other stakeholders are involved in sce-
narios’ development. 
The  logical model results from the design 
team’s view over the problem. The scenarios 
defined at a conceptual model are used and 
an abstract model of the solution is built. The 
abstract model is composed by object and 
services, user interface and a logical database 
design.. 
The physical model presents the problem 
from a developer point of view. The output 
from the logical level is used as input for the 
components and user interface specifications 
and for the database physical design. 
The main objects identified are Proiect, Por-
tofoliu and Resursa. Figures 2, 3 and 4 depict 
the identified classes’ members. 
 
 
Fig. 2 Proiect class 
 
The members of Proiect class are: 
  IDProiect – the unique id of the project 
  Denumire – project name 
  Versiune – project version 
  Buget – project initially budget 
  Tip – project type; the type is associated 
to IT domain of which the project be-
longs to: software development, mainte-
nance, hardware configuration etc. 
  DataDeInceput – project start date 
  DataDeIncheiere – project finish date 
(fixed or estimated) 
 
 
Fig. 3 Portofoliu class 
 
Portofoliu class has the following members: 
  IDPortofoliu – portfolio unique id 
  Denumire – portfolio name 
  TipPortofoliu – portfolio type; possible 
values for this field are: SW (IT project 
portfolios focused on software develop-
ment) and HW (IT projects portfolios 
focused on hardware development and 
implementation); portfolio type is used 
depending on the organization specific 
  AdaugaProiect() – methods for adding a 
new project to the portfolio 
  StergeProiect() – method for the re-
moval of a project from a portfolio 
  CalculeazaValoare() – method that re-
turns the value of a portfolio at a given 
date 
  NumarProiecte() – returns the number of 
projects within the portfolio 
 
Fig. 4 Resursa class 
 
The  Resursa  class includes the following 
members: 
  IDResursa – resource unique id 
  Denumire – resource name 
  Categorie – resource type 
  UnitateMasura – unit of measure 
  PretUnitar – resource medium price 
 Informatica Economică, nr. 1/2007 
 
60 
 
Fig. 5 A sequence from class diagram 
 
Figure 6 depicts a sequence diagram that 
shows how a project is evaluated based on 
provided criteria. If the criteria are fulfilled, 
the project is accepted to be included in the 
portfolio, otherwise the project is rejected. In 
the same manner where developed the other 
diagrams. 
 
 
Fig. 6 Sequence diagram 
 
Database structure 
Databases object were designed according to 
the classes and object identified during the 
analysis and design phases. All the informa-
tion about projects and programs has to be 
stored in database. About every project or 
program, at least the following information 
needs to be stored: 
  Project name 
  Project owner information 
  Project mangers data 
  Company information 
  Project type 
  Start and finish date 
  Investment costs 
  Expected profit Informatica Economică, nr. 1/2007 
 
61
  Risks involved 
  Current relationships. 
Tables 1, 2 and 3 describe the structure of 
Resurse, Portofoliu and Proiecte database ta-
bles. 
 
Table 1 Resurse table structure 
Field name  Type  Length 
CodResursa Text  10 
Denumire Text  50 
IDCategorie Long  Integer  4 
Unitate Text  5 
Pret Unitate  Single  4 
The primary key of Resurse table is CodResursa. 
 
Table 2 Portofoliu table structure 
Field name  Type  Length 
IDPortofoliu Long  Integer  4 
Denumire Text  50 
TipPortofoliu Byte  1 
The primary key of Portofoliu table is IDPortofoliu. 
 
Table 3  Proiecte table structure 
Nume câmp  Tip  Lungime 
CodProiect Text  6 
DenumireProiect Text  50 
Buget Single  4 
DataStart Date/Time  8 
DataIncheiere Date/Time  8 
TipProiect Byte  1 
The primary key of Proiecte table is CodProiect. 
 
 
Fig. 7 Database structure 
 Informatica Economică, nr. 1/2007 
 
62 
Figure 7 shows the database structure and re-
lationships for the prototype application. The 
database prototype is developed in Microsoft 
Access and can be exported in other 
RDBMS. 
 
Conclusions 
It is recommended that project portfolio 
management software to be integrated within 
the company information system and also 
with the project management software, in or-
der to transfer data automatically. 
The design is based on the following steps: 
  project oriented company analysis 
  project management processes analysis 
  multilevel design. 
The methodology uses an object oriented ap-
proach having in mind the software devel-
opment techniques performances that exists 
today. 
 
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Project Portfolio Management Prototype Application Design

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