Introduction
The world is becoming increasingly dynamic, complex and much more knowledge intensive. To achieve enduring success, companies must know they are doing the right things, doing them fast and doing them right. Organizations are realizing that the traditional operating model with separate silos cannot solve the rising challenges and that it will prove to be increasingly difficult to protect and grow revenue. Indeed, customers are demanding innovations, improved experiences and access to cutting edge technologies at an increasing pace, whilst financial stakeholders demand sufficient returns in the short term as well as expect achievement of long-term goals.
In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value. The people in the organization are the best possible solution to the challenge being faced and enabling people to succeed is the fundamental challenge for organizations. Yet, the current approach for managing products and projects, improving processes, realizing profits and enabling people is looking increasingly outdated, and is failing to adapt to these ever-changing demands.
In November of last year, Gartner predicted that Project Portfolio Management (PPM) would go from just managing business projects to managing value and change, as well. We've seen just that with the growing number of PPM software companies and consultancies that have found success in helping businesses look at PPM from a business process perspective. Another Forrester report found that a comprehensive PPM tool investment provides a return on investment of more than 250%. PPM has been valuable for businesses for quite some time now and is continuing to expand beyond just project management, but why does it matter to the Chief Information Officer (CIO)? And, why does it matter for them in 2012 in particular? I believe that there are five top reasons, but more on that later.
Portfolio management, both as a function and a focus, is becoming increasingly important to the overall landscape of how companies manage change and identify value. As companies, we want to deliver a product and/or service to customers. From the inception of the idea to the production of it, we all follow a process, no matter how simple or sophisticated it may be. But managing a portfolio is a challenge for many organizations and is often a major problem that needs resolving.
For example, how many ideas is your organization currently working on and what is the value of those ideas? This is a hard question for many to answer. In fact, managing a portfolio is a challenge for most. Often, projects cannot be compared one to another, resulting in low value work being undertaken, or projects continuing regardless of the realities within the business, or through external influences, when they should be stopped or changed radically.
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Editor's Note:
