Join project management researcher-practitioners from Pennsylvania State
University and the Stevens Institute of Technology as they go inside
five different organizations from across the business spectrum in search
of the answers. These dramatically different organizations, which ranged
from financial services and telecommunications, to technology and
government-based R&D, all shared one thing: the reliance upon effective
project portfolio management for their success. In this landmark study,
researchers were granted unprecedented access to reams of internal
project documentation and hours of one-on-one time with key personnel,
from C-Suite and project management executives to front-line staff. This
enabled the team to assemble the inside story of how project portfolios
were actually managed in each of these organizations, and identify what
worked and what didn't. Using this understanding and a comprehensive
literature review as a foundation, they created an empirically grounded
definition of project portfolio management effectiveness that can be
applied to organizations of all kinds. They were then able to identify
the five critical process, organizational, and human factors that impact
project portfolio management effectiveness and propose common-sense
criteria for accurately measuring it.
