The Information and Communication Systems (ICS) department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints revamped its IT Project Portfolio Management (PPM) process in February 2005, and wanted to further improve this process by gaining a deeper understanding of PPM best practices. ICS contracted with a team of Brigham Young University (BYU) Information Systems students to research PPM best practices through literature review and professional interviews.
PPM is a relatively new field that addresses the challenge of managing multiple IT projects within an organization. PPM specifies that projects should be organized into portfolios of related projects, much like portfolios of financial investments. These portfolios should be actively managed by experienced members of the organization.
Our report examines PPM in two ways. The first portion of the report presents best practices relating to the following individual PPM elements:
• PPM Governance
• Project Prioritization
• Project Metrics
• Portfolio Manager Skills
• Software Tools
• Project Categorization
These elements provide useful ideas for implementing and improving PPM; however, they are much like pieces to a puzzle. They are most useful when put together in the context of an overall process framework. For this reason the second portion of this report profiles the following PPM process frameworks that have been proven to be effective in practice:
• IPS: Project Portfolio Management Process (PPMP)
• Legadero: Comprehensive Technology Portfolio Management Process
• Pacific Edge: Portfolio Management Process
• Weyerhaeuser: The Process to Achieve Capital Effectiveness (PACE)
• Government Accountability Office (GAO): IT Investment Management
• United Management Technologies (UMT): The Seven Habits of Highly Effective IT Portfolio Management Implementations