IMPROVING PROJECT PORTFOLIO DECISION MAKING IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is “a dynamic decision process wherein a list of active devel-opment projects is constantly revised. In this process, new projects are evaluated, selected and priori-tised; existing projects may be accelerated, killed or reprioritised, and resources are allocated and reallocated among the projects in the portfolio” (Gutierrez & Magnusson, 2014). PPM is perceived to be a means to implement strategy through projects and programs. This study focuses on ICT projects. Current PPM research is focused on project selection, prioritization, and portfolio balancing in few research areas and there are major limitations to the approaches used in practice. There is clearly a need for more empirical PPM research. The following main research question was employed: How can an information intensive organization improve decision making for project selection within its project portfolio management process? A second problem is that there seems to be no agreement on what constitutes PPM. This is a second aim of the study. Three data collection methods were used to answer both questions. As a result, it can be stated that PPM is still in its infancy. Based on the study, seven recommendations are made for improving PPM decision making