The quality and success of projects depend on a management strategy that enables project selection to be prioritized and project development phases remain focused and aligned with project goals (Brown n.d p.1).
To achieve that, the performance of each project development phase, tasks, and sub-tasks are continuously evaluated against established standards and benchmarks. If the project development team adheres to a set of proven project selection and implementation criteria, it is possible to develop a project which is aligned to an organization’s corporate strategy.
Based on that, the project remains focused on value and managers ensure a balance between risks and project value. The project is always compliant to different standards and regulations, is always focused to achieve its priorities, and achieves the required goals.
It is important for project managers to ensure the project remains aligned to strategy, properly planned, executed according to project requirements, and provides measurable results to enable project teams to assess project compliance.
It is important to integrate the core operating processes to be able to achieve optimal utilization of resources and to make valuable contributions. Valuable contributions to projects are based on specific and well-defined project goals which operate on project portfolio management best practices (Brown n.d p.1).
PPM goals
It is important to clearly define project goals to ensure that the project under consideration benefits from effective planning.
It is important to note that PPM managers use project goals to aligned projects to organizational strategy, create effective communication practices, balance risk across all projects, provide a disciplined approach to project selection, resource allocation, effective project governance, and prioritize project proposals.
To achieve that, project goals should be well defined to provide an effective project development guideline (Brown n.d p.1).
The goals help PPM managers to allocate organizational resources efficiently and to ensure that projects with low value to the organization are removed from the list of prioritized projects. In addition, PPM enables managers to develop projects which remain focused on the organizational goals, mission, and vision statements.
It is worth noting that an effective PPM enables managers to develop a list of projects undertaken by the organization. In addition, it provides a comprehensive understanding of the project scope and ensures a project development methodology that factors risk and value.
In addition, PPM goals enable project managers to achieve a healthy balance across all types of projects undertaken by the organization which has different schedules, risk profiles, costs, and complexities. The PPM managers ensure that PPM essentials are adhered to in the project development process, as discussed below.
PPM essentials
According to Brown (n.d p.2), a successful project adheres to project performance value assessment, effective work schedules, assessment of return on investments, capacity planning, opportunity identification, project management and planning strategies, and project prioritization.
Prioritizing projects enables organizations to allocate different types of project resources effectively and to avoid financial losses. PPM managers should adhere to the best practices discussed below.
Best practices
The project portfolio management best practices to adhere to include customer orientation, strategy and project prioritization, effective allocation of scarce resources, use of cross-functional teams, and appropriate response to the external environment.
In conclusion, it is important to ensure successful project implementation based on techniques which enable project prioritization and alignment with organizational goals and objectives.
Reference
Brown, J C n.d, Project Portfolio Management: Metrics that Work Metrics that Work. Web.