PROJECT and PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
First, let's examine separately what project and portfolio management mean technically.
Project management is the planning, organizing, procuring, achieving goals and objectives, and managing a project to completion. Project management consists of 5 fundamental steps. These are:
• Initiation
• Planning
• Execution
• Monitoring and Controlling
, • Closure
Portfolio management, on the other hand, is the process of examining investment tools in the investment world, determining their strengths and weaknesses through necessary analyses, and selecting the most suitable financial assets for the investor.
After examining these two headings separately, let's now look at what Project and Portfolio Management is, which is our main topic...
Project and Portfolio Management can be defined as the simultaneous management and monitoring of multiple projects, ensuring that projects reach the right strategic goals at the right time, with the right budget and quality.
Due to the conditions brought about by competition today, the importance of being able to do the right job is now an indisputable issue for companies. It has become increasingly difficult for top managers to know which operational activities and projects they should work on, how much of their resources are being used, how much budget they have left, and how to align their activities with business demands when faced with challenges.
With a properly implemented project and portfolio management approach, risks can now be minimized, resources can be used more efficiently and effectively than before, and there are many benefits, such as helping us make better decisions for the organization with its impact on the decision-making process. However, in order for all of this to happen, it is necessary to fully understand the project and portfolio management process in the first place.
So let's take a closer look at how this cycle progresses:
• Firstly, budget planning is done by defining the projects in line with strategic objectives.
• The second step can be listed as using the right resources with the right capacity, which is known as resource planning.
• Checking the suitability of portfolio strategies of projects and programs comes as the third step.
• Then, corrective activities are defined to eliminate identified inadequacies.
• Finally, effective decisions are made about the entire portfolio in projects and programs using the right reporting methods and effective communication techniques.
In order to implement proper project and portfolio management and achieve the mentioned benefits, it is necessary to work with experts in the field and transfer the defined business processes in the lifecycle to a software environment that can be managed from a single center for application, monitoring, and continuous improvement.