Reply to the two DB post 250 words a piece see attached (Must introduce a NEW CONCEPT)

Project Management

Michele Burgess

Liberty University

The Project Portfolio

The Project Portfolio is part of the planning phase in the strategy of a project management. This stage is where you form a better understanding of what needs to be done and the goals to achieve, identify tasks and priorities, develop preferred ways of communication with the client, and gather your project team members so that everyone fully understands how to execute the project to a successful final closure.

The US Project Management Institute emphasizes the coordination across projects to meet strategic objectives (Daniel, Ward, & Franken, 2014).The project portfolio refers to a collection of projects or programs and other work that are grouped together to facilitate effective management of that work to meet strategic business objectives. Some of the essential elements that are relevant to the project portfolio is the business objectives that drive the projects, risk and reward, and anticipate capacity and resource needs. This is a current trend in federal government employment and that is why I chose this topic.

Comparison

“According to our textbook, the long-term purpose of projects in the organization is to ultimately achieve the organizational goals” (Meredith & Shafer, 2017, pg. 38). The Primer on Project Management (Maddalena, 2012) agrees that the strategic planning establishes key priorities to advance the mission and aims of the organization. “A strategic planning document serves as a roadmap to take the organization within a defined period of time” Maddalena, 2012, pg. 82).

The differences are what elements the project plans contains. According to Meredith & Shafer some of the most relevant elements are the purpose of the project, the objective, schedule and milestones, what is the capital and expense requirements, who is the stakeholders on this project, a risk management plan and how the project should be evaluated against the standards of the project’s inception. According to the Journal of Strategic Information Systems (Daniel, Ward & Franken, 2014) some of the dynamic capabilities that should be included are clear and specific strategic objectives, the benefits and financial return to the company, a detailed risk assessment for each project and ability to identify ways of changing plans to improve the reward and risk ratio if necessary.

Article Summary

In the article, Project management factors affecting the enterprise resource planning projects’ performance in Jordan, a few project management factors were evaluated and the importance of each is discussed. Deficient project planning can result in failed implementations. Having a qualified project manager that has effective communication in developing trust between the partners, workers, colleagues, and administrators was characterized as a key component as per this article. The team leaders recognize the team members and provide support and nurturing and not just discipline and direction.

Having a communication plan was another key component with regular meetings and distributing significant information to all colleagues is additionally essential to achieve the project objective. The team submitted progress reports weekly and risks were identified regularly. If there was any risks, they had a response plan created with all impacts defined. Clear roles and responsibilities were put into the planning process for this project. Everybody on the team understood their expectations and given the required training to increase their capabilities and their knowledge level. The multifaceted nature of this specific venture in Jordan required making point by point extend plans and calendars to accomplish the coveted outcomes.

Biblical Integration

There are several examples of planning, executing and strategizing in the bible. God gave detailed measurement to Noah to carry out one of his long-range plans. Another example is Nehemiah rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem; he had the vision, prayed and went to God for wisdom and these are examples of how leaders should plan and organize a project with excellence. David also had a seven-year plan to build a temple that he gave to his son, Solomon.

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty” (KJV, Proverbs 21:5). Just like in business, a good leader, like Moses went to God for guidance, planned, organized and communicated a strategy in getting everyone together to get out of the desert.

Application

The national government is called upon not only to deal with the normal operations of continuous projects, additionally to embrace extensive, complex activities to provide new programs and services and this is how project management has evolved in the federal government over the past few decades (Marshall, Chenok, & Wholey, 2015). Program management has embraced the private sector with an exhibited accomplishment over a scope of ventures and attempts. The Program Management Improvement and Accountability Act of 2015 (Clark, 2013) has been created to create a standard based model for project managers, to designate a senior executive responsible for program management policy and strategy and to align the agency approaches across the government. “Project Management enables to the government to more consistently and efficiently achieve more important public purposes, save taxpayer dollars, enhance service delivery and most importantly, rebuild public trust” (Marshall, Chenok, & Wholey, 2015, pg. 6).

Annotated Bibliography

Gutiérrez, E., Magnusson, M., Maskinkonstruktion (Inst.), Integrerad produktutveckling, KTH, & Skolan för industriell teknik och management (ITM). (2014). Dealing with legitimacy: A key challenge for project portfolio management decision makers. International Journal of Project Management, 32(1), 30-39.

The authors explores how managers combine different decision-making approaches when facing different decision situations in Portfolio Project Management. It is aimed to investigate the process of evaluation and selection of ideas and projects from the perspective of the decision makers, focusing on how they combine formal and rational decision-making processes. This paper was based on an explorative study with interviews to people involved in the evaluation, selection and prioritization of ideas and projects. The nature of some of these approaches showed the difficulties, for example, supporting an informal process without a supportive process. This article shows how a flexible project management processes enables different type of innovations.

Kock, A., Heising, W., & Gemünden, H. G. (2015). How ideation portfolio management influences Front‐End success. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(4), 539-555.

This study how early phase of innovation affects a project management. The front end refers to when ideas are generated, evaluated and potential concepts are formulated, and potential development projects are initially planned. This research aims to prove how an innovative strategy has a positive effect on the success; how creative encouragement will stimulate creativity and the generation of ideas. Also this article also seeks to prove that project portfolio success is measured as a five-dimensional second order construct where the overall business success, average economic success, average success of products, portfolio balance, strategic fit and preparing for the future are all included for effectiveness.

Marcelino-Sádaba, S., González-Jaen, L. F., & Pérez-Ezcurdia, A. (2015). Using project management as a way to sustainability from a comprehensive review to a framework definition. Journal of Cleaner Production, 99, 1-16.

This article seeks to find how project management can increase sustainability in their business with project management. The main scientific contribution is from project managers who deal with sustainable projects. Some of the questions that this article seeks to answer is can a project be sustainable without excellent management, how is a sustainable project defined and how can sustainability be included in a project plan? It was discovered that the three main strands of project management (scope, cost, and schedule) are becoming increasingly important. Three dimensions of sustainability was also identified while doing this research.

Martinsuo, M. (2013). Project portfolio management in practice and in context. International Journal of Project Management, 31(6), 794-803.

This paper seeks to find answers to uncertainties and complexities in business environments and show how portfolio management and offer new insights and perspectives in their business. The studies in this article emphasize the need to understand risks, uncertainties and changes in the project portfolio and how such dynamics be taken into account. This study also explores developing new kinds of measurements such as performance, goals and money and these would be evaluated in the future and ultimately determine the stability of the project. This article came to the conclusion that this organizational and behavior research is imperative to the success of the company.

Teller, J., Unger, B. N., Kock, A., & Gemünden, H. G. (2012). Formalization of project portfolio management: The moderating role of project portfolio complexity. International Journal of Project Management, 30(5), 596.

This is a study that integrates both views of permanent and temporary organizations by analyzing the formulation of single project management and project portfolio management. Formalization is defined here as the degree to which processes, procedures, and policies are clearly specified and followed. In project management, this includes the consistent use of defined procedures, methodologies, and tools. Formalization can take place at the level of single projects or at the portfolio level. This article may be beneficial to project managers and other business owners who are seeking to get the highest process quality.

References

Abu-Hussein, R., Hyassat, M., Sweis, R., Alawneh, A., & Al-Debei, M. (2016). Project

management factors affecting the enterprise resource planning projects’ performance in

Jordan. Journal of Systems and Information Technology, 18(3), 230-254.

doi:10.1108/JSIT-03-2016-0020

Clark, C. S. (2013). Program managers too scarce in the federal government, survey concludes. Govexec.Com.

Daniel, E. M., Ward, J. M., & Franken, A. (2014). A dynamic capabilities perspective of IS

project portfolio management. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 23(2), 95-

111. doi:10.1016/j.jsis.2014.03.001

Maddalena, V. (2012). A primer on project management. Leadership in Health Services, 25(2), 80-89. doi:10.1108/17511871211221019

Marshall, P., Chenok, D. & Wholey, J. (2015). Improving Program Management in the Federal Government. National Academy of Public Administration, 2249.

Meredith, J. R., & Shafer, S. M. (2017). Operations management for MBAs (6th ed.). Jefferson City: John Wiley.