Projects, Programmes & Portfolios

Question 1

What is a project?

Answer 1

A temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result

Question 2

4 key PM roles

Answer 2

1. Integrator - people, procedures and work is carried out in a coordinated fashion
2. Communicator
3. Leader
4. Decision-maker

Question 3

6 PM activities

Answer 3

1. Planning
2. Organising/integrating
3. Monitoring
4. Controlling
5. Leading/motivating
6. Reporting/communicating

Question 4

Benefits of formal Project Management

Answer 4

1. Boundaries and constraints determined up-front
2. Sponsor understands deliverbles
3. Reduce risk of project failure
4. Tools and techniques of PM designed to implement change effectively
5. Organisations learn from post-project reviews

Question 5

What is Programme Management?

Answer 5

Coordinated management of a group of projects that are inter-related and/or interdependent and contribute to a common strategic objective

Question 6

Programme vs. Project

Answer 6

Programme:

• Concerned with benefits, more strategic
• Typically longer, can have overlapping projects, no specific end date
• Wider scope, may need large-scale changes to produce desired benefits

Project:

• Concerned with specific, measurable deliverables
• Always finite, typically shorter than a programme
• Scope is pre-determined, not easily changed - must go through change management process

Question 7

Programme Management benefits

Answer 7

1. Ensures projects are aligned with strategic aims of business
2. Ensures interfaces/interdependencies between projects monitored so changes in projects affecting other projects communicated & understood
3. Ensures projects are focussed on strategic aims of programme
4. Ensures resource management carried out to optimise programme performance, not just individual projects
5. Common PM process, procedures and reporting across programme increases efficiency

Question 8

Portfolio Management

Answer 8

The selection and management of an organisation’s projects and programmes in order to facilitate strategic objectives, with due regard to the impact of change initiatives on BAU

Question 9

Portfolio Management Benefits

Answer 9

1. Strategic link between programmes, projects and BAU
2. Reduction of costs by terminating non-strategically aligned projects
3. Same governance principles applied across the org
4. Resource allocation considers requirements of entire org
5. Risks and returns optimised across portfolio
6. More efficient integration of outputs into operations

Question 10

Programmes vs. Portfolios

Answer 10

Programmes:

• Projects inter-related and inter-dependent
• Projects contribute to same defined strategic objectives
• All projects must succeed for programme to succeed

Portfolios:

• Projects can have no dependencies apart from resource conflicts
• Can support several strategic objectives
• Failures can be offset by success in other projects