Project Portfolio Management and Organizations

Catalog description

An advanced course in project management focusing on portfolio planning and control within the context of specific organizational challenges. MGMT 415 Project Portfolio Management and Organizations (3) Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is a strategically-focused course on the management of projects, programs, and portfolios in organizations. The management of individual projects is a complex, multi-level challenge involving myriad issues of planning, organizing, and controlling all project elements. Project portfolio management addresses a more strategic need; namely, the process of project selection in order to develop a balanced portfolio of projects designed to support organizational initiatives. As a result, this course addresses the critical issues of maximizing value in a portfolio, linking projects to organizational strategy, understanding the critical organization effects of structure, environment, and culture on project success, and creating a coherent PPM framework for the firm. Because the focus is more strategic, the role of the instructor in this course is to go beyond the mechanics of planning and controlling a single project to training students how to think strategically where projects and programs are concerned; to recognize their role in creating a PPM plan for an organization, selecting projects for value, rebalancing a project portfolio, and maintaining this focus within the organization.