Implementing PPM - IBM Corporation

This report analyzes the implementation of Project Portfolio Management methodology in IBM Corporation. It covers situational context, portfolio evaluation, benefits management, and portfolio management.

Running head: IMPLEMENTING PPM - IBM CORPORATION
Implementing PPM - IBM Corporation
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1IMPLEMENTING PPM - IBM CORPORATION
Executive Summary
The organization of IBM is and Information Technology based company that deals with the
development of software and IT capturing methodologies as well as the application of
knowledge which are particularly unique in terms of the business organization. It handles various
projects all over the world for innumerable clients as well. The proposal for the Project Portfolio
Management methodology implementation has been successful in convincing executive
management and all the planning has been completed for it as well. The responsibility for its
implementation is also assigned accordingly. However, not everyone in the organisation is
convinced that it is the right approach to take and already it can be felt that the forces of
resistance has to build from those who will be directly affected by its day-to-day operation. It is
thus to be analysed with respect to the structure of the entire organization to make sure that every
member in the organization wholly accepts the positive changes that Project Portfolio
Management methodology will bring about and would work accordingly to make the strategy
work.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Situational Context......................................................................................................................5
Justification of the right investment of the organization.........................................................5
Optimizing capacity of the organization..................................................................................6
Execution levels of the organization........................................................................................6
Ability of the organization to absorb all the challenges..........................................................7
Realization of the promised benefits.......................................................................................7
Portfolio Evaluation.....................................................................................................................8
Method used by the organization to evaluate its overall project portfolio..............................8
Justification of the chosen method in comparison to other available methods.......................8
Chances of challenges being faced by IBM if the current method is used at a global
environment.............................................................................................................................9
Inclusion of the Benefits Management life cycle....................................................................9
Contribution of the Benefits Management to the organization in meeting the deliverable
goals for the projects..............................................................................................................10
Portfolio Management...............................................................................................................10
Contribution of Project Portfolio Management in ensuring the alignment of the collective
projects with the strategic objectives of the company...........................................................10
Introduction of PMO in the organization and its effects.......................................................11

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Tools for managing the project portfolio and their degree of effectiveness..........................11
Maturity Levels..........................................................................................................................11
Maturity Level of the organization........................................................................................11
Best practices to improve the maturity levels........................................................................12
Corporate Culture......................................................................................................................12
Assessment of the corporate culture of the organization.......................................................12
Concerns expressed by the stakeholders................................................................................12
Corporate Culture supporting the project portfolio management and its sustainability criteria
...............................................................................................................................................12
Challenges involved in getting project portfolio management and its sustainability criteria
embraced by the organisation................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................15

4IMPLEMENTING PPM - IBM CORPORATION
Introduction
When Project Portfolio Management is devised within the project handled by an
organization, the organization gathers or accesses the potential of transforming its approaches
towards handling a project completely in terms of the ways by which the projects are managed to
assist the business growth in a much larger way than it had been previously. Project Portfolio
Management methodology ensures that an organization follows all the correct steps to progress
its projects and all the projects are completed with finesse at the exact estimated times. This
helps the businesses to hold on to or further improve its business value by delivering the
customers with their required products at the exact given time (Kendall and Rollins, 2003).
Project Portfolio Management is the primary key for any business organization for helping the
company with reaching a conclusive decision making for gaining the maximum competitive
advantage in comparison to its contemporary market competitions. The context of the IBM
Corporations has been considered as the organization to study since it would help in
understanding of the concepts if implementing the Project Portfolio Management methodologies
within the organization and its operations.
IBM is an organization that mostly deals with the development of software and IT
capturing methodologies as well as the application of knowledge which are particularly unique in
terms of the business organization. IBM has previously welcomed the idea of introducing or
implementing a Project Portfolio Management methodology in order to improve the operations
of the business organization as a whole in managing all the projects it handles (Hadjinicolaou,
Dumrak and Mostafa 2017). The Project Portfolio Management methodology has also been
accepted by the executive managing body of the organization, however, the employees are not
being able to understand the changes and opposing the implementation process as they believe

5IMPLEMENTING PPM - IBM CORPORATION
that it would harm their day to day activities (Martinsuo and Lehtonen 2007). The report would
focus on the analysis of the entire organization with the help of the situational context of the
organization, the evaluation of the portfolio management of the organization, the analysis of the
Project Portfolio Management methodology, the analysis of the maturity level of the
organization and the effect of the Project Portfolio Management methodology on the corporate
culture of the organization.
Situational Context
Justification of the right investment of the organization
IBM is an established organization that generally deals with the development of software,
capturing of IT as well as the application of knowledge which are absolutely exclusive to the
business organization. Currently, the organization has focused on the process of innovation,
where the innovating of their business operations and projects would help in the proper and
limited usage of the resources, thus saving time as well as assets for the company (Archer and
Ghasemzadeh 1999). This is where the organization required to implement the Project Portfolio
Management methodologies to introduce the innovative strategies within the organization and at
the same time it would enable the IT operations within the organization and link them with the
developmental process, projects, initiative and resources of the project that would enable them
reaching the estimated goal and would also support the organization in monitoring and
measuring the IT assets to the financial assets to justify their return on investments. Therefore, it
can be justified with the information above that the idea of IBM Corporations to invest into a
Project Portfolio Management methodology for strategizing the development process is rational
and advantageous.

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Optimizing capacity of the organization
IBM is one of the leading IT organizations in the world, therefore, the ways in which
IBM would want to limit their investments and resources (Killen, Hunt and Kleinschmidt 2008).
This is the reason why IBM had invested in a Project Portfolio Management methodology to
make sure that the ideology that IBM has anticipated in goes in the correct path of
implementation. Since IBM is an IT organization, it has the ability to use its own IT
infrastructure to optimize the Project Portfolio Management methodology in the implementation
process. The organization has so far been able to proactively manage its projects with the help of
effective management procedures and approaches. The procedures have been sustainable in
terms of the benefits and the utilized cost, but the organization requires more limited use of
resources and expenditure of assets but at the same time handling the projects would be as
feasible and effective as possible to let the customers have the best experience of establishing a
business relationship with the organization.
Execution levels of the organization
Although, the organization is known to deliver sufficient projects to their customers,
there are still several scopes for improvement and there are also ways by which the organization
could easily utilize the management of its projects. The way by which the projects are handled
right now can experience a sea change in the ways all these projects can be managed in order to
make sure that there are limited utilization of the resource and financial assets of the organization
(Rose 2013). The sustainability criteria that the organization has been focusing on to achieve
with effective decision making methodologies would only be possible to deliver with the
estimated low use of the resources and financial assets of the organization with the correct
methodology utilization from the Project Portfolio Management techniques.

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Ability of the organization to absorb all the challenges
There indeed are challenges within the organization and there are also challenges for the
organization in housing the changes that it has been willing to make with the implementation of
the Project Portfolio Management methodology for handling the multiple projects the
organization wants to deliver their clients. The Project Portfolio Management methodology
would enable the organization with innovative operations and decision making processed that
would make the organization use as limited source as possible but present an effective product to
the client. It has been found that the organization indeed has an organizational structure which is
not well defined as per requirements and as per the specifications of the projects it handles one
after another (Morris and Pinto 2007). Therefore, the organization is open to the adoption of a
Project Portfolio Management methodology that would help in the improvement of the
organizational structure and also to the challenges that are associated with the implementation of
the Project Portfolio Management methodologies.
Realization of the promised benefits
The promised benefits present huge scope within the organization when it comes to the
implementation of the Project Portfolio Management methodologies within the organization of
IBM Corporation. Upon the introduction of Project Portfolio Management methodology, it can
be made sure that the organization would be able to present an informed decision making
framework for the better propagation of the projects it handles and also would minimize the risks
as well as maximize the impact of the business to the clients. It also presents s the use of the
organization resources to its optimal level and also helps in the arrangement of the portfolio in a
scientific way (Crawford 2006). The introduction of the Project Portfolio Management

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methodology also ensures that the organization would be feasible enabling the repetition of
success in the organization with the proper delivery of the projects to its clients.
Portfolio Evaluation
Method used by the organization to evaluate its overall project portfolio
The method that has been suggested to be put into use as per the present condition of the
organization is the Project Portfolio Management Maturity Model that is supposed to help all the
projects that are in line within the organization and its strategic goals and the model would also
supposedly make the organization to reach its destines and estimated achievements (De Reyck et
al. 2005). The overall project portfolio would be analyzed with the help of this Project Portfolio
Management methodology and it would take care of the strategy required for the development of
the software and would also help in the projection of a positive impact on the strategic goals that
the organization has estimated to reach. This methodology will act as the key element to help the
organization reach its goals as planned.
Justification of the chosen method in comparison to other available methods
This chosen method of the Project Portfolio Management Maturity Model helps the
organization in managing all the projects within the organization to be carried on with the help of
accurate methodologies and policies. Thus, it would help the organization in making all the
people within the organization to generate relevant information about the project and it will also
help the organization in making a unified plan that would be understood by every employee
member associated with the project team directly or indirectly (Blichfeldt and Eskerod 2008).
There are other ways or method of Project Portfolio Management methodologies that could have
been utilized in the organization, but given the context of the projects that the organization has

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currently been handling and the way in which the organization works or is willing to work can
only be supported with the help of Project Portfolio Management Maturity Model methodology.
Chances of challenges being faced by IBM if the current method is used at a global
environment
IBM is already a global organization and functions for the projects that are to be
developed and serve for the entire world. The clients that the organization has are also at a global
level (Archibald and Archibald 2016). There are also impending challenges that the organization
might face with the implementation of the Project Portfolio Management Maturity Model. These
could be as follows:
 There could be confusion in understanding the differences between the correct
tasks and it would create and obligation as a result.
 The steady checking that the methodology implements within the processes can
be exhausting with the movement of the task and it would further create problems
for the employees.
 The dynamic changes that can happen in the organization can be out of the
understanding of the staff at a global level as there is a presence of cultural
difference.
Inclusion of the Benefits Management life cycle
The products that IBM Corporation delivers it clients are mostly software products and
IT consulting technologies that have a specific life cycle for completion. In the same way the
benefits realization of the organization with the help of Project Portfolio Management Maturity
Model also has its confusion in understanding the Benefits Management life cycle of the

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organization. It is usually associated with the benefits realized by the utilization of the maturity
model in the Project Portfolio Management methodology implementation (Blomquist and Müller
2006). It would help in assessing the benefits that the organization acquires after the completion
and delivery of the project. The Benefits Realization life cycle can also be formulated with the
feedbacks generated from the clients after the project has been delivered to them.
Contribution of the Benefits Management to the organization in meeting the deliverable
goals for the projects
The deliverable goals and their success is only measured with the return on investments
that have been achieved by the organization with the help of the utilization of the Project
Portfolio Management methodology and the least possible resources and financial assets
(Cooper, Edgett and Kleinschmidt 2001). In addition to that, the value added to the Benefits
Management would also be justified with the feedback generated from the customers.
Portfolio Management
Contribution of Project Portfolio Management in ensuring the alignment of the collective
projects with the strategic objectives of the company
The strategic objectives for IBM in managing the portfolio of the company is associated
with the utilization of the least possible resources and financial assets within the organization but
still the deliverables of the products to the clients would be completed within the estimated time
and they would be accurate to the client’s requirements (Letavec 2006). For this, the organization
is willing to take up strategic ways to incorporate their IT procedures. The various tools that are
imposed by the Project Portfolio Management methodology of Maturity Models suggested by the
organization as the feasible way to implement the strategies enables the assessment of the cost

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performance of the projects in alignment with the value added to the organization by the
deliverable of the projects and also allows the tools of Strategic Alignment and Continuous
improvement to be associated to add more value to the organization.
Introduction of PMO in the organization and its effects
After the Project Portfolio Management Maturity Model methodology is introduced
within the organization, it has been found that the organization is strategizing ways in which
every project can be handled in the best process possible for using the least amount of resources
but at the same time delivering the projects at the pre-assumed time and while adding value to
the organization (Silvius, Schipper and Planko 2012).
Tools for managing the project portfolio and their degree of effectiveness
The tools or techniques utilized as a part of the Project Portfolio Management Maturity
Model methodology are as follows:
 Value and Cost Performance Tool
 Strategic Alignment Tool
 Continuous Improvement Tool (Silvius and Schipper 2014).
Maturity Levels
Maturity Level of the organization
After the Project Portfolio Management methodology has been proposed within the
organization, only the executive management bodies has accepted the fact of implying them for
handling the multiple projects of the organization but the employees within the organization has
been opposing the idea as it would affect their day to day activities (Thakur and Workman 2016).
Understanding this situation, it can be said that the overall maturity model of the organization

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needs improvement as there has been discrepancy in the understanding of the Project Portfolio
Management methodology and strategy.
Best practices to improve the maturity levels
The best practice that can be incorporated within the organization for achieving
improvement in the maturity level of the company is the Project Portfolio Management Maturity
Model itself that would enable every employee within the organization to understand the
feasibility of the Project Portfolio Management Methodologies (Martinsuo 2013).
Corporate Culture
Assessment of the corporate culture of the organization
As per the assessment made on the Corporate Culture of the organization, it can be seen
that the employees present within the project team are able to alter the decisions taken by the
management of the organization (Wiersma 2017). It is to be made sure that all the employees
within the organization also accept the changes influenced by the Project Portfolio Management
methodologies.
Concerns expressed by the stakeholders
The stakeholders of the organization are concerned as the Project Portfolio Management
methodologies are able to alter their day to day activities within the organization (Turner 2014).
Corporate Culture supporting the project portfolio management and its sustainability
criteria
The Corporate Culture that supports the Project Portfolio Management and the
sustainability criteria proposed by it is the Adhocracy Culture which would empower a dynamic
and creative working environment in the organization of IBM Corporations.

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Challenges involved in getting project portfolio management and its sustainability criteria
embraced by the organisation
There are challenges associated with Adhocracy Culture as well but they have the
potential to be eradicated as well with proper implementation of Project Portfolio Management
methodologies. The challenges can be as follows:
 Solving routine problems
 Maintaining clear communication
 Risk Management problems
 Dependency of technologies
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that the organization of IBM Corporation has solely focused
on the utilization of Project Portfolio Management methodologies and the tools and techniques
associated with it to make sure that the strategic goal of the organization is achieved with finesse.
The organization partially understands the importance of the Project Portfolio Management
methodologies and why it should be utilized in order to improve the way the organization
handles its multiple projects that are to be delivered to the clients worldwide. The executive
managers thus understands the utility of the Project Portfolio Management methodology but the
company lacks in maturity level where the employees are unable to understand the benefits of
the strategy and opposes the propagation as it alters their day to day activities. The analysis of
the entire situation with regards to the organization structure thus helps in application of the
Maturity Model in such a way that the situation would improve and the corporate culture of the
organization would accept the changes implemented by the Project Portfolio Management
Maturity Model methodology.

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References
Archer, N. P., and Ghasemzadeh, F., 1999. An integrated framework for project portfolio
selection. International Journal of Project Management, 17(4), 207-216.
Archibald, R. D., and Archibald, S., 2016. Leading and Managing Innovation: What Every
Executive Team Must Know about Project, Program, and Portfolio Management. Auerbach
Publications.
Blichfeldt, B. S., and Eskerod, P., 2008. Project portfolio management–There’s more to it than
what management enacts. International Journal of Project Management, 26(4), 357-365.
Blomquist, T., and Müller, R., 2006. Practices, roles, and responsibilities of middle managers in
program and portfolio management. Project Management Journal, 37(1), 52-66.
Cooper, R., Edgett, S., and Kleinschmidt, E., 2001. Portfolio management for new product
development: results of an industry practices study. randD Management, 31(4), 361-380.
Crawford, J. K., 2006. Project management maturity model. Auerbach Publications.
De Reyck, B., Grushka-Cockayne, Y., Lockett, M., Calderini, S. R., Moura, M., and Sloper, A.,
2005. The impact of project portfolio management on information technology
projects. International Journal of Project Management, 23(7), 524-537.
Hadjinicolaou, N., Dumrak, J., and Mostafa, S., 2017, (September). Improving Project Success
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Project, and Product Management (pp. 57-66). Springer, Cham.
Kendall, G. I., and Rollins, S. C., 2003. Advanced project portfolio management and the PMO:
multiplying ROI at warp speed. J. Ross Publishing.

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Killen, C. P., Hunt, R. A., and Kleinschmidt, E. J., 2008. Project portfolio management for
product innovation. International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, 25(1), 24-38.
Letavec, C. J., 2006. The program management office: Establishing, managing and growing the
value of a PMO. J. Ross Publishing.
Martinsuo, M., 2013. Project portfolio management in practice and in context. International
Journal of Project Management, 31(6), 794-803.
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management (Vol. 3). John Wiley and Sons.
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—Fifth Edition. Project management journal, 44(3), e1-e1.
Silvius, A. J., and Schipper, R. P., 2014. Sustainability in project management: A literature
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Thakur, R., and Workman, L., 2016. Customer portfolio management (CPM) for improved
customer relationship management (CRM): Are your customers platinum, gold, silver, or
bronze?. Journal of Business Research, 69(10), 4095-4102.
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McGraw-hill.

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Wiersma, B., 2017. Project Portfolio Management and its Effect on Organizational Culture
Through the Competing Values Framework.