Project Portfolio Management

This assignment discusses the case of HCL and its implementation of project portfolio management. It explores the benefits of project portfolio management, challenges faced, and methods used for evaluation.

Running head: PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Name of Student
Name of University
Author’s Note

1PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Executive summary
The organisation chosen for this particular assignment is HCL. There are various results
that have been derived from the research carried out in this report. The results include the fact
that HCL has been investing in the right projects like strategic management, resource planning
and many more, it could be stated such because the project management portfolio management
has numerous strategic advantages like better management of organization. The changes brought
about by implementation of project portfolio management can become more important due to the
pressure on the organization for keeping in pace with various changes. HCL has not yet
optimized its capacity because it needs to undertake a change management plan. HCL has
initiated in executing the project portfolio management, and it has also realized the promised
benefits of project portfolio management. . Some promised benefits that have already been
realized by the organisation include simplification of works, providing better strategies to plan
various decisions that are to be undertaken within the organization. Some methods that are used
by the organization include performing risk management, monitoring the project delivery
success. The usage of chosen strategy has helped HCL to prioritize the activities, perform them
sequentially. There are also some challenges which can be faced by the organization while using
the present method in case it has to be operated in the global environment include an increase in
demand and reduced resources.

2PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
1. Introduction......................................................................................................................3
2. Situational context.......................................................................................................3
3. Portfolio evaluation.....................................................................................................5
4. Portfolio management..................................................................................................7
5. Maturity levels.............................................................................................................8
6. Corporate culture.......................................................................................................10
7. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................12
8. References......................................................................................................................14

3PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
1. Introduction
Organisations usually run numerous projects at a time; this contributes as a reason for
which it is important for them to manage a project portfolio. This would help an organisation to
categorize the projects undergoing within it and align them along with the organisational goals
(Kaiser, Arbi & Ahlemann, 2015). Project portfolio management is a specific process of
management, which consists of methods that aim in helping the organisation in acquiring data
and then sort out the projectsbased on criteria (Aiello &Gatti, 2017). The organisation chosen for
this particular assignment is HCL. This assignment discusses the case which states if the
organisation is using the right projects, if the organisation has optimized the capacity, how
appropriately did the organisation execute the project portfolio management, it further discusses
the fact if the organisation absorbs all the changes and if the organisation has realized the
promised benefits provided by the project portfolio management (Archibald & Archibald, 2016).
The assignment discusses the method that has been used by the organisation to evaluate the
entire project portfolio. It further justifies using the method in the comparison of other available
methods. These points are elaborated in the discussion part in a detailed manner.
2. Situational context
Is the organisation investing in the right projects?
HCL is investing in the appropriate projects such as expansion of market, strategic
management, resource planning and many more, it could be stated such because the project
management portfolio management has numerous strategic advantages (Stettina&Hörz, 2015).
This is because the project portfolio management has an ever increasing rate of change across the
world as well as in the organisations. The changes brought about with the help of implementation

4PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
of project portfolio management would become more and more important because of the
pressure on the organisation for keeping in pace with the changes along with taking about a lead
role in this particular field (Costantino, Di Gravio & Nonino, 2015). The investment in a
particular project portfolio management would bring about various changes in the organisation
such as a consequent increase in uncertainty and complexity; this would as a result provide a
higher rate of flexibility to the organisation.
Is the organisation optimising its capacity?
The organisation has not yet started to optimize its capacity because it requires the
organisation to undertake a change management plan by implementing project portfolio
management. The optimization of the capacity of the organisation would be tested after the
process of implementation of these processes is over (Jenner, 2016).
How well is the organisation executing?
The organisation has initiated in executing the project portfolio management, it is
progressing the plan in an effective manner, but there is a lack of cooperation. The entire process
of implementing project portfolio management would require the employee to cooperate in the
process, this lacks in HCL. The employees need to be convinced on the introduction of a new
management system and they must cooperate with the management in bringing about the change
within the organization (Muller, 2017). Besides this, the organisation also does not have enough
resources that would be required to implement these changes. The organisation requires access to
enough resources along with various technologies that would be helpful for it in carrying out the
entire process. The access to technologies would not only help the organisation in bringing about
the change but also help the employees in getting acquainted with the changes environment.
Can the organisation absorb all the changes?

5PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Initially it would be difficult for the organisation as well as the employees to absorb
various changes which would be done after the implementation of a project portfolio
management (Nonino, 2017). This would not be difficult for a long period. The organisation can
make the employees to undergo various training sessions that would be helpful for them to
understand the advantages provided by the changes within the organization (Sánchez, 2015).
Is the organisation realising the promised benefits?
The organisation has been made aware of the promised benefits of implementing project
portfolio management. It has realized regarding some of the benefits because it has initiated the
implementation of project portfolio management. Some promised benefits that have been
realized by the organisation include simplification of works, providing better strategies to plan
various decisions that are to be undertaken within the organization (Siew, 2016). One more
benefit that has been realized includes comparing the project. The organisation gets to compare
various projects and chose one among them which has high chances of success and provides
benefits to the organisation.
3. Portfolio evaluation
What method is the organisation using to evaluate its overall project portfolio?
The organisation HCL technologies are using various methods for evaluating the overall
impact of the project portfolio. Some methods that are used by the organisation include
performing risk management, monitoring the project delivery success. Performing risk
management helps the organisation in calculating the areas that need more attention and the areas
that are performing well, hence the concentrate on the weak areas even more and try to improve
the impacts provided by the project portfolio management on HCL (Aiello & Gatti, 2017).
Besides this, the organisation also undertakes the monitoring the performance of the project, the

6PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
process of monitoring helps them to know the impact of project portfolio management.
Prioritization helps the organisation in ranking all the components in the method of project
portfolio management, this helps them to perform the tasks sequentially and hence it helps them
in evaluating its entire project portfolio.
What is the justification of using the chosen method in comparison to some of the others
that are available?
The usage of chosen strategy has helped HCL to prioritize the activities, perform them
sequentially; this helps them in the entire process of evaluating the impacts of project portfolio
management whereas other available options would not provide this benefit. Some more
methods that can be used by HCL include total cost total revenue method and marginal cost
marginal revenue method for maximizing the profitability, providing optimal balance and
supporting the strategy of the enterprise. These techniques would help the organization in
creating a specific strategy which would include markets, customers, products and competitive
emphasis. They would also understand the budget or resources that are available for the purpose
of balancing the project portfolio management. Among all the methods maximizing the
profitability is the one that would be advantageous for the organization.
Are there any challenges that the organisation might face in using the current method if it
were to operate in a global environment?
There are some challenges which can be faced by the organisation while using the present
method in case it has to be operated in the global environment include an increase in demand and
reduced resources (Stettina & Hörz, 2015). This challenge is considered as a major one because
to use this method in a global environment, the demand of this method would be very high due to

7PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
its benefits but the resources that would be provided by the organisation would be limited, hence
this might cause in failure of the entire method.
Is the benefits management lifecycle incorporated in the evaluation process?
The process of evaluation that is being followed by HCL contains numerous methods
which require the usage of benefits management lifecycle. The steps included in the evaluation
process of HCL such as defining various stakeholders, describing various programs, focusing in
the designing of the evaluation, gathering various evidences, drawing conclusions as well as
presenting the findings along with ensuring them requires the involvement of benefits
management lifecycle because it helps in increasing the effectiveness of utilization of project
portfolio management (Schwalbe, 2015). Hence the lifecycle of benefits management is
incorporated into the entire process of the organizational evaluation that is being undertaken
using various strategies.
How might benefits management be helpful in successfully meeting the deliverable goals of
the organisation’s projects?
Benefits management would be very helpful to HCL in the process of meetingthe goals of
the projects that have been undertaken by the organisation in a successful manner, the
implementation of benefits management would help them in identifying the benefits of a specific
project, definition as well as planning the project in an appropriate manner, it also helps in
tracking as well as realization of the benefits (Stark, 2015). Benefits management would be
usually helpful in delivering various benefits to the organisation. The benefits management
would help the organisation in delivering a particular connection of strategically aligned benefits.
This is done with the help of various component projects as well as programmes. The benefits
management would help the organisation in aggregating the benefits across the project.

8PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
4. Portfolio management
How is project portfolio management ensuring that the organisation’s collective projects
are aligning with its strategic objectives?
The project portfolio management ensures that various collective projects of HCL have
been aligned with project portfolio management, this is done by using various ways, some of the
ways include prioritization of tasks, choosing the appropriate framework, and it also helps the
organisation in understanding the roles of leadership in the organization (Kerzner & Kerzner,
2017). Implementation of project portfolio management helps HCL in reviewing as well as
measuring a work. This helps them to monitor the performances of employees and analyze the
overall performance of the organisation. This helps the organisation in aligning collective
projects with the organisational objectives.
Has a Project Management Office been introduced into the organisation and, if so, has it
played a role in terms of standardising practices and increasing project success rates? If
not, why not? What alternative approaches are available?
A project management office has not yet introduced within HCL because there are still
some activities left which are important to carry outto implement project portfolio management
(Kock, Heising & Gemünden, 2015). It has been decided that the project management office
would be implemented after the initiation of project portfolio management is half implemented.
What quantitative and qualitative tools and techniques is the organisation currently using
to manage its project portfolio and are they effective?
Some processes that are being used by the organisation for project portfolio include
aligning the process groups, monitoring as well as controlling the process groups, PPM tools
Landscape and some more. These techniques have been partially effective because they did not

9PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
provide the benefits that are usually provided by project portfolio management (Shalbafan, Leigh
& Sankaran, 2018). They also did not help the organisation in choosing the right projects and act
accordingly.
5. Maturity levels
At what maturity level do you believe the organisation is at in terms of its approach to
project portfolio management?
The organisation is at the managed level of maturity in terms of its approach to the
project portfolio management; this is because inspite of knowing the advantages provided by the
implementation of project portfolio management on the organisation, the employees did not
agree to the plan (Hansen & Svejvig, 2018). The approach to project portfolio management did
not encourage them try some change within the organisation and test whether it had positive or
negative effects on their performances.
What are the key best practices which can be adopted to improve the maturity level and
which model (e.g. PRINCE2, OPM3) do you think would be appropriate?
The best practices that can be adopted for increasing the maturity level is by making them
aware regarding the advantages provided to the employees as well as the entire organisation by
the project portfolio management (Nicholas & Steyn, 2017). One more practice would include
providing those instances by which they would be convinced regarding the advantages and hence
gain their consent on the change that would be undertaken. The model that would appropriate for
the organisation is PRINCE2 because it is very flexible. This is suitable because PRINCE2
projects do not require any usage of software for running it. They do not even dictate the way a
project has to be delivered (Lehnert, Linhart & Röglinger, 2016). This is a suitable method

10PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
because it provides huge advantages to organisations that are new in the implementation of
project portfolio management.
How might you go about implementing this change and what assistance from the
organisation would you require?
The ways by which the implementation of project portfolio management can be carried
out include various steps, these steps include
 Creating an inventory as well as establishing a specific strategy.
 Analyze the process chosen.
 Ensure that the alignment is appropriate.
 Management of the processes.
 Testing and adaptation.
These steps can be undertaken for implementing project portfolio management, the
assistance that would be required in implementing the entire process is the cooperation of
employees as well as management. One more assistance that would be required includes the fact
that the employees must be informed regarding the change taking place within the organisation.
This would help the employees to gain some knowledge regarding the advantages that would be
provided to them by the changed system and how it can help them improve their performance
and the overall performance of the organization (Turner, 2016). The employees must cooperate
in attempting something new which would help them in making decisions regarding the projects
and the implementation of various processes.
6. Corporate culture
Assess the corporate culture of the organisation and whether it is likely to be different in
terms of key internal stakeholder influence and input

11PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
The corporate culture at HCL has been very professional. The employees and the
management interact as well as handle the outside business transactions in an effective manner.
The corporate culture within HCL is very likely to change after project portfolio management
has been implementated because the entire process would become systematic and every process
would be carried out in an effective manner (Amaral & Araújo, 2017). For example the HR
director would be able to recruit the most talented candidates for various job profiles, the
technology manager would be gaining knowledge regarding various technologies that could be
implemented within the organisation, along with their benefits provided by them to the
employees and organisation as a whole. This would also improve the process of decision making
within the organisation because project portfolio management helps personnel to carry out
various processes in a systematic manner to gain effective results (Sánchez, 2015). Hence the
implementation of project portfolio management is usually very different in the aspects of
influence in internal stakeholders as well as input.
Will any change management initiative in terms of project portfolio management process
improvement and benefits realization need to take into account the different perspectives of
these stakeholders and what concerns might each stakeholder express?
The utilization of project portfolio management would automatically result in undergoing
a specific change within the organisation. Hence the usage of project portfolio management
would result in change management in the organisation that would affect various aspects of the
organization (Nonino, 2017). Change management strategy would help the organization in
rectifying any mistakes that have taken place in a specific project. Some more change
management initiatives that need to be undertaken due to the realization of benefits provided by
the project portfolio management include the training sessions and the process of execution of a

12PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
particular activity. The concerns that each stakeholder might express includes the fact that the
implementation of project portfolio management might create issues because the organisation
has been following various protocols and rules previously, but after the initiation of project
portfolio management, the processes will be changed due to which the employees might face
numerous problems. Project portfolio maturity can also be undertaken by the organization.
Various methods within this strategy includes determining the maturity of the current PPM of the
organization, setting priorities for various short term process improvements, mapping out a
specific logical path for improving the processes of the organization.
What aspects of the corporate culture do you think would support project portfolio
management and its sustainability criteria?
There are various aspects of corporate culture which will support the project portfolio
management along with its sustainability, structure and alignment (Aiello & Gatti, 2017). The
importance of alignment would extend beyond the effectiveness of the strategy to the structure of
the organisation. PPM contributes more to an organisation than just selecting the effective
projects and shaping the organisational structure. It would also help in aligning strategy as well
as structure with the required data. One more aspect of the organisation that would support the
project portfolio is the organisational culture. The organisational culture develops along with
time and it is considered as the key driver of the organization (Stettina & Hörz, 2015). The
implementation of PPM would have a very positive and huge effect on the performance of
employees as well as the organisational culture.
Are there any challenges involved in getting project portfolio management and its
sustainability criteria embraced by the organisation?

13PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
The Project management maturity There are numerous challenges that can be faced by
the organisation in implementation of project portfolio management as well as sustainability
criteria that has been embraced by the organisation includes the internal culture and politics, this
factor proves to be the major issues that might provide barrier in the utilization of project
portfolio management, this is because the utilization of project portfolio management, change
takes place and along with this change, resistance takes place. The PM maturity that the
organization is at is level 2, structured process and standards. Operating in this level, the
organization would adhere to various basic practices of project management. Overall success of
the project is usually likely to be dependent on the important individuals or the support provided
to management.
7. Conclusion
From the discussion that has been carried out above, it can be concluded that there are
various advantages that have been provided by implementing project portfolio management to
HCL such as proper planning, simplifying the way employees work, improved as well as
sustained compliance, better management of project portfolio, speeding the project turn times
and many more. Various questions related to situational context, portfolio evaluation, portfolio
management, maturity levels, corporate culture have been discussed in this report. It discusses
how the benefits management would help in meeting the deliverables in a successful manner
along with meeting the organisational goals. It presents the information related to quantitative
and qualitative tools as well as techniques used by HCL for managing project portfolio and if
they are effective enough. Few findings have been derived from the report which includes the
projects on which the organization has been investing; the organization has realized the promised
benefits obtained from the implementation of project portfolio management and hence

14PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
implemented numerous strategies in order to gain them. HCL has also faced numerous
challenges due to its implementation along with its criteria of sustainability embraced by HCL.
These points have been mentioned in details in the discussion part of the assignment. Some
recommendations that can be used by the organization include setting a specific strategy that
have high chances of success, win a specific executive support, building a particular
implementation team, collecting sufficient data for the project and evaluating the projects.
8. References
Aiello, L., & Gatti, M. (2017). Project Portfolio Management and Organization: An Integrated
and Circular Model. In Project Portfolio Management Strategies for Effective
Organizational Operations (pp. 288-309). IGI Global.
Amaral, A. M., & Araújo, M. (2017). Project Portfolio Selection Using a DEA Approach.
In Project Portfolio Management Strategies for Effective Organizational Operations (pp.
220-244). IGI Global.
Archibald, R. D., & Archibald, S. (2016). Leading and Managing Innovation: What Every
Executive Team Must Know about Project, Program, and Portfolio Management.
Auerbach Publications.
Costantino, F., Di Gravio, G., & Nonino, F. (2015). Project selection in project portfolio
management: An artificial neural network model based on critical success
factors. International Journal of Project Management, 33(8), 1744-1754.
Hansen, L. K., & Svejvig, P. (2018). Towards rethinking Project portfolio management.
In EURAM 2018.
Jenner, S. (2016). Transforming government and public services: realising benefits through
project portfolio management. Routledge.

15PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Kaiser, M. G., El Arbi, F., & Ahlemann, F. (2015). Successful project portfolio management
beyond project selection techniques: Understanding the role of structural
alignment. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), 126-139.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
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.
Lehnert, M., Linhart, A., & Röglinger, M. (2016). Value-based process project portfolio
management: integrated planning of BPM capability development and process
improvement. Business Research, 9(2), 377-419.
Muller, R. (2017). Project governance. Routledge.
Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2017). Project management for engineering, business and
technology. Routledge.
Nonino, F. (2017). Project Selection Frameworks and Methodologies for Reducing Risks in
Project Portfolio Management. In Project Portfolio Management Strategies for Effective
Organizational Operations (pp. 245-263). IGI Global.
Sánchez, M. A. (2015). Integrating sustainability issues into project management. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 96, 319-330.
Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Shalbafan, S., Leigh, E., Sankaran, S., & Pollack, J. (2018). Decision-making in project portfolio
management: using the Cynefin framework to understand the impact of
complexity. Project Management Research and Practice.

16PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Siew, R. Y. J. (2016). Integrating sustainability into construction project portfolio
management. KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, 20(1), 101-108.
Stark, J. (2015). Product lifecycle management. In Product lifecycle management (Volume
1) (pp. 1-29). Springer, Cham.
Stettina, C. J., & Hörz, J. (2015). Agile portfolio management: An empirical perspective on the
practice in use. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), 140-152.
Turner, R. (2016). Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.