PPMP20012 Portfolio: System Thinking & Project Management Relevance

This portfolio provides a comprehensive overview of project management principles, emphasizing the relevance of system thinking and system engineering in achieving project success. It covers various aspects, including the application of system thinking tools, the importance of system engineering processes in project development, and the selection of appropriate project management methodologies. The portfolio also highlights the significance of project management knowledge areas, such as risk management, communication management, and quality management, in effective decision-making. Furthermore, it discusses the role of project management application systems in facilitating knowledge sharing and ensuring project outcomes align with client requirements. The document also includes evidence of learning outcomes related to project, program, and portfolio management application systems, making it a valuable resource for students and professionals in the field. Desklib offers access to this and many other solved assignments to aid students.

Running head: PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
1. Introduction:.............................................................................................................................2
2. Learning outcome:....................................................................................................................2
3. Discussion and conclusion.....................................................................................................14
4. References..............................................................................................................................14

2PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
1. Introduction:
Project management and the project methodologies are the important part of
managing and developing the projects in the organization. In this study the different aspects of
the project and the portfolio management. This also includes the system thinking tools and their
roles in the project management. The importance of the project management life cycle along
with the system engineering is also discussed in this paper along with the classification of the
manual and the electronic medium for managing of the project management process.
2. Learning outcome:
a) LO1: Relevance of the system thinking in the project and the portfolio
management.
I. Summery: The system thinking is an important part of the project
management. In the project management process the system thinking
provides the information that will help in the decision making in the
project management life cycle. Some of the system thinking processes
includes the processing of the data from the previously published journals
and the articles, analysis of those data, decision making process in the
organization and brainstorming.
II. Evidence: It has been found out that the proper system thinking processes
helps in the decision making processes in the organization. The lack of the
right decision making in the organization can lead to the mismanagement
of the organization. The brainstorming process will help to come to the

3PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
right conclusion along with that taking up the best option for the
organization.
b) LO2: Different system thinking tools used by the project and portfolio managers.
I. Summery: There are different system thinking tools that can be used in
the project and the portfolio management. Some of the system thinking
tools are brainstorming tools, casual loop diagram, behavior over time
graph. Graphical function diagram and the structure thinking process are
the structure thinking tools which are also included in the system thinking
tools. These tools can be used by the projects managers in order to make
the decisions in the processes. However, it has been found out that some
of the managers in the organization are not using the system thinking tools
in the business process. In that case, lack of management can be seen.
II. Evidence: It has been found out that the system thinking tools helps in
the gathering and managing of the information related to the management
of the process. Certain difference can be seen between the process that
uses the system thinking tools and the processes that are not using the
system thinking tools. However, the application of the system thinking
tools are not the only necessary thing for management of the project in a
correct way. Along with the system thinking tool the application of the
right project management methodology is important.
c) LO3: Relevance of the system engineering in the project cases.
I. Summery : The system engineering is an important aspect of the
management of the project. The relevance of the system engineering lies

4PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
on the development of the project in a way so that it can deliver the right
outcome. The main function of the system engineering to develop the
connection between the business process unit in the organization and the
technical unit in the organization. In order to develop the successful
project in the organization, the synchronization between the business unit
of the organization and the technical unit of the organization is important.
The system engineering helps in this synchronization. The effective
communication between these two units will help in the effective sharing
of the knowledge. The knowledge sharing will help the processes of the
business to run in a more effective way.
II. Evidence: It has been found out that the technical processes are dependent
on the business processes , similarly, the business processes are also
dependent on the technical processes. The proper management of the
communication between these two sections will help to grow the project in
the business organization in a more accurate way. The synchronization is
important as it will make theses two units to know the progresses of the
processes being conducted in the two unit.
d) LO4: Relevance of the system engineering processes and methodologies in the
development of the project management process.
I. Summery: The system engineering in the organization helps to make the
communication between the business unit of the organization and the
technical unit of the organization. This helps the flow of the
communication in the organization a right way. On the other hand , it has

5PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
been seen that system engineering is not the only thing to manage the
development of the project in an organization. Application of the right
project management methodology is also important part for the
development of the project. There are various project methodologies
exists. However, the selection of the project methodology is dependent on
the requirements of the projects and the type of the projects. The
implementation of the project management methodologies is important as
it applies different stages for the development of the project. This helps
the projects to deliver the outcome which meets all the requirements of
the projects.
II. Evidence: It has been found out that different projects in the organization
have different specifications and the expected outcomes. The project
scopes and the areas are also different for different projects. In this cases
the approach for the development of all the projects will not be the same.
Different approaches for the development of the different projects are
known as the project management methodologies. The system thinking
and the selection of the right project methodologies will help to implement
all the necessary factors in the project so that it can able to meet the right
outcome. Another importance of the implementation of the project
management methodology in the organization is that the projects can
mitigate the scope creep. The scope creep in the project management
refers to the change in the requirement at the middle of the project. The
scope creep can be happened due to the confusion regarding the

6PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
requirement gathering. It can be said that the right implementation of the
system engineering and the project management methodologies will help
to develop the projects in a right way.
e) LO5: Importance of selection of the right project management application in the
organization.
I. Summery: In order to develop and deliver a project in a right way, the
organization should choose the right project management methodologies.
The project management methodologies are defined as the processes in
the life cycle of the project management. The approaches of the different
projects are different. In this context, the different methodologies are used.
The selection of the different methodologies are based on the requirement
and the type of the project. However, all the methodologies generally
consists of five phases- initialization, planning, execution, controlling and
monitoring and closing of the projects. The initialization is the phase
concerned with the requirement gathering of the projects The requirement
gathering and the right documentation of the project is important for the
mitigation of the scope creep in the project management. The scope creep
defines the change in the requirements at the middle of the project. In
order to avoid the scope creep the requirements form the clients at the
initial stage of the project. The planning stage is concerned about the
making the blue print of the execution for the project based on the
collected requirements. The execution phase of the project management
life cycle denotes the execution of the requirements according to the plan.

7PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
This step is followed by the monitoring and the controlling of the project.
This step is concerned about the evaluation of the performance of the
developed project. In case, if the project is not providing the right
outcome, further modification and improvisation is needed. The life cycle
of the project management methodology ends with the closing of the
project.
II. Evidence: The project management processes and the methodologies are
important for the managing of the project. It has been seen that the project
needs to go through a certain steps in order to deliver the right outcome.
There are different approaches for the different project management
methodologies, however, in general there are five steps present in the
management methodology. These steps are concerned about the fact, that
the project is meeting all the requirements mentioned by the clients and it
is going to give the expected outcome. The requirement gathering phase is
the most important part of the project management process. It helps to
mitigate the scope creep of the project management phase. It has been
seen that the project, with adaptation of no particular management
methodology ends up without delivering the right outcome. On the other
hand the project that has followed the stages in the adopted management
methodology provides the expected outcome along with meeting the all
requirements of the clients.
f) LO6: Significance of the project management application system in effective
project management knowledge and decision making.

8PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
I. Summery: The project management knowledge and the decision making
is the important part in the project management process. The project
management knowledge refers to the management of the different aspects
of the project. Some of the project management knowledge includes
project scope management, project time management, project quality
management, project risk management and the project communication
management. The project risk management is concerned with the risks
those are involved with the projects. Some of those risks are the scope
creep of the project, time constraint and the budget constraint of the
project. As discussed previously, the project scope creep is the change in
the requirements of the projects. The time constraint refers to the finishing
of the project in time and within the allocated budget. These risks are
managed by the proper use of project management. The management of
the communication concerns with the flow of communication in the
system and the proper sharing of the knowledge. These knowledge
management helps in the decision making process for the organization in
order to develop the project in a right way. The identification of the certain
risks which are associated with the project will help the managers to
mitigate then risks. The mitigation of the risks will help to develop the
project in accurate way in a cost effective way. The flow of the
communication helps in the knowledge sharing. The knowledge sharing
helps in the development of the system engineering and system thinking.
The decision making process is involved in the system thinking. Sharing

9PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
of the knowledge will help the team members in the project development
process to share the ideas about the project. This will help the team
members to come up with the best decision for the project.
II. Evidence: The management of the project knowledge includes the
management of the project communication, management of the knowledge
regarding the risks associated with the project and the management of the
quality of the project. All these factors are important for the development
and the improvisation of the project. The management of the quality
ensures that the quality of the product is meeting all the standards. On the
other hand the flow of communication in the management process helps
the communication between the different modules of the project
management process. It has been seen that the proper communication
between the different modules of the project helps to develop the project
in a right way. This flow of knowledge is managed by the system thinking
and the system engineering. The system engineering is concerned with the
maintenance of the sharing of the information between the business unit
and the technical unit of the organization. On the other ah d the system
thinking is concerned with the gathering and the analysis of the
information regarding processes of the projects. There are various tools for
the analysis of the information in system thinking process. Some of these
tools are known brain storming, structure analysis. . The system thinking
helps in the decision making process for the organization as well as the
development of the project. The proper implementation project

10PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
methodologies along with implementation of the project knowledge and
the system thinking tools will help the project mangers to take the right
decision for the development of the project.
g) LO7: the advantages and the disadvantages of the manual and electronic project
management application system.
I. Summery: The management of the different phases of the project life
cycle can be managed by the both manual and the electronic process. The
project and the portfolio management deals with the managing of these
processes. Both project and the portfolio management are related o the
project management definition scope- there are slight difference between
the project and the portfolio management. The project management is
concerned with the management of the processes in the project, while the
portfolio management is concerned about the managing of the different
projects with diverse background. The managing the different steps in the
project and the portfolio management can be done in both manual and
electronic way. The manual process is concerned with the keeping of the
tracks of the progress of the projects in a journal or maintaining the sticky
notes. On the other hand the electronic way of managing the project
managements is done through the specific application software provided
by the software companies like IBM,SAP and Microsoft. The similarity
between these two processes is that in both cases the main objective is to
maintain the methodologies and track the progress of the project in a right
way. However, there are any differences between these two methods. The

11PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
electronic way of keeping the track of the project management is better
than the manual process. There is a chance of human error in the manual
process however, managing through electronic way will help to reduce the
chances of error and the calculation and the analysis of the data can be
done properly. However, sometime the manual way of keeping the track
sometimes become helpful. So, in this case it is recommended that the
keeping track of the record can be done through the merging of the
electronic record and manual way of keeping the records.
II. Evidence: Previously, the managing of the project is done by the manual
way of keeping the records. Recently, with the development of the
technology the record keeping is done through the project management
software which are provided by the leading software companies. The
tracking of the progress of the project can be done through the use of both
the electronic way of maintaining the progress of the project along with
the manual way of managing the projects.
h) LO8: Significance of the project and the portfolio management for the project
managers to monitor the performance and manages the changes in the project.
I. Summery: The project and the portfolio management is the important
thing for the project managers to manage the development of the projects.
There is a difference between the project and the portfolio management.
However, both the project and the portfolio management defines certain
life cycles for the development of the projects and the portfolios. These
well defined stages helps the projects and the portfolios to deliver the right