Projects and the Project Portfolio Management Process: application in a Consulting Company

Abstract

Project Management is usually intended as the set of activities and techniques that help a project or a program to be delivered on time and on budget. It mostly refers to the actions taken during the implementation process itself, in order to speed up activities and to optimize the resources available. In this work the most widely applied techniques of time and cost management are presented, namely PERT, CPM and the typical GANTT chart. In fact this work tries to expand this limited point of view about project management, taking into consideration also its important role in the first steps of any planned activity and analyzing the differences between delivery and presales projects. The thesis then focuses on the role and application of the project portfolio management process in a growing consulting company operating in the ERP management sector. The importance of project management in this business area appears immediately to be crucial, as these consulting companies operate mainly through short or medium term projects, being deeply concerned with resources optimization and distribution among the various projects. As a matter of fact, sometimes, the most difficult activity for such an organization regards the management of the project portfolio, where budgeting faces market strategy, and scheduling cannot ignore staffing issues.