I trust this book will become a reference for project portfolio management. I have had the pleasure of working with the authors, and their enthusiasm and desire to share their experience stands out.

The book tells the whole story from concept, justification and implementation, through to benefit realisation and on-going improvements. It is incisive in its delivery, tells common truths and contains a wealth of experience.

The journey it leads you on is worthy of any company that wants to get the best from its people through engagement, responsibility and informed decision making.

Source: Steve Lewis, IT Planning, Friends Provident

Whether you think you have a good project control process or no project control process, this book will open your eyes.

The book tells you everything you need to know about introducing ´Project Portfolio Management´, and how to go about it.

It lays out PPM in such a way that the reader will not know how they can do without it. It is structured in a way that helps you understand the amount of the process you would need to introduce to suit your company.

But the question is whether you or your executives have got the commitment to introduce it, because it does need commitment.

Source: Paul Hillman, Head of Programme Office, Virgin Mobile

As businesses have become increasingly project-driven, they have become only too aware of how badly served they are by the tools and processes available to manage those core activities.

Too often organisations are employing scavenged, disjointed tools – spreadsheets, Gantt charts, white boards, collaboration software – when trying to coordinate and make sense of their multiple project commitments.

Project portfolio management delivers vital business-wide visibility, discipline, accountability and a high degree of automation to the whole process of bringing projects in on time, within budget and to specification – all with the aim of fulfilling business objectives. It also provides a structure for deciding where projects fit on the ´go/kill/hold/fix´ decision-matrix.

The authors of this book – all seasoned PPM executives who can draw on the lessons from implementations at scores of major organisations – provide an illuminating and comprehensive account of why PPM should be a critical part of every modern business.

They offer a comprehensive account of how the establishment of just such a structured, integrated environment is a pre–requisite for managing a co-dependent portfolio of projects, from their inception, funding and resource allocation through to the reporting of their status and the extent to which they deliver business benefits.

The historic absence of such fundamentals – especially obvious within the IT function – has been a source of much business pain over the years – and career damage. And there can be few people in IT or business who have not been exposed to a project that has gone badly wrong: this book sets out not only to bring that situation under control, but to make it a rarity.

Source: Kenny MacIver, Editor, Information Age

The book gives companies a real-world blueprint for the approach, the implications and the rewards to be gained from embracing Project Portfolio Management.

Source: Jason Hookey, Strategic Solutions Manager – Group IT, Kingston Communications

Many industrialists think of Project Portfolio Management as no more than an ambitious list of projects from across the enterprise competing for resources. PPM is much more than that and has been the subject of much serious research since the 1980s in tandem with the significant advances made in information and decision support Systems. A quick scan of the literature reveals that there is a gap, particularly in the IT industry, for a textbook covering PPM fundamental concepts and tools including latest thinking and research. This book fills this gap in a comprehensive way.

PPM enables corporate and business users to organise their projects into a single portfolio and manage various objectives, costs, resources, risks and other factors, which will assist them in making key financial and business decisions for the projects. This book provides a detailed analysis of the challenges project portfolio management faces, and some of the benefits that may help change the way people think about it. Few would argue that many of the tools currently used for PPM and which, include spreadsheets, Gantt charts, white boards, and other collaborative software really do not provide adequate solutions for effectively and efficiently managing multiple project commitments and associated resources.

This book provides a one-stop-shop for many PPM solutions for achieving enhanced portfolio visibility, discipline and accountability through mature concepts and methodologies capable of delivering projects on time, within budget and to specification, and inline with business objectives.

All three authors of this book have significant practical experience of PPM in a wide spectrum of product and service industries. Readers will benefit greatly from many of the illustrative examples included and the way the various tools and concepts have been articulated and presented. PPM, as they say, should and must be a critical part of every modern business. The text provides a comprehensive account of all aspects of PPM from inception of projects, funding and resource allocation, risk assessment through to their review and lesson learned.

Source: Dr Chakib Kara-Zaitri, Senior Lecturer in Risk and Reliability, University of Bradford

Project Portfolio Management identifies projects as the future of organisations. To remain competitive and stay in business organisations must change. Change is enacted through programmes and projects. If you do not ensure a continuous link between the business strategy and each programme or project, or do not mobilise and empower your resources to deliver them, you will not succeed.

This book comprehensively covers not only why portfolio management is so important, but the theory, the structure and the practicalities of employing it.

A very readable manual for the portfolio management practitioner.

Source: John Dyson, Project Director, GlaxoSmithKline

In a business world where the only constants are uncertainty and change, this book provides clear advice to help build agile PPM organisations well able to take advantages of the opportunities rather than flounder by relying solely on tried and trusted traditional project delivery techniques.

An excellent guide through the minefield of successful project delivery. Clearly written with a strong evidential base and emphasis on the practical application of the concepts, the authors experience and expertise shines through. A really useful contribution to the debate on PPM.

Making the most of the opportunities PPM offers will require a change of mindset in many organisations. In this book the authors don't just tell you what to do, they explain why it can make a difference and how to tailor PPM to the specific circumstances of your organisation.

Source: Tim Banfield, Director of NAO (VFM Defence), UK National Audit Office (NAO)