There is really only one reason needed to explain why Project and Portfolio Management is necessary and that is because...the absolutely last thing you want to do in a down economy is waste money.

May the Best Project Win!

The benefit of portfolio management is that it can help your company focus in on the projects that are most worth your effort and budget dollars. Project portfolio management software such as Compuware's Changepoint or CA's Clarity PPM can help prioritize projects, track progress of projects and manage demand from the business for IT resources. Then project Management can help your company execute those projects efficiently through improved communication, coordination and collaboration.

Count the Project Costs and Benefits.

Remember, If you don't have any idea of what a project is going to cost and the benefits that will be derived from it then all projects seem like a priority. But once costs and benefits are determined priority can be assigned to projects and then addressed according to that assigned value. For example even moving a printer may seem to be a little thing until a company finds out it may cost thousands after labor and additional parts. Even if the company wants to go ahead with it, is it still a priority compared to other projects with lower costs and greater benefits? So in the end providing a reliable estimate of costs makes managing demand from business easier.

Project Tracking

PPM software can also help highlight which projects should be sped up based on their anticipated business benefits and criticality. PPM software can also provides companies with one central location for information on all IT and facilities projects. The software can track all the IT projects the company is working on, along with the progress of each project and each project's risks, cost and business benefits.

Project Traffic Management

As a result of the down economy and the visibility the PPM software provides, a company may decide to postpone some IT initiatives while fast-tracking others and thereby acting as a virtual project traffic management system. We know that in these days with fewer resources all projects will appear critical and it will be management's decision as to which receive the green light, but in most cases the management, staff and company in general would benefit in knowing that there was cost/benefit analysis done in the making of these decisions and that it was not random "chicken-with-its-head-cutoff" decision making.

PPM Analysis Improves Company's Adjustment to Project Changes

Also the decisions made from PPM analysis is not always just green light or red light. Sometimes by providing prioritization to a project it lets everyone else know that an adjustment to a lower priority project will need to be made so as to complete them all according to the company's priorities and thus helping to keep everyone on the same page.

PPM allows Side by Side Comparisons of all Projects

In conclusion, PPM software allows companies to look at everything side by side and prepare reports that can be handed off to senior management so they can make a go/no go decision or decide that adjustments needs to be made to other projects. And obviously PPM software alone is not the complete solution but together with a good governance process and project methodology a company can help achieve better results in their IT implementation projects.

Efren Duarte is Managing Director, Products & Services and AVO Chief of Avocera Consulting and principal of the AVMI Group, a market research firm and think tank primarily focused on the business technology. You can read more blogs at http://www.avochief.com.