Portfolio management assignment: Project & Program Management

Question

Task: Your task is to write a weekly portfolio reflecting upon your learnings from the prior week. In your portfolio you will identify: the learning outcomes and module/topic of the unit, a description of your experience including reading samples and/or records, the learning from your experiences, and any supporting documentation of prior or current learning.

Answer

Introduction
Companies use projects to achieve their business operations more economically and, in this case of portfolio management assignment, program and portfolio management comes under consideration. Program and portfolio management has to be adopted within an organization based on its business operation and structure. The roles and responsibilities of a managerial post within an organization change according to the program and portfolio management based on the current situation of the organization. Program and portfolio management is way of grouping every project within the organization’s governance structure. The main two mottoes of the project and program management are to understand and link interconnectivity among different ongoing projects within an organization to maximize the accomplishments through coordinated project outcomes and create a strong interrelationship among different management requirements of the current projects to reach maximum business result for that organization. The study prepared under portfolio management assignment aims to understand the project and program management and its relevance to system engineering.

Summary of outcomes
The portfolio management assignmentwill guide me about the relation between the program and project management with system engineering. Various system thinking tools utilized by the project managers to solve project problems will help me to understand how system engineering can help to solve project and portfolio management to organize a project successfully.

a. LO1
i. Summary
System thinking is a concept of interrelationship among different ongoing projects to understand and take measures to organization the projects with the overall business operations in a collaborative way. System thinking will help me to identify and understand the need of interrelationship among projects and their long-term effect on the business. According to Schwalbe (2015), it is noted in the portfolio management assignment that projects often comes with various challenges where both the technical and managerial leaders are needed to work collaboratively by understanding the value and requirement of each other for completing the project. According to the research on portfolio management assignment, integrated system engineering and project management approaches helps to reduce the probability of reworks after completion of the project and it also does not need for any re-planning during the project development and implementation phase. Integrated practice among system engagement and portfolio management results in better engagement of stakeholders in the different aspects of projects which helps to understand the problem effectively and leads to a better solution. During the lesson I have learned how project and portfolio management and system engineering can help to construct comprehensive risk plan which builds higher confidence in the final cost structure and scheduling of the project program (Bathallath, Smedberg&Kjellin, 2016). Collaborative work between portfolio management and system engineering leads to better planning of the projects and helps to progress the project operation as planned with the help of multi-disciplinary work environment to solve various complexities. This collaborative working culture as portrayed in this section of portfolio management assignment supports top-down thinking within an organizational structure.
ii. Evidence

b. LO2
i. Summary
As per the investigation carried on this portfolio management assignment, project management and system thinking have a close relation between them as it helps to operate and complete large projects and researches within an organizational structure. Different systems thinking tools as well as techniques help the project managers to solve various issues regarding project management (Rothman, 2016). Different system thinking tools are brainstorming tool, dynamic thinking tool, computer-based tools and structural thinking tools which help to solve and complete different project management issues by the management department of an organization. Within the brainstorming tool, the Double-Q (QQ) diagram signifies the qualitative and quantitative techniques which are called fishbone or cause and effect diagram. Though the QQ diagram is a very strong process, sometimes it creates fuzzy problems in the project operation. One of the Dynamic thinking tools which isBehaviourover Time (BOT) diagram on the other hand helped me to understand the interrelationship among different variables within and among various projects. As stated by Dennis & Wixom (2018), Cause Loop Diagram is another dynamic thinking tool which also helps to understand how to create a dynamic interrelationship among different project management factors like cost, resource, time and others. Geographical function Diagram is a structural thinking tool which helps to draw a nonlinear line and relationship among project variables. It is evident in the portfolio management assignmentthat computer-based tools similarly helped me to understand how to create and plan a project flow and step by step process through computer applications and simulation software.
ii. Evidence

c. LO3
i. Summary
The main aim of the project management outlined in the portfolio management assignment is to plan and coordinate every step with the final project to achieve success through successful implementation of the budget, resources, schedule, infrastructure, technology and manpower within an organizational structure (Meredith et al. 2017). The scope of system engineering and project management sometimes overlaps with each other in a small region. The collaborative work between system engineering and project management helps to remove probable risks within a project management by connecting various project management parameters with each other. The system engineers help to create plan for the project, monitors and maintain the project operations, helps to tackle risks and controls technical aspects related to the project. As opined by Hillson (2017) in regards to the case scenario of portfolio management assignment, project managers on the other hand maintain the overall process of the project. However, this shared concern sometimes creates issue regarding shared responsibility in a project, but to avoid this issue, organizations often spread the responsibility differently among the project management team and system engineering team so that the responsibilities do not overlap with eachother. Best way to avoid any confusion regarding dividing roles among these two teams is to exact and explicit description of the roles of individual person in project operation. I have learned from the discussion build on this portfolio management assignment that project management plan (PMP) and system engineering management plan (SEMP) are two main records with helps to operate the project operations and methodologies properly.
ii. Evidence

d. LO4
i. Summary
When project management acts as a backbone of a project, system engineering concepts assists the overall project operations to run fluently and efficiently by maintaining resources, cost structure, human resources and other factors. The portfolio management assignmentexamines the words of Fleming &Koppelman (2016) that system engineering concepts helps the system engineers to maintain technical and computerized operations with the project. Customers and stakeholders play a crucial role in the projects within an organization and system engineering concepts aids the linkage between the ongoing project and stakeholders to achieve better result. Large organizations have their own individual system engineering plan with every project management plan individually. As mentioned in the context of portfolio management assignment, every system engineer has to possess strong concepts about system engineering and project management in order to utilize their knowledge and skills in the ongoing project. Nowadays, system engineers are a major part of project management as well as leadership team. Every projectis mainly based on different types of requirements. Whether they are market, program, customers or performance requirements; the interrelationship among these requirements is the key to organize and completion of the projects successfully, and system engineering takes a major role in this relation making process. Bakhshi, Ireland &Gorod (2016) have said that, the first step of achieving success of a project is to identify and understand which products are required for the project to complete. The products manufactured by an organization have to meet the requirements of the customers and to understand what the customers need; system engineers play a crucial role in this situation by communication customers with the business operations to increase the utility and productivity of the projects.
ii. Evidence

e. LO5
i. Summary
Project management applications are the key to completing the projects successfully. Different project management application system is available in the market which can be utilized by a project manager to accomplish and finish a project successfully within an organization. Davies & Brady (2016) stated in regards to the main theme of portfolio management assignmentthose different factors such as utility of the tool, user-friendliness, task management capability, real-time reporting capability and many other factors are important regarding choosing these types of tools. The priority is to choose software which is easy to use by the project managers. Sometimes these kinds of tools are quite complicated and a significant time requires to properly operate the software is ultimate increases the time requirements of the overall completion of the project. Another important factor depicted in the portfolio management assignmentin project management is the proper scheduling of the tasks and top do that Gantt chart application is essential. A list of tasks linked with the Gantt chart is mandatory to handle long and complex projects as it helps to strategically assign tasks one by one among the team members so that the tasks get completed in its time above limit (Fitzgerald &Stol, 2017). From changing the tasks as per requirements to setting target for each task to complete, proper management of the tasks is also important within a project management tool. The tool should be customizable so that the accessor can restructure the tool as per his or her liking. Security in a project management application system is crucial for keeping the project data from any kind of security breaches. Every organization has their way of completing the projects and leaking of those credentials can harm the company. Real-time report and graphical report of the overall ongoing project helps the project management team to understand the current situation which helps them to take any steps required to overcome any upcoming probable risks regarding the operation process.
ii. Evidence

f. LO6
i. Summary
Effective and proper utilization of the project management application software can help the project management team to understand the ongoing project and its related factors successfully. As evident in the portfolio management assignment, step by step a process helps to understand proper management of the financial structure and resources (Binder, 2016). Reports generated by the project management application software aids to easily understand about the ongoing projects by the stakeholders which encourage them to take part in the project operations. A piece of better and clear knowledge and understanding about which is going on and which project component consumes how much resources can help the project team to estimate future requirements of the resources and cash to operate the project continuously (De los Ríos-Carmenadoet al. 2015). Another important factor presented in the portfolio management assignment which can be understood by evaluating the real-time reports and graphical reports generated by the PM application software is upcoming risks, how to deal with those risks and what kind of measurements are required by the project management team to avoid or minimize the effect of probable risks in the ongoing process. ii. Evidence

g. LO7
i. Summary
The main aim of the project management identified in this segment of portfolio management assignmentis to breakdown the entire project into small number of achievable tasks in a step by step manner to accomplish the overall project by avoiding the complexity of the project.

Advantage

• Inventory
  A PPPM application helps the project team to locate and identify which project segment is consuming which amount of resources (Rehacek, 2017). It is stated herein portfolio management assignment that inventory management is an important part of project portfolio management.
• Risk
  PPPM application software guides proper allocation of resources and stacking up adequate amount of it in different operations within a project which as a result helps to avoid any upcoming risks regarding running out of resources.
• Involvement
  The PPPM application software assists the stakeholders too directly and indirectly, take part in a project operates within an organization which enhances the effectiveness and success of the project. Disadvantage
• Resource
  Sometimes due to improper allocation of resources, PPPM software can lead to creating serious issues in the project operation (Muller, 2017). As discussed in the portfolio management assignment, it is mandatory to distribute the resources efficiently in every aspect of the project to complete it.
• Size
  The size of the company greatly impact of the project management process as the PPPM application software does not adopt the process based on the size of the organization. Big corporates have large number of ongoing projects and single software sometimes cannot handle and manage this large number of big projects simultaneously.

h. LO8
i. Summary
PPPM applications manage and maintain the inventory by successful allocation of the resources within the project operations. From monitoring cost to allocation of the raw materials in different steps and small processes within a project, PPPM software can help the project management team successfully utilize the resources. According to Morton, Keisler&Salo (2016), this application also helps to create link between project management team and company shareholders and stakeholders where they can communicate with each other to create better planning and aim of the project. Effective and active participation of the stakeholders in the project operation helps the overall project more successful and impactful. According to the research on portfolio management assignment, the charts and reports created by the PPPM software help the management team to understand about the current process, detailed knowledge about the resources, allocation of the resources, prospect and risks related with the project. The PPPM software also guides the project management team to successfully maintain the inventory to avoid shortage of the resources and efficient utilization of the resources without wasting it unnecessarily. With the help of system engineers, project management team can handle and successfully finish difficult and complex project operations with ease.

ii. Evidence
i. LO9
i. Summary
PPPM applicationsoftwareis widely utilized indifferent types of organizations such as hospitality organizations, manufacturing organizations, retail organizations and others. In this portfolio management assignment, from the allocation of the cash flow in the different project operations to allocation of the human resources in the project steps, PPPM application software greatly improves the promptness of a project operation without causing any trouble and risks during the process (Schwalbe, 2015). PPPM applications mentioned in the portfolio management assignment utilized the latest software and IT in the project process which helps the management team to allocate the resources based on the timing, size of the organization, available manpower present within the organization and other parameters. Within a healthcare organization, introducing a new system like projects can be easily accomplished by the PPPM applications where the software helps to allocate the manpower for different tasks in different time and specify their job roles in the project without harming the ongoing daily operation of the healthcare organization. On the other hand, in a manufacturing company, PPPM can help to allocate the resources properly so that any project can be completed within the time above without allocating extra manpower within the organization.
ii. Evidence

j. LO10
i. Summary
Every development process needs specific and efficient management of the processes to successfully implement any process and operation within an organizational structure. According to Kolesnikovet al. (2016), it is mentioned in the portfolio management assignment that project, program and portfolio management application systems play a crucial role in every contemporary development process as it requires strong planning and maintenance activities. Over the years, the application software also gets updated and upgraded over time and it is becoming more and more efficient and intelligent to deal more complex works and projects by the software. The readings used to develop this portfolio management assignment illustrates that project management usually follows different methodologies such as waterfall, agile and others to complete a project within the time limit. Now, the waterfall methodology does not change over time but in agile methodology, the project parameters some time gets changed due to various operational needs and to cope up with the changing needs and operations, the PPPM applications also have to be adaptogenic (Alvarez-Dionisi, Turner &Mittra, 2016). In every project, the use of PPPM applications are now increasing day by day due to the strong potential of this kind of software nowadays and helps to maintain and complete the project operations efficiently and successfully.
ii. Evidence

Discussion
The overall study prepared in the portfolio management assignmenthelped me to understand the relationship between portfolio management and system engineering. The study also helped me to understand the utilization of project, program and portfolio management (PPPM) application software during any project operation within an organizational structure (Mild, Liesiö&Salo, 2015). System engineering approaches helps to create communication among different project operations to complete the project successfully without triggering any risk factors. PPPM applications on the other hand, help the project management team to successfully maintain and manage the resources, financial structure and human power in a project operation within an organizational framework. PPPM applications are now utilized in different types of or organizations because of the effectiveness and potential of thatsoftware.

Conclusion
Portfolio information systems are now widely popular systems in the project management process for successful maintenance and control of the operations and processes by the project management team. From the above study provided within this portfolio management assignment it can be concluded that, project, program and portfolio management (PPPM) applications play a huge role in the project operations if different kinds of organizations and system engineers help to successfully utilize these applications in a project. Collaborative work between the project management team and system engineers leads to accomplishing complex projects easily by avoiding probable risks related to the project. This kind of software helps the organization to integrate their customer base with its core operations successfully by giving the understanding to the customers, shareholders and client about the detailed structure about the ongoing projects.

Reference list
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