COORDINATION BETWEEN PROJECT MANAGEMENT LEVELS: PORTFOLIO, PROGRAM AND PROJECT

Abstract

Every organization needs to set up projects in order to solve its specific needs and to develop new ideas. When many projects are to be managed, it is necessary to have proper project management processes, which aims are to integrate projects horizontally through their processes and life cycles. In order to set an organizational strategy, it is essential to integrate the projects and programs vertically by means of a portfolio. This portfolio sets links between the organization aims, the processes that lead to fulfil those aims, and the final product. To do so, it is very important to know beforehand the link points between the specific programs, projects and portfolio. Nowadays, there are some tools and regulations that help to manage these variables, as are the ones issued by the Project Management Institute, which has not dealt with the variables as a whole, but as independent items. This project analyses the existing interrelation between portfolio, program and project. To do so, it shows the program and project life cycle, their groups of processes, and the integration of all these variables into a portfolio by means of the PDCA cycle. This interrelation tries to set the monitoring and control key points and the decision making, in order to achieve an efficient coordination (resources optimization) among the three levels and, so, reach the strategic aims of the organization.