As acutely highlighted in the research article by Elonen and Artto (2003), and drawing also from my professional experience

managing projects, some of the typical problems that an organization might face at different levels when there is poor or no portfolio management are: Management level Weak decisions, made without proper consideration Poor information management across the organization No common database of projects Resources level Ineffective utilization of resources Unclear roles and responsibilities Competencies are not adequate for roles Project level Structured processes are not in place Insufficient monitoring of project progress Lack of proper support from sponsor Portfolio level Lack of strategy leading to project selection Too many minor projects Inadequate prioritization of projects

These problems could be considered to be an extension of poor project management practices, such as the Ten Uglies of Projects enumerated by Kerzner (2010, p.79), and can be easily correlated to their impact on an organizations project portfolio performance: Management level 1. Lack of maintained documentation 8. No community plan 9. Not plan for rework 10. Dates are just numbers The one thread that runs along all of the processes in an organization is communication (Sanghera, 2010). Given that effective communication and information transparency across the entire organization are essential in developing a successful strategic project portfolio, when the information does not get to the appropriate recipient, at the right time and through the appropriate channels, it could be affirmed that the organizations enterprises are bound to failure. Moreover, if information is not accessible is to all stakeholders, especially historic documentation on past projects, the risk of producing poor estimates of variables increases. Resources level 4. Wrong people on the job 5. Not involve the right people In my professional experience I have noticed that more often that not a project team is assembled with the human resources available at the moment, rather than with the most qualified for the nature of the project. As pointed out by Kerzner, not involving the right people up front in a project always results in changes to work (2010, p.81). Project level 2. Pile phenomenon 3. No quality at source 6. Not having proper sponsorship 7. No rigor around process

Given that an organization with poor or no portfolio management would eventually fail to link projects to the portfolio strategy, it deprives top managers of visibility of project activities, as well as project managers of the ability to see the bigger picture of the business s trategy; moreover, top management would have its ability to effectively manage the organization (Morris and Pinto, 2007). Portfolio level Finally, because of the above poor project management practices, all project portfolio level activities would result in problems such as projects running past their lifecycle, overlapping of projects and resources and consequently a lack of critical decision-making from top managers (Elonen and Artto, 2003). The last organization I worked with was a worldwide outsourcing services provider (mainly BPO, B2B and CRM services) where my position was of operations manager for different projects. In this company, the project ranking (thus its prioritization) was based on aspects such as client-specific business strategy, revenue of the project, global strategy of the company and availability of resources. As a project manager, I was kept on the loop of relevant information regarding my projects ranking and what where the short and long -term strategies for them. However, more often than not changes would require a shift on a specific strategy, with its correspondent impact on resources and my managed projects. For example, if a client decided to consolidate its operations exclusively in another of our branches, all resources and budget allocated to this project would allow for a prioritization of another project considered to be minor. Reference List Elonen, S. & Artto, K. (2003) 'Problems in managing internal development projects in multi-project environments', International Journal of Project Management, 21 (6), pp. 395402, ScienceDirect [Online]. DOI: 10.1016/S0263-7863(02)00097-2 (Accessed: 11 January 2013). Kerzner, H. (2010) Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence. 2 Wiley & Sons, Inc.
nd

ed. Hoboken: John

Morris, P. & Pinto, J. (2007) The Wiley Guide to Project, Program and Portfolio Management. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sanghera, P. (2010) PMP Exam In Depth, Second Edition: Project Management Professional Study Guide for nd the PMP Exam. 2 ed. Boston: Course Technology/Cengage Learning.