What is PPM ?

Although the concept and benefits of project management are already widespread in companies, some people still mix and confuse the concepts of project management and project portfolio management.

To clarify any doubts, in this article we will bring the definitions and characteristics of each of the types of management mentioned above.

What does the acronym PPM mean?

The PPM is the acronym for Project and Portfolio Management, i.e. Project Management and Portfolio.

PPM is a set of projects, programs and group-managed operations to achieve strategic objectives to generate a consolidated vision of projects.

When we talk about a single project, can we consider that there is no great difficulty in analyzing the information of the project indicators, but what about when we have many projects being run simultaneously?

In this case, the level of complexity to manage the indicators increases because we are talking about a set of projects with various indicators. To facilitate the management of project information, the concept of PPM emerged.

We may have several projects running in parallel, all of which are related to the same strategic objective of the company.

When we talk about PPM, we can consider that we are focused on meeting the need for the long-term organization, and with this, we are able to select and implement projects that are more aligned with the strategic objective of the company.

There are different definitions for PPM and we can quote:

• centralized system for project management;
• scheduling, prioritization and multi-project budgeting process;
• bridge between strategy and implementation;
• how to analyse and identify the financial return of the projects;
• system for improving project information management;
• tool to improve company competitiveness, allowing to transform strategic objectives into projects;

We can consider as project portfolio management activities:

• administer the resources;
• Select and prioritize projects;
• oversee projects;
• Anticipate trends;
• report the results to interested parties;
• make interventions/corrections in projects;

Why implement PPM?

The use of a centralized system and visualization of all the company's projects will allow those responsible to organize, implement and prioritize the projects in accordance with the company's strategic objectives.

In addition, perhaps your company is going through one of the situations listed below:

• There was an increase in the number of projects and they need to be analyzed and prioritized.
• Evolution in project management to prevent past mistakes from happening again.
• Improve and facilitate the overview of projects so that directors can make better decisions.
• Overallocation of project managers;
• the need to improve the financial management of the projects;

With the implementation of PPM, you will have an overview of all projects, facilitating and optimizing the management of your company's strategic projects.

To meet this need, MLPro develops Portfolio Dashboard reports so that your company has practical and agile access to information by facilitating data analysis for decision-making.

Understanding Project Management

Project management can be defined as planning, organization, direction and control of organizational resources in a given enterprise, taking into account estimated time, cost and performance.

Through project management, we seek to ensure that the tasks are performed according to the initial planning. In case of possible deviations, project management allows corrective actions to be taken so that these deviations do not compromise the project.

The management of the projects is basically related to the daily life of the projects, that is, the execution of tasks, allocation of resources and work performed.

Defining what projects are

According to PMBOK, project “is a temporary effort to create a unique product, service or result”.

The projects are divided into phases, each phase containing the groups of processes below:

• Initiation;
• Planning;
• implementation;
• Monitoring and Control;
• Closure;

It is noteworthy that in each of the phases of the project, there are project management processes that have a specific function and the execution of these processes can ensure success in the implementation of the projects.

Within the projects, we will basically have the dates of beginning and completion of the tasks, the work to be done and the resources responsible for the execution of the activities.

To learn more about the implementation of PPM, Microsoft Project Online or how to optimize your company's project management, please contact us.