This report explores the use of project portfolio management (PPM) by organisations during the current turbulent economic conditions. The study takes five case study firms and explores what activities and practices were involved in their approach to PPM. We set out to explore the use of PPM by organisations during the current turbulent economic conditions. We wished to explore what activities and practices were involved in their approach to PPM and how these practices were influenced by the current economic conditions. We also explored the benefits they were deriving from their use of PPM. Where possible we sought to identify general lessons and effective practice from these real-world case studies and these are provided at the end of this summary.

We carried out five case studies of different organisations, of different sizes in a range of business sectors: news and media, professional services, insurance, pharmaceuticals and IT services. Interviews were carried out with a number of senior managers and professionals in each organisation. The project portfolios included only IT projects in the news and media and pharmaceutical companies and all types of projects in the other three organisations. However, given many projects within organisations include a significant degree of IT, these latter broadly based portfolios also include IT investments. (More detail about the case studies and how the research was undertaken is provided in the appendix.) (PDF 394)