Project Portfolio Management: A Practical Guide to Selecting Projects, Managing Portfolios, and Maximizing Benefits (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) [Hardcover]

Harvey A. Levine (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787977543 | ISBN-13: 978-0787977542 | Publication Date: July 20, 2005 | Edition: 1

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) goes beyond the typical project management approach to offer a set of proven business practices that can help executives, program managers, and project managers bring projects into alignment with the strategies, resources, and executive oversight of the overall enterprise.  Step by step, this book shows how to take a project from the inception of a vision to the realization of benefits to the organization. Project Portfolio Management draws on project management expert Harvey A. Levine’s years of research and distills the knowledge and best practices from dozens of leaders in the field to show how to select and implement the projects that will garner the best results. Throughout this important resource, Levine tackles the many challenges associated with PPM, including

• Ranking value and benefits
• Determining the size of the portfolio pipeline
• Assessing the impact of uncertainty on projects and portfolios
• Understanding the benefit and risk relationship
• Establishing a portfolio governance capability
• Managing the portfolio to maximize benefits
• Implementing PPM

Editorial Reviews

Review

“…a valuable reference for theory and analysis…” (Supply Management, December 2005)

From the Back Cover

Project Portfolio Management

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) goes beyond the typical project management approach to offer a set of proven business practices that can help executives, program managers, and project managers bring projects into alignment with the strategies, resources, and executive oversight of the overall enterprise.

Step by step, this book shows how to take a project from the inception of a vision to the realization of benefits to the organization. Project Portfolio Management draws on project management expert Harvey A. Levine's years of research and distills the knowledge and best practices from dozens of leaders in the field to show how to select and implement the projects that will garner the best results. Throughout this important resource, Levine tackles the many challenges associated with PPM, including

• Ranking value and benefits
• Determining the size of the portfolio pipeline
• Assessing the impact of uncertainty on projects and portfolios
• Understanding the benefit and risk relationship
• Establishing a portfolio governance capability
• Managing the portfolio to maximize benefits
• Implementing PPM

Using Project Portfolio Management as a guide, project managers can create a healthy portfolio of projects that will ultimately improve an organization's effectiveness in using limited resources to support its goals.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (July 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787977543
• ISBN-13: 978-0787977542
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very easy read to introduce and guide people into the world of PPM, March 16, 2007

By 

Eddy Pauwels - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Project Portfolio Management: A Practical Guide to Selecting Projects, Managing Portfolios, and Maximizing Benefits (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

After having evaluated many recent books on the subject of Project Portfolio Management, I found the practical guidance and descriptive clarity as provided by Harvey A. Levine exceptional. Working for Serena Software, I was looking for a single book that could educate and guide a variety of people into PPM, ranging from new Mariner account managers, engineers as well as Mariner customers. Not only does this book provide an easy way to understand the typical Project Portfolio Management process, it is being done using such simple terms, avoiding buzzwords and unnecessary jargon, making it very easy and fast to read, even for a non native English speaking audience. The latter is important if you are operating worldwide. The book does contain some level of repetition, especially in Part Two, but as these are contributing sections and case studies, written by different authors who provide a different angle or viewpoint to the same concepts, I found those especially useful for practitioners (our engineers and customers). The downside of having multiple authors is however that Levine's simple and clear writing style is not always maintained. The advantage of this approach is that within the same book, readers will benefit from learning some related topics such as ways to measure (e.g. earned value, AHP, NPV), Enterprise Project Management, IT Governance, and much more.

As a result, the company has bought over 50 copies to date and I have been recommending this book to our new employees, partners, and customers worldwide who want to build up their knowledge and implementation skills in Project Portfolio Management.

Eddy Pauwels
Serena Software
Antwerp, Belgium

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overall, very well done, March 24, 2008

By 

Joe PM "Joe PM" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Project Portfolio Management: A Practical Guide to Selecting Projects, Managing Portfolios, and Maximizing Benefits (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

I have been waiting for a good, practical portfolio management book and this one hits the mark for me. It contains a good mix of content including some "theory" as well as a good bit of practical advice. The writing style is clear, to the point, and provides you with enough to go off and make something happen in your organization.

As an aside, I think the graphic on the cover is right on point. We are too often burning the candle at both ends in the project/program/portfolio management space!

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, December 17, 2007

By 

Deborah Walters "Product Chief" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Project Portfolio Management: A Practical Guide to Selecting Projects, Managing Portfolios, and Maximizing Benefits (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

This is a great book for someone trying to implement portfolio management in a company. Excellent insight.