Strategic Project Portfolio Management: Enabling a Productive Organization (Microsoft Executive Leadership Series) [Hardcover]

Simon Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2009 | Series: Microsoft Executive Leadership Series (Book 16)

Lead change through strategic alignment of project and process performance

Practical and filled with expert advice, Strategic Project Portfolio Management: Enabling a Productive Organization presents a clear framework for your organization to complete impactful strategic projects. Providing executive-level guidance to build a powerful and efficient process from initial adoption to portfolio alignment, this essential resource contains case studies from small to global multinational organizations, arming you with the insights to ensure your strategic projects are given the resources they need to deliver business impact.

This important guide

• Shows executives how to align their projects and processes with their business strategy for compelling competitive advantage
• Provides cases from best in class organizations, showing how they were able to achieve results by using processes outlined in the book
• Reveals how technology is the key to developing new collaborative platforms and innovative work management environments that have not been possible until now
• Defines a framework for assessing project portfolio management competence within your organization and driving momentum for compelling improvements
• Explores how to go beyond project portfolio management to a holistic work management system

Strategic Project Portfolio Management: Enabling a Productive Organization offers the practical recommendations, guidance, and real world insights you need to immediately begin driving better project management strategy.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Strategic Project Portfolio Management

Organizations that outperform do so because of a combination of strong execution and great strategy. Lack of either results in failure. Effective port-folio management helps achieve outperformance, making your strategy real through organizational change.

Practical and filled with expert advice, Strategic Project Portfolio Management: Enabling a Productive Organization presents a clear framework for your organization to complete significant strategic projects. Providing executive-level guidance to build a powerful and efficient process from initial adoption to portfolio alignment, this essential resource contains case studies from small to multinational organizations, arming you with the insights to ensure your strategic projects are given the resources they need to deliver business impact. This important guide introduces several key initiatives that will dramatically improve your ability to execute effectively on a strategic portfolio, including:

• Setting bold goals for both the business, and therefore the portfolio, and sharing these goals repeatedly and broadly

• How to go beyond project portfolio management to a holistic work management system

• Sharing portfolio information broadly with as many employees as possible

• Why technology is the key to developing new collaborative platforms and innovative work management environments

• A framework for assessing project portfolio management competence within your organization and driving momentum for compelling improvements

• Examining and cutting processes regularly

Portfolio management is a process, requiring the com-bination of the right processes and the right technology to support it. Filled with cases from best-in-class organizations illustrating how results were achieved using processes outlined in the book, Strategic Project Portfolio Management: Enabling a Productive Organization offers the practical recommendations, guidance, and real-world insights you need to immediately begin driving better project management strategy.

From the Back Cover

Strategic Project Portfolio Management

Enabling A Productive Organization

Simon Moore

Praise for Strategic Project Portfolio Management

"Project management has been around for years as a bottom-up process but Simon now brings the concept to the executive suite. Strategic Project Portfolio Management shows senior management how to shift to a return-on-investment driven organization. Simon's experience meeting executives while at Microsoft makes him the ideal person to bring project portfolio management to management."
—Chris Vandersluis, President, HMS Software

"Innovation and constant improvement are essential for every?organization in our fiercely competitive world, making both project selection and project execution strategic capabilities.?Simon Moore shows us how project portfolio management forms a holistic business process that informs executive decisions and motivates project teams."
—Eric Verzuh, author, The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, Third Edition

"Simon Moore has laid out a complete overview of the world of project portfolio management. Excellent reading for those who are looking for insight into how businesses can benefit from this continuously evolving discipline."
—Rudi van den Berg, Partner Manager, Pcubed

"A great top-down book on the top of the mind issues that face project-driven organizations today. Sharp and precisely written as a hub of knowledge and hands-on practice manual for teams implementing or improving best practices for strategic project portfolio management. When you are in for the deep dive, you find the references for further reading."
—Magnus Holmlid, Senior Advisor Enterprise Project Management, Camako, Sweden

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470481951
• ISBN-13: 978-0470481950
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.8 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Simon Moore is a Senior Lead Product Planner at Microsoft and has engaged with project and portfolio executives from Brazil to Japan to define the most effective strategies for completing projects on time, on budget and within scope. He has worked for Anheuser-Busch on new product development, financial portfolio analysis at Putnam Investments, and regulation and compliance at the Bank of England. He has also served as a strategic consultant to firms in the technology, retail and financial industries. He has written for the UK's Guardian newspaper and is a member of the Project Management Institute. He has a BA (Hons) from Oxford University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. He also studied in Chulalongkorn University and Asia and hold the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. Simon was born in the UK and currently lives in Seattle, USA.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference for industry November 8, 2009

By A. E. Wain

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Brilliant handbook for anyone involved in project management work at any level, but particularly for those with a strategic angle. Quickly dispelled the notion that I've been employing best practice, and pointed me in the right direction about putting together a more effective project selection process. The author clearly has a great deal of working experience of portfolio management, and that means that rather than being a dry text it's a very practical guide. Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for any CEO, Entrepreneur, and Product / Project Manager December 15, 2009

By Kenneth Shaw

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm almost through finishing this book, and I'm already recommending this to so many of my friends.

I feel like many companies could probably save fortunes by reading this book instead of hiring consultants from many top tier firms. You could essentially take this book and follow it as a step-by-step tutorial for making any project succeed. For example, Simon discusses in one chapter the 10 steps for a successful strategic project portfolio management process: know what you have, build momentum, define business goals, capture ideas, be transparent, prioritize, use efficient decision making, establish communication frameworks, conduct postmortems, and improve continually. These may sound like no brainers, but you'll be surprised how many people stray from these steps and lose their focus when they're caught in the excitement of developing their ideas.

If you're an entrepreneur with or without an MBA, this book will help you strategize and plan the next steps after you've settled on your block buster idea. If you're a CEO or you're managing projects within a company, you'll learn in addition the early stages of generating the perfect balance of ideas and resources for creating a portfolio of projects with the highest chance of success.

Amazing book. Learned a ton so far. It's written very well and gets straight to the point. Looking forward to other books by Simon Moore. Keep up the great work.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and lucid October 23, 2009

By Lori Birtley

Format:Hardcover

Clearly written and amply illustrated, this book delivers direct, thoughtful insights into project portfolio management. Case studies describe current management best practices. Examples of common pitfalls will help you avoid these mistakes in your organization.