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Maximum word count: 5,000 words. Excludes numerical data in tables, figures, diagrams, footnotes, reference list and appendices. ALL other printed words ARE included in the word count.

Reference list in AU Harvard system(s).

Assessment Task

“Portfolio management is the coordinated management of one or more portfolios to achieve organizational strategies and objectives. It includes interrelated organizational processes by which an organization evaluates, selects, prioritizes, and allocates its limited resources to best accomplish organizational strategies consistent with its vision, mission and values. Portfolio management produces valuable information to support or alter organizational strategies and investment decisions.” (Hyvari, I., and Oyj, M., 2014. Project portfolio management in a company strategy implementation, a case study. Procedia – Social and Behavioural Sciences, 119, 2014, 229-235).

You have been recruited to ACE electronics, an organization which specializes in developing electronic equipment for a range of industries as their senior project manager. At your interview, the MD of the organization had explained that they have a wide range of projects being proposed and implemented at any one time, some within research and development and others in process improvement. Some are undertaken specifically for clients, others are part of the organization’s own research and development into generating new technology and improving the processes for technology equipment being produced by subcontractors to meet the organizations changing requirements. You have only been with the organization for a few weeks when you realize that frequently projects are missing deadlines, are no longer required or needed due to being completed too late and that how the organization chooses which projects to implement is somewhat haphazard. As a senior project manager, you decide that taking a portfolio approach may be better and you decide to prepare a presentation for the senior board for their next meeting. First, however, you need to undertake some research and decide how you think the organization should approach the management of its projects better in the future before you can present a summary of your findings. You decide to focus on the following and need to:

Question 1 a (35% marks)

Critically evaluate how project and portfolio management techniques can be used to plan and control project proposals and implementation within ACE electronics. Your answer should include an analysis of strategies and approaches including financial planning and any intellectual property considerations which may need to be taken into consideration whilst planning and implementing the portfolio of work. Given the issues highlighted in the context, this should also consider how organizational strategy and portfolio strategy and project selection should be reviewed to ensure that the portfolios deliver, and continue to deliver the organizational strategy.

Question 1b (35% marks)

Make recommendations regarding how you as a Portfolio Manager would approach the planning, scheduling, monitoring, and control of the projects and portfolio(s) when implementing to achieve success. Include a basic example showing how the portfolio and shared resources would be planned in practice and how risks to successful completion by taking this approach would be mitigated.

Question 2 (20 marks)

Portfolio management is different to project management and you need to consider the key project team personnel and what skills and knowledge they are likely to need to enable them to manage portfolios and also manage projects within a portfolio context. Identify and evaluate the additional skills competencies and/or the higher-level skills and competencies you believe to be required to effectively manage a portfolio of projects rather than a single project. You should pay specific attention to interpersonal skills such as listening, negotiating and persuading when managing teams and liaising with stakeholders. Using a typical example, illustrate the need for flexibility when managing a portfolio and a project within a portfolio, given the need to be adaptable to change from the environment and/or organizational strategy.

Question 3 (10 marks)

Now that you have considered the salient points relative to moving from a project organization to one which manages portfolios, prepare a presentation that should last no longer than 15 mins highlighting the key points of your considerations. This presentation will be used at the senior management team meeting to ‘sell’ the idea of portfolio management to them and therefore needs to highlight the benefits, the challenges and what the organization needs to do/change to take this alternative approach.

It is suggested that a maximum of 12 slides should be used and that a brief narrative to offer further detail/explanation of the points you have highlighted should be given.

You should copy and paste your slides into your assignment submission and include your narrative underneath the relevant slides. You will not be able to upload two documents to the assessment submission point. You should still cite your sources and include the full reference within the reference section in your submission.