Project Portfolio Management in Small Medium Enterprises – A Brief Study

One of the interesting approaches that I never thought of before joining my masters is the way academia wants to integrate with practice. I cannot tell whether it is just my perception or plenty others that there is a sense of disconnect between the academics and the real world.

One of the modules I am taking is Project Strategy. The module aims at explaining different approaches where companies can follow a methodological approach, or a mathematical approach to select a strategy that best suits their vision. What was an eye opener is that you get one of two worlds:

1. You go through various research and scholars and realise that their theory has actually been proven beneficial in the real world; thus you can apply it in your own work environment; or
2. There is a gap between the academics and the real world. With more research you do, you can bridge the gap between those two worlds.

One of the assignments I had to work on was a literature review. While I strongly opposed the concept: “Why do I need to do literature review when I am in a course about applied project management!” I could see the benefit once its done. I would actually fall in the first world above!

So here is my first journal that I proudly publish. It is my first work of this sort.

This paper aims to review the theory behind project portfolio management in the areas of practices, challenges and solutions. An unstructured literature review is performed under the definitions of project portfolio management and different methods that could help formulate its approach in SMEs. As the industry of Project Management grows and proves needed to build structured success, professionals are looking into methods to conduct project portfolio management in a systematic approach to increase strategic success. This paper discusses the application of such framework in a company that delivers employee support services highlighting the strong side of the approach along with its short-comings.
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