26th International Association for Management of Technology Conference - IAMOT 2017

Many organisations have adopted Project Portfolio Management (PPM) processes to improve the implementation of their strategies, however few organisations have achieved tangible returns on investment (ROI) from PPM. Although PPM stakeholders are aware and understand that PPM enables the achievement of strategic objectives of the organisation, they admit to not fully being able to understand its value. This results in IT projects implementation and delivery not being aligned with the organisational business strategies. Moreover, the performance of IT initiatives indicates an increase in their failure rate, to an extent that it is becoming a threat to the very existence of organisations. The failure of IT initiatives is perceived as the reason many organisations are not achieving their strategic vision. The South African government spends more on IT initiatives, but effectiveness has not kept pace with other countries. The National Development Plan (Vision 2030) forecasts that South Africa is to spend more on IT initiatives. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of PPM practices in South African public organisations, in ensuring efficient return on IT investments. The methodology that grounded this research is quantitative analysis, using survey consisted of closed questions. The survey was distributed to project, programme, and portfolio management professionals as well as PPM stakeholders who takes part in portfolio management activities in their organisations. The survey requested PPM practitioners to evaluate the maturity of their PPM practices and the overall performance experienced in their IT Portfolio. It further enabled them to establishes what has been the focus of governance mechanisms in PPM and unpacks the challenges and benefits experienced over PPM in the industry. The study finds that majority of organisations in the public sector achieved a level 2 maturity, which implies that IT portfolios are managed for value at an individual project basis, which doesn’t support their business strategies a contrast to having IT portfolio being managed enterprise wide and integrated with business to guaranty strategic alignment. The study indicates that PPM practices are not aligned to the expected strategic vision and benefits of South African entities. Furthermore, PPM doesn’t reflect sensible investment and balanced portfolio priorities. Contrary to PPM standards, organisations experience difficulties in ensuring that resource allocation is effective and efficient. The study suggests that there is a need for governance on PPM initiatives, as opportunities for risk to impede against portfolio success across the project portfolio lifecycle exists. This is evidenced by the poor performance noticed across organisations. The research indicates that Portfolio governance is mostly focused on monitoring of expenditure rather than focusing on the management of processes and prioritization of programmes and project resources throughout the portfolio lifecycle components. The study provides, beside the benefits of IT portfolio management, critical challenges that impede on PPM success. With the identified limitations it is therefore possible for both researchers and practitioners to relook at theories and practices with the aim of improving effectiveness. Considerable improvement needs to be made to PPM maturity, performance and governance of South African entities, where emphasis should be made on among others, portfolio planning, review and tracking with involvement of executives which would result in the achievement of ROI on IT initiatives and business goals.