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

Project portfolio management (PPM) is central for project-based firms to achieve structure and prioritization among multiple projects. Competitive pressures, emergence of new technology and constantly changing customer demand imply a dynamic nature of PPM that calls for adjustments to different situations. This paper investigates PPM challenges that a company in the lighting industry face during a transformation from fluorescent technology to LED technology, by asking the question: *How does technology transformation influence the project selection process?* The findings rest upon an in-depth case study where data was collected via internal company documentation and narrative interviews with representatives having detailed insights into the company’s PPM activities and decisions, specifically addressing the technology transformation. The analysis was carried out according to the established procedure of data display, data reduction and drawing conclusions. The findings show that project selection during the technology transformation period deviated from how it is visualized in the company’s PPM model, which resembles a funnel profile where the number of presumptive projects are continuously reduced by evaluation and selection for further development. Since the technology transformation called for projects where most products in the portfolio were converted to the new technology there were no need for explicit selection activities aiming for investigation of alternatives, and consequently no continuous reduction of potential projects to carry out took place during the selection process. On the other hand, more attention was paid on other selection criteria, such as in what order the projects should be executed, and how many projects that could be run simultaneously, but these changes were not reflected in the company’s PPM model. The study therefore confirms that PPM selection is more dynamic than postulated in most PPM models found in the literature. It also emphasizes that related to specific situations the decision criteria are of different importance. This paper contributes with increased insights into the dynamic nature of project selection, specifically related to a technology transformation situation. Further studies are needed regarding effects of other kinds of technology transformations on project selection activities and decisions as well as other factors contributing to the dynamics of PPM.