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Project Portfolio Management (PPM) describes a methodical approach for analyzing and collectively managing a group of current or proposed projects based on numerous key characteristics. The fundamental objective of the PPM process is to determine the optimal mix and sequencing of proposed projects to best achieve the organization's overall goals. Oftentimes companies have implemented a rigorous process for selection, management and administration of their project portfolio.

Agile software development on the other hand refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams.

Contrary to popular belief, agile methods still promote a disciplined project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals. These approaches to doing the work are reflected in the agile project management manifesto.

It’s the seeming incompatibility between these two approaches – the need for rigorous management of your portfolio vs. the adaptive approach of agile project management – that is at the core of our discussion with Rick Moreau, Field Enablement Director of Compuware (www.compuware.com).

We learn from Rick how these two approaches can indeed be brought together into a blended approach, how Compuware is using their own internal product development almost like a case study to prove it and how the need for portfolio management rigor can still be achieved under this mixed approach.

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Earlier this week I spent a couple of days in Florida at the Gartner Group’s Project Portfolio Management and IT Summit. We were at the beautiful Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando. Here I had the chance to sit down with Mark Langley who is the PMI’s Chief Operating Officer.

In this interview we learn why PMI has sent a delegation to this event, we hear some of the feedback that PMI has received on the recent release of the 2nd editions of The Standard for Program Management and The Standard for Portfolio Management, we discuss the challenges that organizations face in regards to program and portfolio management and of course how PMI can help organizations deal with these challenges.

During our conversation we also touch several times upon the upcoming PMI North American Congress, which will be held coincidentally in the very same convention center where this interview was recorded. I won’t be able to be there myself but I strongly recommend that you attend. I have always found PMI Congresses to be a great way to connect to my peers.

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A little earlier this week I had the opportunity to participate in an online webinar from gantthead (http://www.gantthead.com). Mark Perry (from http://www.botinternational.com/pmo-podcasts.html) and I each gave a presentation on a specific topic on setting up a PMO. Mark's presentation discussed constituent and non-constituent focused project management offices, in which he conveyed the message that a PMO which is not focusing on the needs of its customers will eventually fail. And he had a great case study in support of this.

My presentation - the one which you see in this episode - is titled The 4-week PMO. This is a 90 minute presentation, which for the purpose of the online project management webinar was shortened to about 40 minutes. At some point I hope to turn the complete presentation into one of our PM Lectures. But for now, here is my approach that will give you a roadmap that enables you to set up your initial PMO framework in about 4 weeks.

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We are a few days late with this episode of The PM Podcast because I was gone for the weekend. My wife and I celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary and so we decided to go to Catalina Island, which is both a tourist destination and a nature reserve just off the coast of Orange County here in CA. So that makes this a couple of days late.

But wait… did I just say a couple of days…? No no no! We are just about ONE YEAR LATE! The interview that you will hear in this episode was recorded in late 2008. Getachew Teklemariam and I got together at that time, recorded this interview, I got it ready for publication and promptly forgot about it. That is until I received another email from Getachew about 3 weeks ago and I was wondering if we ever published this. No we hadn’t. As such, you could say that this particular sub-project is just about one year late...

In the interview, we discuss the overall state of project management in Ethiopia, the available training infrastructure, the industries using project management, how project management in Ethiopia could generally be strengthened and of course, what we project managers around the world can do to help.