Learning from Others: One County's Story

  Portfolio Management  

Denise M. Hart is Project Management Officer for the Arlington County, Virginia Department of Technology Services. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the management of $15 million in information technology projects. Recently, she led the implementation of project portfolio management for the county. We asked Hart about her experience, and here's what she said.

How many projects are in your portfolio and what kinds of projects do you have?

Our portfolio includes 15 IT projects ranging from business system implementations to enterprise and department level intranet portal implementations, from network improvements to desktop computer replacements. To qualify for inclusion in the portfolio, the project must be funded from capital funds.

Why did you decide to employ project portfolio management?

A new CIO was hired in 2001 to set the county out on a path to eGovernment. Part of the strategy to prepare the County IT environment for eGovernment was to establish a Program Management Office. The PMO's mission was to improve the County's project selection processes, develop the project management skills of project managers across the County, cultivate a cadre of highly experienced project managers and create a sound project management methodology and knowledge base.

E-government initiatives, as well as enterprise-wide technology …

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