Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Garbage In, Garbage Out
Mark Mullaly is president of Interthink Consulting Incorporated, an organizational development and change firm specializing in the creation of effective organizational project management solutions. Since 1990, it has worked with companies throughout North America to develop, enhance and implement effective project management tools, processes, structures and capabilities. Mark was most recently co-lead investigator of the Value of Project Management research project sponsored by PMI. You can read more of his writing at markmullaly.com.
You cannot improve your project portfolio management practices by simply buying software. No tool can provide strategic thinking. Vision doesn't come prepackaged.
It was only a matter of time before it happened. Project management has yet another buzzword acronym: PPM, for project portfolio management. And like every great buzzword, everyone wants it but no one is quite sure exactly what ‘it’ is.
What is possibly most interesting about the phenomenon of project portfolio management is that — like a made-for-TV movie — this fad seems to have gone straight to software. More than 90 percent of the organizations I have spoken with about their plans for project portfolio management have responded with something like, "Yeah, we’ve got that. We’re implementing (insert your preferred flavor of software here)."
The greatest challenge here — and to be honest, there are many — is that you cannot improve your portfolio management practices by simply buying software. Just as the 1990s saw companies try to churn out newly minted project managers by having Microsoft Project installed on their desktops, we are now trying to solve the next level of the problem with the same thinking that didn’t work last time. It’s a lot like believing that your kids can become William Shakespeare if you buy a word processor…
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"Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious and immature." - Tom Robbins |