Project management has grown beyond the confines of simplistic canned applications into a discipline that is in large part process, combined with common sense and inspiration. The process of Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) derives from the practices common to project management, as expressed in applications and tools developed to help project managers collaborate with project teams cross-enterprise.
Project and Portfolio Management solutions trump pure project planning applications by providing broad visibility into a corporation’s investments in human and material resources. Using PPM, project managers can determine how best to invest an organization’s capital in projects that provide the best return on investment, increasing the efficiency of the corporation’s resources.
As the PPM field has matured and proven its value to organizations of all types, it has become increasingly apparent that off-the-shelf project management applications lack the flexibility and customizability critical to ensure acceptance from project managers and their organizational clients. A commercial-strength, open source project and portfolio management application can be beneficial across the enterprise, providing an optimal combination of features, cost, customizability and flexibility.
A goal of commercial open source PPM applications should be to