The Power of Project Portfolio Management

Jennifer is a PfMP, PgMP, PMP, MBB and ITIL certified manager with more than 25 years of experience. Her experience includes many business sectors including finance, government, hospitality, education and energy. She is currently an Enterprise Project Portfolio Governance Manager at Duke Energy and an Adjunct Professor both Northeast University and Wake Forrest University. She is also very active with several non-profit organizations including serving on the Board for the PMI-Metrolina chapter.

  Governance   PMO   Portfolio Management   Strategy   ProjectsAtWork  

Governance can be defined as the establishment of a framework of policies and standards with continuous monitoring of their proper implementation and adherence to guide how project decisions are made. Most project managers tend to think of governance as something that is obtrusive and difficult. While this can certainly be the case, the intention is to enable businesses to make informed decisions about which projects should be initiated, continued and stopped.

My project career did not start much differently than many other project managers. I was asked to manage a large event because someone thought I had a knack for organizing things. The next thing you know, I am a project manager. Most of my career has been spent within regulated industries within the United States--healthcare, finance and now energy. Because of all of the regulations and procedures, I was one of those project managers who also thought governance was burdensome and difficult.

Duke Energy had acquired Progress Energy just before I joined the company--and with that merger formed a Project Management Center of Excellence, one of the first in the industry. Though the concept had been widespread for quite some time, the utility and energy businesses are generally very conservative in nature and slower to adopt.

With my new job, I found myself being the person in the governance arena and came to be on …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.