Best Practices in Project Portfolio Management

Abstract

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (hereafter ANTHC) is a non-profit health organization owned and managed by Alaska Native tribal governments and their regional health organizations. ANTHC had $114 million in grant funded projects and 150 active DEHE projects for 2021 (ANTHC Annual Report, 2021). As of fiscal year 2022 DEHE will have approximately $180 million from the federal infrastructure funding that will more than double the current amount of design and construction projects for the next five to ten years (Murkowski Infrastructure Bill Report, n.d.). Coupled with labor and material shortages across all industrial sectors, ANTHC has a need to: 1) ensure that labor resources are utilized the most efficient way possible; and 2) ensure projects are aligned with ANTHC’s strategic plan. Common problems associated with a lack of project portfolio management (PPM) are poor visibility of data, low productivity, lack of project management standards, and poor collaboration across project teams. The purpose of this project was to: 1) research current industry best practices and methods for general applicability, and 2) provide a best practice roadmap that sets a baseline for appraising current processes and outcomes that helps to set process improvement goals and priorities. The conclusions of this project are that PPM maturity levels are relatively low compared to the years in the industry, that CSuite executives are concerned more with what benefits the portfolio of projects bring to the organization, and when, and that with an understanding of foundational concepts, PPM is relatively easy to implement particularly in a highly projectized environment. The resulting deliverables are best practices in project portfolio management within the organization and a logical path for progressive development.