Recognizing the importance of selecting and pursuing programs, projects, and operational work that add sustainable business value that benefits end users, the Project Management Institute (PMI®) issued its first Standard on Portfolio Management in 2006. In 2014, it launched the Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP®) credential—which several of the experts who contributed to this book earned—to recognize the advanced expertise required of practitioners in the field.
Presenting information that is current with The Standard for Portfolio Management, Third Edition (2013); Portfolio Management: A Strategic Approach supplies in-depth treatment of the five domains and identifies best practices to ensure the organization has a balanced portfolio management that is critical to success. Following PMI’s standard, the book is organized according to its five domains: strategic alignment, governance, portfolio performance management, portfolio risk management, and portfolio communications management.

Each chapter presents the insight of different thought leaders in academia and business. Contributors from around the world, including the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Australia, supply a global perspective as to why portfolio management is essential for all types of organizations. They provide guidelines, examples, and models to consider, along with discussion and analysis of relevant literature in the field. Most chapters reference PMI standards, complement their concepts, and expand on the concepts and issues that the standards mention in passing or not at all.

Overall, this is a must-have resource for anyone pursuing the PfMP® credential from PMI. For executives and practitioners in the field, it provides the concepts you will need to address the ever-changing complexities that impact your work. This book is also suitable as a textbook for universities offering courses on portfolio management.

Dr. Ginger Levin is a Senior Consultant and Educator in project management. Her specialty areas are portfolio management, program management, the Project Management Office, metrics, and maturity assessments. She is certified as a PMP, PgMP and as an OPM3 Certified Professional. She was the second person in the world to receive the PgMP. As an OPM3 Certified Professional, she has conducted over 25 maturity assessments using the OPM3 Product Suite tool.

In addition, Dr. Levin is an Adjunct Professor for the University of Wisconsin-Platteville where she teaches in its M.S. in Project Management Program, for SKEMA (formerly Esc Lille) University, France, and RMIT in Melbourne, Australia in their doctoral programs in project management.

In consulting, she has served as Project Manager in numerous efforts for Fortune 500 and public sector clients, including Genentech, Cargill, Abbott Vascular, UPS, Citibank, the Food and Drug Administration, General Electric, SAP, EA DS, John Deere, Schreiber Foods, TRW, New York City Transit Authority, the U .S. Joint Forces Command, and the U .S. Department of Agriculture. Prior to her work in consulting, she held positions of increasing responsibility with the U .S. Government, including the Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Personnel Management, and the General Accounting Office.

Dr. Levin is the editor of Program Management: A Life Cycle Approach (2012), author of Interpersonal Skills for Portfolio, Program, and Project Managers, published in 2010. She is the co-author of Program Management Complexity: A Competency Model (2011), Implementing Program Management: Forms and Templates Aligned with the Standard for Program Management Second Edition (2008), Project Portfolio Management, Metrics for Project Management, Achieving Project Management Success with Virtual Teams, Advanced Project