Portfolio management, program management, and project management are regarded as important disciplines associated with the area of modern project management. Discuss relationships among these disciplines by recognizing their similarities and differences.
1. Portfolio management: This can be outlined as the process of art & science of constructing choices regardinginvestment mix & policy matching investments to objectives, quality asset allocation for people and lastly, balancing the various risk against the performance. Portfolio management usually includes analysis of various factors such as determinant of the strengths which the project has, anaysing the weakness and drawbacks pf the project, opportunities by taping the right market having the first mover advantage& threats in analyzing the market in determining and making a choice between debt & equity, growth & safety etc. And various other tradeoffs that are encountered within the entire phase with the primary motive to maximum the results and reduce the risks.
Portfolio management can be broadly of two types, either passive or active, within the case of mutual and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Passive management primarily is used to track the index related to market which is in usual terms known as indexing, compartmentalization or index finance. On the other hand, Active management involves either a single manager, co- managers or a team of managers whose primary focus is to maximize the returns and minimize the risk by being very active in taking part in managing the portfolio of various funds through several investment decisions which are based on thorough research and holdings of the individual. An example of active management is the close-end funds.
2. Project management: We have been always working on various projects throughout our lives, right from school, college work place or at home. In lay man terms project management is making a plan of what exactly is needed according the to needs and wants, executing and finally comparing the results with the initial plan. In technical terms, project management means firstly initiating the process by thorough analysis, planning about it by spending considerable amount of hours, deciding the team and clearly stating the job role of everyone to have a systematic approach, by keeping in mind the goals of the organization. Also an important thing is to maintain a time line and sticking to it throughout the process, which is the biggest challenge in project management.
The primary challenge of project management is to attain all of the project goals the stipulated time frame, this information is given at the start of the project which is kept in mind throughout the process. The primary constraints of Project Management are finding the right scope, finishing it in the stipulated time frame, quality of the project, and deciding upon the right budget and sticking to it.
The secondary and the most challenging objective is to put in action about whatever is thought and optimize the allocated resources properly to meet the well thought of and pre – defined goals. But in a nut shell the primary object of project management remains the same for all projects which is to give a well thought of plan right from the start which includes brainstorming on the idea, deciding the budget to finally completing the plan. And, in case to case it depends on the needs of the client basically, re shaping the beliefs of the client and address all the concerns and thoughts and putting them in paper. It is very important to keep in mind the client objectives, as the client satisfaction is the utmost goal. Once that is done, it should very well reflect in the project plan made. This should influence the various parties which are involved in the process such as the main project managers, project designers, the contractors, and sub- contractors. The project management basically tests the decision making and team management skills of the entire group.
3. Program management: This process is like the multi tasking skill. Project management involves managing various related projects to the company’s goal in order to overall improve the performance of the organization. Program management is related to various things such as engineering related to the industries and the system, change in the managerial structure etc. The project manager who is plays a lead role in the process, has the complete knowledge and over sight of the project, He/she has a detailed insight about the project and can use this intricate knowledge to support the entire project – level activity and ensure that the goals of the program are met by giving the right decisionwhich is in sync with the overall organizational goals. Program Manager helps to determines the various problems of the project that can impact the project. He/She is very active during the entire process to keep seeking out info of the project as and when required. Overall, the project manager is like a mentor and guide in the entire process on whom the entire crew can rely on and that is why it is extremely important that the project manager should be well versed with the required skills and knowledge about the project.