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Abstract

Companies increasingly support their project portfolio management processes with specific software, and the market for IT solutions is growing. While project portfolio management information systems (PPMIS) promise to improve the quality of the management process and eventually portfolio performance, it is unclear whether they actually deliver on this promise. We lack empirical evidence regarding the actual benefits of PPMIS and knowledge on the conditions under which PPMIS application is most beneficial. Using a sample of 181 project portfolios, this study shows for the first time that PPMIS application is overall positively associated with the quality of portfolio management processes and project portfolio success.

1. Introduction

The projectification of the firm is an ongoing trend that has persisted over the last decades and requires organizations to manage portfolios of multiple projects (Bredin & Sderlund, 2006; Midler, 1995; Schoper, Wald, Ingason & Fridgeirsson, 2018). With the increasing importance of project portfolio management (PPM), a plethora of software vendors have started to offer a variety of project portfolio management information systems (PPMIS) solutions and the market is growing quickly (Ahlemann, 2009, 2013; Meyer, 2005; Handler & Stang, 2013). However, Meyer (2005) showed that less than 20% of the organizations surveyed had special software for project portfolio management, but around 83% used special software for schedule and time management in single project management. Even more recent studies show that firms still focus on single project management IT solutions (Besner & Hobbs, 2012).

PPMIS promise to increase transparency over the project landscape and to improve decision-making regarding strategic alignment, prioritization, resource allocation, and risk management. However, these promises are questionable, because PPM is still an immature management discipline (Martinsuo, 2013) and may lack the necessary maturity to effectively exploit the advantages of IT support. Furthermore, PPM is a complex managerial task that requires sophisticated approaches, while existing PPMIS are still quite young and may suffer from teething troubles (Gemnden, Lehner & Kock, 2018). In general, the current literature still shows failures of information systems implementation, where business IT projects did not realize their benefits (Baghizadeh, Cecez-Kecmanovic, & Schlagwein, 2019; Einhorn, Marnewick & Meredith, 2019).

However, moderation analyses further reveal that these effects only materialize when formalization of single project management, project portfolio management, and risk management are sufficiently high. Surprisingly, the benefits of PPMIS application do not depend on portfolio complexity (size, project interdependency, dynamics).

Discussion

The objective of this study was to empirically test the consequences and contingencies of project portfolio management information systems (PPMIS) using multi-informant data from 181 project portfolios. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first (1) to quantitatively demonstrate the relationship between PPMIS intensity and project portfolio success, (2) to show the mechanisms by which PPMIS affects project portfolio success, (3) to analyse the complementary effect for PPMIS of different types of PPM formalization, and (4) to investigate contingencies of the performance effects under different forms of portfolio complexity.