ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the characteristics of project portfolio management in public organizations. Achieving project management success in the public sector has its challenges. Several of these are different from those that face projects in the private sector. Some of the typical success factors of project management and the characteristics of public organizations even seem to be contradictory. The importance of project and portfolio management capability in the public sector has been recognized in government initiatives in various countries. With portfolio management the Federal Office of Administration in Germany is able to prioritize and track the progress of multiple ongoing projects, and determine where and when to invest the resources necessary to complete all of them. The portfolio management of the German Federal Office of Administration distinguishes between portfolio planning and portfolio controlling. The German Federal Office of Administration runs portfolio management by applying the following five phases: initializing, planning, conception, realization, and finalization.
