ABSTRACT
There are always far more ideas to change a business than resources or money can support. The objective of the project’s initial investigation stage is to reduce uncertainty. The output of the initial investigation should provide sufficient knowledge to: confirm strategic fit; understand possible options and implications; know what to do next. The portfolio assessment looks at the balance of risk and opportunity for the proposed projects together with those within the current project portfolio. The management of projects within a business portfolio relies on a basic staged project framework being in place. Referrals from the project to the ‘authorization process’ happen primarily at the gates. At the business case gate, the portfolio review group is concerned only with those projects it could not previously commit to completion. Placing a project on hold (suspending it) is a ‘halfway house’ between continuing and terminating and gives us time to make a considered decision.
