ABSTRACT
Business portfolio management ensures projects are aligned to each other and to the strategy of the organization. Scepticism regarding the value of some organization’s business planning methods can also apply to outside observers. Investment appraisal methods based on discounted cash flow are commonly used in many organizations to justify projects. Scoring techniques seek to maximize the value of a business portfolio. Visualization techniques build on scoring methods but present the output in such a way that the decision maker can gain a better understanding of the non-financial factors. It is now common for organizations to require an estimate of benefits to justify any investment. Business planning is serious; without it there is very little basis on which to select the projects or other components of business portfolio. Portfolio management is moving more to a process, which is repeated at regular intervals, rather than an annual budgeting and lobbying round.
