“The current breed of SW tools developed in the context of project management are not adequate for the needs of program and portfolio management.”
–Gower Handbook of Project Management
Program and portfolio are planned incrementally in a way of new demands for a change or a completely new project emerge. Thus the resources allocation, e.g., cannot be of a zero-one type (allocated - not allocated), but it has to be done by a measure function assigning to each resource a degree of allocation to a given activity.
A solution bringing added value for project managers, project teams and project offices have to:
offer a comprehensible visualization of the single project so as of the whole portfolio on this level of detail which is needed in the given situation
recognize specific patterns, namely anomalies, in the project, program, and portfolio data
be able to advice the project manager or the program or portfolio management team in particular situations
act autonomously in selected situations which needn't human reasoning
Service Systems focusing on the project, program, and portfolio management area have to solve the following problems:
put the system on center stage (not just as an external modeling tool, but as an internal - core modelling and executing tool),
model the organizational management style and working methods,
truly decision support,
truly communication support,
to encourage people to talk and think ahead together,
have clear benefits for every interested party,
be easy to use,
help to measure attention payed by an individual or a group to the successful service or solution delivery as a rate to the whole attention absorbed by the project, program, or portfolio.