Project portfolio risk categorisation – factor analysis results

Abstract

The subject of this article is project portfolio risk categorisation. Research conducted indicated categories containing the most probable and significant risks. The research described in this paper was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, the relevant literature was reviewed and the Delphi method was used to identify 36 risks specific to a project portfolio. In the second stage, the respondents (project portfolio managers) assessed the probability of each risk occurring and the impact of that risk on the objectives of the project portfolio. The empirical data obtained in this way made it possible to conduct an exploratory factor analysis and to identify the risk categories of the project portfolio. The presented results may also contribute to a broader discussion concerning the validity of identifying project portfolio risks and how to categorise them. The results may be useful for further discussion on the empirical confirmation of three categories of portfolio risks proposed by the Project Management Institute.

Disclosing the Tacit Links between Risk and Success in Organizational Development Project Portfolios

“…The literature shows that risk factors impact project portfolios in two ways: (i) impacting a project or several projects, and (ii) generating a global influence on the whole project portfolio [9,61]. The suggested 'project portfolio risk' conceptualization recognizes and incorporates both types of impacts.…”

Risks associated with the development process of in-house information system projects

“…Their theory assumes that the outputs of an IS are affected by the interactions between actors, tools, techniques, and tasks in the technical and social subsystems [13], [15], [24]. Therefore, the problems associated with and failures of IS projects have been attributed to not only technical issues but also organizational behavioral issues [21], [22]. When subsystems are dependent on each other, a plan must be developed to ensure that all subsystems coordinate their work and that the performance of the organizational system is maximized [13], [15], [24].…”

Can product modularization approaches help address challenges in technical project portfolio management? – Laying the foundations for a methodology transfer

“…On this level, areas of concern are a loss of interim results when projects are stopped, negative side effects for other projects when focal projects are changed or stopped due to dependencies between projects, and the neglect of synergy and learning effects when planning new projects [15]. Recent investigations have produced comprehensive sets of risks to the success of a project portfolio, including sharing resources across and interdependencies between projects, affecting smooth communication flow as well as portfolio fragmentation [14,13,11]. These sources of complexity and interdependency present a particular challenge in tactical PPM.…”

“…Table 2 takes into consideration the project portfolio risks (component, structural and general) shown in Hofman and Grela [13] as a basis and consolidates them into a set of high-level challenges, clustered along different perspectives, in order to initiate the assessment of a potential MPPM method.…”

“…Challenges of PPM include efficiency gains through standardisation of work packages within and reuseability across the project boundaries [12]. Risks to the success of project portfolios have been studied and consolidated extensively in recent literature (for example [13,14]).…”