Project Portfolio Management Applications for Turkish Construction Industry in Istanbul Region

Abstract

With an increasing number of international projects, traditional project management which focuses on single project in isolation by assuming limited interactions among projects is not appropriate for being successful in the market. Therefore, a new project management method, namely project portfolio management (PPM) is started to be applied in the market. According to this method, the projects should be coordinated as a whole by establishing synergies among the projects and allocation of existing resources among the projects. Consequently, it is observed that the companies can increase their performance by applying the PPM effectively. However, the number of companies applying PPM in the construction industry is very limited. The one of the main reasons is that the companies have limited knowledge about how to apply the project portfolio management appropriately as well as the challenges confronted during this procedure. The other important reason is that the application of project portfolio management requires extra effort and resources, however most of the benefits are not observed in the short term and the long term benefits are not understood properly. Therefore, since the companies cannot apply the PPM effectively and do not recognize the long term benefits, the companies give up on applying the PPM implementation, which in turn limit PPM implementation in the market. To provide a deeper insight into the major challenges and benefits of the implementation and practice of PPM in construction industry, this paper conducts a questionnaire survey study by targeting Turkish construction companies working in Istanbul region. Therefore, the companies can exploit the findings of this study to develop a road map for applying PPM. In addition, the findings about the benefits can also be useful for the companies to motivate them. The most effective challenges obtained at the end of this study are lack of functional communication, lack of commitment of stakeholders and lack of required education. On the other hand, the most important benefits are effective allocation of resources and decrease of risk.