PROJECT TITLE :

Business Case Control in Project Portfolios—An Empirical Investigation of Performance Consequences and Moderating Effects

ABSTRACT:

Practitioners place robust emphasis on business cases with the expectation that using business cases to tell and drive investment choices will assist in making price from those investments. Maximizing the price generated by project investments could be a central aim of the project portfolio management, and therefore the business case provides the underlying rationale for the analysis of the value created in every project. However, analysis relating to the use of business cases at a project portfolio level is scarce, and there is a little guidance for portfolio managers on when and the way to manage the business cases. We determine 3 elements of a business case control at the portfolio level-the initial review, the continued monitoring throughout the project execution, and the postproject tracking until the business case is realized-and investigate the relationship between business case control and project portfolio success. Furthermore, we analyze enablers and contingencies for the application of the business case management. Primarily based on a cross-trade sample of 183 firms, we have a tendency to realize that the business case management is completely related to the project portfolio success. Accountability for business case realization and corresponding incentive systems increase this positive impact. Finally, we show that the portfolio complexity additionally completely moderates the relationship.