Theoretical Fundamentals of Scaled Business Agility and Project Portfolio Management at Automotive Manufacturers

Abstract

This study has the aim to explain the theoretical fundamentals of scaled agile business structures and of the traditional project portfolio management before laying out the discrepancies of agility with project portfolio management at large enterprises such as automotive manufacturers. For the exploration of the scarcely addressed topic of agility at portfolio level, current journals were mainly consulted. Further, for the theoretical exposition of project portfolio management, current journals and textbooks about business strategies and project management were used as well as journals for information about portfolio management. As a result of this paper, it was found that the difference of agile delivery to the traditional organization is the focus on small work packages instead of detailed long -term planning. When focusing on smaller work packages, portfolio planning becomes more iterative and bottom-up ideas have a higher impact on program level. For other industries then automotive manufacturers, other company sizes, or even other automotive manufacturers, which are built from the ground up to be more agile, the findings of this paper are not relevant.