Reference Architecture for Project, Program and Portfolio Governance

This paper presents a reference architecture on projects, programs and portfolios (PPP) governance models. Usually, organizations have projects organized into programs that in turn are organized into portfolios. Within organizations it is necessary to establish project, program and portfolio management policies, so that all the expected benefits of projects are achieved and the previously imposed constraints (time, costs, etc.) are met. It is therefore also important for organizations to have a governance model for projects, programs and portfolios. A governance model entails how decisions are made and how actions are carried out, considering organizational values. The required roles, responsibilities, and performance criteria should be an integral part of the governance model for projects, programs, and portfolios. However, given the permeability of projects, programs, and portfolios to several factors (e.g. regulatory factors and the project's project management maturity), several roles can be considered about governance models, thus promoting the existence of different project, program and portfolio governance models. This research proposes a reference architecture that allows the comparison of governance models to verify deviations and detect which model best suits the context of an organization.