A Modern Approach to Product Portfolio Management for the ICT-Industry

Portfolio management in general is a widely spread and highly accepted topic in the management literature and in practice. Its origins go back to Markowitz and the early 1950s focussing financial assets. Soon, this concept was broadly applied to multiple economic disciplines such as strategic management, marketing, product management, resource management, real estate management, innovation management and many more. Numerous portfolio management approaches, instruments and tools have been developed and are applied in practice a well. This paper provides basics and an overview of product portfolio management covering theory and practice. Specific attention is paid to process oriented approaches. A number of publications identify a significant gap between practical needs and academic support when it comes to solving practitioners’ problems especially in highly dynamic environments such as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry. This paper intends to bridge this gap by outlining a pragmatic approach to product portfolio management with a focus on the specific needs of the ICT-industry without loosing connect to worthy findings of academic research. Still, this approach needs to be adjusted to the individual situation of company, however, suggested processes and tools allow for such customization.