Project portfolio selection based on synergy degree of composite system

A synergistic perspective to selecting the right project portfolio is the key to realizing strategic organizational objectives. Based on the theory of the composite system, this paper identifies the factors that affect the science of project portfolio selection (PPS) and investigates the synergistic relationship among the organizational strategic objective subsystem, the project portfolio subsystem and the environment subsystem, which collectively constitute the composite system of project portfolio selection. Utilizing the concept of order parameters, an order parameter system is built for each subsystem to reflect the synergistic relationships in the composite system of PPS. The PPS model is constructed based on the degree of synergy in the composite system by describing the order degree of the subsystem and the synergy degree of the composite system, which helps to quantify the synergistic relationships among these subsystems. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed model are demonstrated and validated by a case study.