Managing tensions: agile and sustainable strategies in project portfolio management

Organizations grapple with tensions regularly in today’s rapidly evolving and intricate business landscape. Within project portfolio management, the interplay of diverse strategies and changing requirements often gives rise to complexities that impede effective project selection and monitoring. Thus, this dissertation addresses how managers of projects and project portfolios can manage tensions that arise from implementing agile values and sustainability to become innovative and, eventually, successful. Regarding agile values, I empirically reveal that while agile practices have demonstrated positive outcomes like teamwork quality at the project level, their integration into traditional project portfolios presents challenges, necessitating a deeper understanding of how agile projects behave within such environments. Further, I demonstrate that dynamic capabilities constitute a relevant antecedent to portfolio agility and indirectly contribute to portfolio success. Furthermore, this dissertation explores the positive impact of sustainability orientation on innovation within project portfolios. Despite the recognized benefits of sustainability strategies, their integration may create paradoxical tensions with existing competitive strategies, necessitating effective management through the proper context to harness potential innovation. The dissertation also investigates the role of living labs in fostering innovation within project portfolios, emphasizing the need for longitudinal research to understand their emergence and potential agglomeration effects. Through addressing these research gaps, this dissertation aims to provide insights and practical strategies for managers to navigate the complexities of implementing agile and sustainable values within project and portfolio management contexts. It further highlights the importance of the context of projects and portfolios.