A common dilemma management faces in managing projects, programs and portfolios are the continued rates of failure of projects and programs within those portfolios. Numerous studies have been done on what constitutes project/program success and a review of this literature by Cooke-Davies in his chapter entitled "Project success" in The Wiley guide to managing projects (2004, pp. 106-109) led him to postulate that there were really three levels of success related to projects, which in turn reflected upon an organization's success: (a) "Project management success -- was the project done right?" (b) "Project success – was the right project done?" and, (c)"Consistent project success – were the right projects done right, time after time?"

Looking at these three factors denoting success, the questions of whether a particular project was done right and doing projects consistently is clearly in the hands of the project/program manager and their use of project management (PjM) processes, program management (PgM) processes, and key artifacts used in these processes. Whereas, the question of doing the right projects falls under the purview of a relatively recent field of study that has risen out of the project management discipline: portfolio management (PfM). The project/program manager plays a key role in each of the three disciplines, and in many cases, has a hand in the development and maintenance of the key artifacts used by the three disciplines.

This study provides practitioners and scholars with quantitative research to aid them in their study and use of the PfM, PM and PgM processes, artifacts, and execution of roles within the three sets of processes. This study also begins to fill the gap that currently exists in the literature, especially with regard to quantitative research-based studies on the intersection of the PfM, PM and PgM processes and artifacts.