IT Portfolio Management Step-by-Step: Unlocking the Business Value of Technology

2.14. APPENDIX 2A: IT Portfolio Management Maturity Levels

LEVEL O: ADMITTING

Although the CMM starts at level 1, the IT portfolio management maturity model starts at level 0 because most organizations start from nothing. Level 0 is the recognition that a better way exists. Following are the characteristics of each subportfolio and aggregate IT portfolio at level 0:

• Projects: The focus is on determining what projects are active and in the pipeline. The focus is on data collection.

• Applications: The focus is on determining which applications exist, their purpose, and their owners. The focus, again, is on basic data collection.

• Infrastructure: The focus is on determining what infrastructure assets exist within the organization. The focus remains on basic data collection.

• People: The focus is on determining what people exist and what their skills are. The focus, again, is still on basic data collection.

• Process: The focus is on determining what processes are performed by the enterprise and identifying their owners. The focus remains on basic data collection.

• Information: At this level, the key entries (e.g., customer, employee, item) are identified. Associative entities or reports are excluded. Only a baseline of entities critical to the operations of the enterprise is captured. This is the genesis of an enterprise metadata repository.

• Overall IT portfolio: The simple recognition of a need for an overall IT portfolio is adequate.

LEVEL 1: COMMUNICATING

The focus of level 1 is structuring ...