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

5.13. APPENDIX 5C Readiness Assessment: Business, Internal, and Operational Diagnostics

• Business Diagnostic

  • Do business and/or strategic objectives exist? Are they unambiguous, actionable, and readily available to IT management and other areas within the company? Does IT management participate in the formation of these objectives? How well does the IT strategic plan mirror or link to the corporate strategic plan? Are there key performance indicators, critical success factors, and balanced scorecards that provide metrics and monitoring capabilities, translating IT performance metrics into business benefit? Are future business needs and a technology road map available to business and IT management?

  • Are there regulatory or legislative actions that are driving IT portfolio management?

  • What are the expectations of the benefits of IT portfolio management?

  • Is the implementation and maturation of the capabilities of IT portfolio management critical for the company to meet its goals? Can the business goals be reached without IT portfolio management?

  • What are the drivers creating the need to mature the company's capability in IT portfolio management?

    • What are the critical areas management hopes to resolve with maturing IT portfolio management capabilities?

    • Are there many IT projects that made it through the process but failed to deliver value? Conversely, are there technology candidates that are failing to make it through to operations, and have these roadblocks been identified (e.g., skills, ...