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

Chapter 7. Final Thoughts

If you have made it to this portion of the book, you have passed a previously unmentioned baseline assessment: the tenacity assessment. Positive change is often met with resistance, and implementing it requires tenacity. There is a high likelihood that you have the requisite tenacity to successfully lead an IT portfolio management effort within your organization.

IT portfolio management is a proven framework for better decision making regarding new and existing IT investments. IT portfolio management has helped businesses reduce IT costs by up to 30%, with a 2x–3x increase in value. IT portfolio management can and has been applied to infrastructure and networks, data and information, hardware and applications, processes, people, and supporting foundations. Used by internal and external constituents, it synthesizes seemingly complex information in terms and taxonomy that business and IT leadership understand. In coordination and collaboration with IT personnel, business executives provide supervision and monitoring of the IT portfolio, its underlying optimization process, and its overarching charter. IT portfolio management is first and foremost a people issue. Its effectiveness and evolution are largely dependent on:

• Well-defined organizational objectives and culture that drive the approach and deliverables

• Having objectives that are attainable and grounded in reality, which is something that is often achieved only by using baseline assessments that determine ...