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

LESSONS LEARNED

As they gain experience with their new portfolio management and IT governance systems, Xcel Energy team members have taken the opportunity to reflect on lessons learned.

Team members surveyed were unanimous in their views of what went well.

• Complete top-down support proved absolutely critical. The PMO was initially seen by many in the organization as an "unnatural change." Not surprisingly, the underlying reason for the resistance turned out to be fear of a loss of control. Resolute support from the top knocked down this hurdle.

• Continuous, iterative, improvements to build and maintain momentum. Tight, 90 day incremental rollouts supported quick wins, prevented pent-up pushback, and ensured no one got "entrenched."

• Communicating early successes was important in several ways. It reinforced the top-down support, validated the wisdom of giving Business Systems control of overall budgets, and backstopped the team's ability to say "NO"to projects that didn't demonstrate clear EVA.

• The decision to invest the time up front to build the right team, with a strong mix of project management, business process reengineering, and finance experience. That investment of time was more than recaptured in a smoother, faster, rollout process.

What could have been improved? Here, there was no unanimity among team members. The general view was that the strengths of the program far exceeded any weaknesses. However, on reflection, there were a number of "coulda, shoulda, woulda" thoughts ...