This is the twelfth article in a series of blogs discussing individually each of the
Year after year, enterprises spend a considerable percentage of their budget on projects. Most of these projects have significant IT components; however, the results for many of the projects are less than desirable. CIOs are under constant pressure to reduce IT costs and add value to the bottom line through IT products and services and are constantly searching for new ideas and approaches to improve IT performance. Some of these approaches include outsourcing, implementing layoffs, allocating costs to user groups, mobile computing, cloud based computing, standardizing technical platforms, improving project management capabilities, building enterprise architectures, implementing data warehouses, and providing web-based processing. The list goes on and on; however, the challenge is for CIOs to use the best strategies with the least risk and the highest payback. Performing this analysis and making these decisions is where portfolio management fits.
Portfolio management is used to manage the demand for IT projects— it provides the executive team with a system-wide view of projects across the enterprise, which makes it possible to make informed decisions about where investments should be focused. Strategic goals are translated into tactical programs with supporting projects through the portfolio management process. By aligning investments with projects that deliver outcomes to achieve strategic goals, portfolio management leads directly to improvements to the bottom line. The promise of project portfolio management is that for a given risk level, there is a specific mix of project investments that will achieve an optimal result.
Given the benefits of portfolio management, why aren’t all organizations successfully implementing portfolio management strategies? A major reason is that organizations often lack the necessary information and skills required to perform analysis of the alternatives and to make informed decisions. This is fast becoming an emerging role for the business analyst. Without rigorous business analysis leading up to significant investments in programs and supporting projects, decisions are made based simply on intuition. This places the return on project investment at risk. The business analyst plays a significant role in helping the executive leadership team translate business strategies into new business change initiatives.
Enfocus Requirements Suite™ is designed and fully embraces the 12 principles discussed in this article. Enfocus Requirement Suite™ enables solution teams and stakeholders to work together to deliver successful enterprise solutions.