The reasons many small businesses don’t fully embrace project management may be cost of over-head and the pre-concieved notion that project management is time consuming and a sunken cost. It is difficult to convince some smaller companies that there is benefit to putting that structure into place and proving value. It is sometimes easier for them to jot the plan down on a post it note and keep it simple.  Offices may be small, people in-reach and no real fear of failing a process step. Failing a project deliverable is the concern and where the focus is. Failure is where project management and specific processes start to emerge. Many companies, even without a PMO, know how to “learn a lesson.”

Another trigger to implementing project management could be an increase in funding. As the small business starts to be successful and profits come in, the company may start to invest in processes, or wonder why ‘fix something that is not broken.’ However, in my experience, I have learned that if it is working, now is the time to break it! No comfort zones, no surprises!

There is no question that project management offices, with all their bureaucracies, come with a larger up front price tag. However, this ‘formality’ can be attrative because they can provide those predictable outcomes that executives love so much! Holding people accountable, enhanced communication and ultimately more success can make them start drooling!
All company culture is the same, as long as there are people working for them. People are naturally resistant to change, but it also stimulates growth. Break it and they will come! This is another form of “creative destruction” (see our previous post).

I recommend that all companies implement project management in some form or another. What is important is how you proceed. So, let’s start with small wins:

• Problem solving - project management processes, templates, offices, tools - these can all be seen as solving a problem and an attempt to make their every day lives better and more efficient.
• Natural talent - there are natural leaders already in your staff. Find them or let them come to you. Don’t insult your team by hiring external unless absolutely necessary
• Start small - try running a full process in one department; Or start with one group of people that will play a specific role. The Big Bang has never worked!
• Constant Communication - the idea is only as important as the attention and example you give.
• Small wins - make sure that ideas and people are always recognized for making even the smallest effort. As processes start to prove their value on paper, share this information with your staff
• Celebrate - Acknowledge the success!

The return on your investment? Small businesses have more to lose without scheduling to very tight guidelines. In order to achieve goals and achieve them quickly, you need to know your impacts before they happen and have complete control. Attention to deliverables and quality can have huge pay offs. Everything should be measured. As a small company, assuming that every single project came in on time, on schedule and on budget, is certainly different when you can say you can prove it!

One of favorite project management process inputs is Risk Management. I can’t imagine a world without it! No matter what size company you are, a little risk management can save a lot of fan cleaning, the only difference may be the size of the fan!

• Career development
• Home Improvements
• Acquiring a home
• Family celebrations
• Community

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP provides insight to this special celebration. She is recognized as one of the most influential women in project management.

• Read more at Michelle’s blog or www.cheetahlearning.com.  
• You can also check out www.internationalpmday.org.

Realizing real resource management can be hard to swallow. For many organizations, just being able to visualize a current supply model in an excel spreadsheet is a god-send! Realizing Resource Capacity management is a much bigger thing, with a much bigger gain.
In this article we will lay out the phases and details to realizing resource capacity management.

Organizations are not typically ready for a big bang approach. We created Waves, Phases, Tracks,etc. to indicate incremental steps to realization.

Wave 1

• Capturing a current organizational landscape to assist with current issues and planning

Wave 2

• Creating a current view of the processes and tools
• Creating a future for resource capapcity management
• Creating a roadmap to operationalize the future

Wave 3

• Proving that the future will work
• Creating use case
• Gathering tool requirements

Mobilization and roll out will be key! They must follow every wave! They will be the catalyst to cultural adoption!

All projects have scope and this one should be no exception. However, as stated as an executive summary, might give the project more boundaries and respect. This project will need:

1. A Vision
2. Several Goals
3. Several supporting Objectives

These should be very specific to what your stakeholders believe should be the future for resource management. Every requirement that comes from the rest of this process MUST have a place in this executive summary or it is put in an out of scope bucket for later consideration. Boundaries will make you successful and ensure a successful implementation.

Now, you have mapped out a pretty good plan and are making great progress. People maybe getting a little too optimistic. It’s time to prevent all that unnecessary “fan” cleaning and plan risks and roadblocks. Develop not only the risks, but the mitigations to those as well. This proves all things were thought through and there is plan, should things not go exactly to the plan.

Some examples to look for:

1. How is your organization a change and adoption?
   Adoption will stop any good project implementation dead in its tracks. Assess your environment and survey your stakeholders. They will tell you which areas have the most to lose by not implementing. They will tell you where the support is and is not.
2. Is this a priority to your company?
   If this is not a priority to your senior or executive leaders, cultural buy in, is already at risk. Start here. 
3. Does your company experience firedrills?
   So as you are going down the path to realizing resource management, and the federal government has just decided that this mandate has priority or your company pays millions. What’s the back up plan for firedrills?
4. Are the accountable resources known?
   Have names
   How are you measuring progress?
   What metrics or ROI are you providing to prove value?
   Who will maintain this project once it is implemented?
   Who will be keeping the lights on?

Okay, so let’s get into planning!

We will provide an approach for each wave. This will communicate “how” we plan to achieve the objectives of this particular initiative.

Wave 1 Planning Approach might look something like this:

• Develop a baseline of your current capacity and maybe demand, if you know it. Recognize here, that you will be making a ton of assumptions, so make sure that they are documented. One major assumption is that there is a financial target and there is a strategy!
• Identify your resource gaps and constraints. This will be that current capacity versus the demand.
• Propose resource changes. What is the current company vision and are our resources staffed correctly?

Wave 2 Approach may look like this:

• Current environment assessment. Identify what the current state demand and capacity looks like. Do this with interviews and workshops so that your stakeholders are very involved.
• Define what capabilities your users want in the future. Once these are identified, you will realize a Porsche has just been designed. Get yuor stakeholders to prioritize this list. The core team has veto power! Identify gaps in current state maturity.
• Develop a roadmap to achieve realization
• Develop your resource environment. This is tagging your resources to roles, cost centers, applications, some common lists of identifiers that will used to identify your resources and allow you to place demand and view capacity by another indicator other than “name.”

Wave 3 Approach may look like this:

• Identify a small group where resource contention is an issue.
• Gather the data from this group and build a model to use that is agnostic.
• Gather Tool requirements

As a summary, guiding principles drive the goals and objectives and create a collection of future state requirements. A gap analysis, prioritization and ranking will follow and lay the ground-work for the roadmap. All of this develops the companies future!

We will follow up this discussion with realized improvements and the actual defined process. Good luck with your own adventure into realizing Real Organizational Capacity Management!

In our last post, we discussed an opportunity to conduct an assessment of Portfolio Management suites featured from the Gartner Magic Quadrant. This was from a user point of view. Although there were many customer interviews already conducted, there is always another side to the story.

Before we start that PM Suites discussion, I want to introduce an excellent speech I heard just this morning.  The topic was compelling because it deals with right now, at this moment and the changes and troubles we “appear” to be facing.  The speaker focused the attention on an Alan Greenspan book, “The Age of Turbulence.”  Mr Greenspan talks about the single most significant event in our [meaning the world] history was the fall of the Great Wall.  The Berlin Wall.  The reason why this was so significant to Greenspan, to the speaker, to me and hopefully now to you, is the idea of “Creative Destruction.”  This concept is a natural phenomenon, but was termed by Joseph Schumpeter.  What was learned from the Great Wall falling was that the East was actually producing 35% of what the West was able to produce.  They learned that while the West was advancing in technology, engineering and management, the East was very stagnant, producing at the same capacity for the same amount of time.  This is significant and not natural. 

Creative Destruction is the impetus to build better tools.  It is change.  It is constantly challenging and improving upon.  It is innovation, industrial and everything about our world that brings us where we are today.  It is also the center of a free market and capitalist economy.  Central Planning, which is the term to define the East at that time, actually stifles creative destruction and does not allow for change.  Any time you use “stifle” and “not” to describe something, it will not have a good outcome.  In this case, it was proven and the impact profound.

With the innovative idea of re-allocating our resources to newer and more productive business, we can begin to understand behaviors and treat change a little than we have before.  It is in our nature to change.  It is in our nature to be change agents.  As Project Managers, we manage the very projects that get us to the change.  Projects, not portfolios, are the “real” change agents.  They help us to reach value creation and value realization.  This is not an easy process.  Change also causes stress.  This is why this speech was a great introduction to the “dynamic” portfolios that are part of that magic quadrant.  They provide us the capabilities to realize our value, guide us through the change and help us with the stress.

The products we will be discussing are the following:

• CA
• Planview
• Primavera
• HP

Not too long ago, I would have included the ever popular MS Project.  However, believe me, it did not make the Top 4.  So we’ll venture out and explore unchartered territory!

If you have comments that you would like to provide or experiences you would like to share about these “dynamic portfolios,” I encourage you to share them.  I will include them in my descriptions.  In the meantime, if you are finding yourself stressed out about current events and the changes that “appear” to be around you, turn off your television.  Events far great than these decorate our landscape and we have survived them all.  With great passion we will be successful through these times as well.

• Cost Cutting, with about 16 topics for a “lean” IT organization
• Process Improvements and Productivity
• Economic downturns can be a benefit.  They will have a topic dedicated to being Innovative during rough financial times
• Customer Service and Retention
• Risk and Change Management.  This is certainly a time of increase changes!

For Enterprise Portfolio Management software companies, this symposium is the “mothership.”  Gartner is the owner and creater of the Magic Quadrant.  If you work for a IT software company, you are certainly familiar with this quadrant.  It is an important tool to review application support and usage prior to purchasing and maintaining.  For more information on this event, go to the Gartner Symposium website. 

In a future discussion, PM Majik will do a full scale review of its own, for these Magic Quadrant participants.  More important than Gartners technical assessment, may be the assessment of the users.

Following an integrated process where the strategy and budget precede the lifecycle of project work, organizations and managers find solace in the operating model.  What is slowly realized is, that while everything is flowing smoothly, there are recognizable gaps at a much higher level.  Lower level impacts are usually hidden by managers who are simply surviving, using whatever archaic method to maintain independence and freedom from corporate intervention.  What is this gap?  Where are my people, who are my people and why can’t I deliver on my corporate strategies?

It is very common NOT to attempt to resolve every issue at one time.  Biting off more than you can chew will ruin just about every attempt to obtain cultural adoption.  Slowly gaining ground on perfection, allows the organization and company to actually REACH perfection.

So, to tackle the organizational gap we must first define a process at a very high level that will drive your direction.  This is something that your organization at all levels will understand.  In terminology that your company uses, define the various stages of planning. 

Here is the process you can use to define your organizational capacity gap:

1. Concept
2. Identified
3. Demand
4. Fully Defined
5. Fully Refined

Then identify the planning process that has actually been perfected, rolled out and is currently in use and hopefully adopted. Usually this looks like; 3-5 year forecasting-Annual planning-Governance-SDLC.

With these defined, line up where the organizational needs are. Be sensitive to the audience for each stage. For example, named resources are not required while conceptualizing the future for your company. Something like roles or FTE’s may be more appropriate. Determine where named resources are actually required.

Output from each planning stage should also be defined. This will provide purpose, focus and goals for this roll out.

It is important to realize that each stage has a specific audience with very different needs. Given this, separate your high level [organizational view] and lower level [named resources] into at least 2 process areas:

• Organizational Planning – aligning organizational availability to the business priorities based on the scheduled need.
• Capacity Analysis – Determining if we have adequate resource availability with the right knowledge at the right time to complete the organizations future objectives.
• Resource Management – identifying and managing the actual people who accomplish the company’s goals

These definitions assist in identifying the roles in each. At Organizational Planning for instance, you will typically see CIO’s here and their business counterparts.  Capacity Analysis is typically portfolio owners. Resource Management is self explanatory.

Capturing the current pain points and drivers from each of these groups will keep your information organized and complete. Digging into the details, therein, will narrow the gap between what the true needs of the company are.

Many companies have realized six sigma and CMM functions. In this case, simple SIPOCs for the high level and low levels will help to identify all areas that are impacted and the processes improvements that have to take place and the role that need to be changed or defined. This is a good process for any company, even if you are not CMM Level 4!

The leg worked involved in just kicking off this program is a project in and of itself. Too many companies skip this part entirely due to the administration and cost involved. We have learned that this was the key to solidifying adoption and organizational change. We were completely lined up with our people and the real needs!

In the next article we will discuss and lay out what the rest of the plan looks like. We will walk through the Tracks and phases, the successes and lessons learned. I’m excited to share this with you because it can make you the hero at your company!

Everyone has their own tricks to ensure their projects stay on track. Like high school students sitting exams, we all have our equivalent of lucky underwear. In fact, if you start looking for advice on what makes projects successful, you’ll find it by the bucket load. Ideas will flow your way until you have so much that you could easily spend all your time doing the things that prevent project failure, and not doing the things that get your project done. So how do you choose what actually works?

One of the advantages of meeting people through facilitating seminars is that I get to talk to experts in their fields. Put 40 project managers in a room and you’ll end up with some strong opinions, but at least you’ll know that they are speaking from experience. Their techniques work.

So standing in front of a group of delegates recently, I asked them what they do to make their projects a success. We came up with 27 different things to do to improve the chances of a project not failing from the simple (“test”) to the obscure (“GOBIGL”). Several themes were evident, and as we grouped the responses on a flip chart the top three tips for project success became clear.

1. Manage your stakeholders
Work out who your key stakeholders are – the list is likely to be much longer than your first expect. Involve the project team in identifying different internal and external stakeholder groups as by yourself you’ll never think of everyone. Then prioritise: who from that list needs to be involved in the project? Establish a governance framework of key stakeholders with regular meetings. You’ll probably end up with several different groups: your project steering group, of course, but also others. How about holding a user forum? What group of people need to see your weekly progress report?

Absolute support from key management stakeholders and your project sponsor is the number one thing for project success. After all, if your sponsor isn’t interested in the end result, why are you bothering?

2. Manage your risks
First things first: you can’t manage risks unless you work out what those risks are. Spend some time upfront with your project team identifying all the things that could go wrong. Then put some action plans in place straight away to mitigate against them.

Risk management is not just a one-off exercise. You should do monthly risk review meetings, but don’t feel that the project team have to wait until that session before they raise a risk with you for the log: they can (and should) be sending you details of impending risks as soon as they become aware of them themselves.

3. Expect and manage change
What you set out to do at the beginning of a project will not be what you deliver at the end. Period. Unfortunately life doesn’t stand still, and neither does business. The requirements and scope may change as the business evolves over the lifecycle of the project or as your end customer develops a better appreciation of what they have asked for.

If you expect change to happen you will be better at handling it when it comes along. What is your change control process? How are revisions to scope or plan going to be handled? Early on, identify how you will get stakeholders to approve all changes. Then when the inevitable happens, your change management procedure can swing into action creating the least disruption to the project possible.

There is no secret formula for project success: if there was, the statistics about project failure wouldn’t be so disheartening and project managers salaries would be several times what they are today. Many things conspire to make projects fail, but getting the basics right and following the tips above will go a long way to making sure your project isn’t one of those.

Oh, and if anyone was wondering about GOBIGL, it stands for get out before it goes live!

So what can you do to ensure better PM success at your company?

From the beginning, identify a portfolio of projects that are key and will add value.  The next step here is to apply priority.  Be thoughtful of dependencies and resource contentions.   Executing proper and professional project management will kick off this process smoothly.

One key role of the project manager is risk management.  These are the unknowns and unwanteds.  Planning for these requires work plans, tracking, early warning signs and back up planning.  Just because there is a skilled project manager here does not mean the project is risk free!  They are, however, much better at handling the risk.

Within the project management office there should be a desire for standardization and consistency,  However, in reality by definition projects are unique and may require more flexibility in the method.

So how do you obtain these skilled, professional project managers?

They could be in your own organization.  They do not need to be a well versed, seasoned project managers, with said title.  There are many external options that can be implemented across the organization to develop these desired skills.  Bring in the experts, train up your managers and define development plans for interested resources.  This is golden for a PMO!

To deliver lessons learned is one thing; to receive is quite another.  I challenge all PM’s, no matter where you are in your career, to listen to those lessons learned by others.  You may find that even a new PM has learned something that will spare you a lot of clean up in the future.

I have come to enjoy taking on projects that are outside of my comfort zone.  In doing this, I have picked up new skills.  For example, I am skilled at software development projects and organization change management.  However, I have been challenged with learning budget management and taking on budget forecasting projects.  As I am going through my regular project management steps, I am jotting down new lessons learned, but my teachers are actually realizing potential gaps in their current processes as well.  Together we are making improvements that were absolutely necessary, but weren’t initially known.

There are added benefits from taking on these challenges as well; meeting new people.  Forever, I have been known by my previous skills and my landscape was limited.  Taking on new skills opened the flood gates to new people with greater skills and more lessons to be learned!  Sharing lessons learned is easier at this capacity because everyone comes to the table with something to share.

Being able to provide and receive information makes for a credible resource.  Obtaining respect from your organization is what is strived for and ultimately obtained.

Speak and share!  Attend and offer to speak at engagements and events that allow the sharing of information.  Sitting behind a desk sharing information and lessons learned only helps some people.  What is shocking is that there is a real demand out there for knowledge.  Forums like PM Majik allow the voices to be heard and believe me there are people waiting to listen!

One of my favorite ways to learn from another, is to shadow them.  This basically means sitting in the shadows, while they conduct meetings, review emails and communications and/or other areas where there may need to be improvement and development.  It has been motivating to self-realize that I actually came up to the same conclusion as the person that I am shadowing.  It has also been an interesting journey to learn that my weaknesses were actually in people skills, rather than PM skills. 

I believe a great leader is a great follower.  Be constantly willing to learn and share what you have to share!

We will conclude our series with a look at a key study and conclusion of findings which will answer this question:  Why should a business do Information Technology Portfolio Management?

Introduction to the Study
The process of Portfolio Management involves decision-making based on the entire corporate environment. In order to make the best choices for the corporation, management must evaluate each initiative as it relates to corporate goals and objectives, available resources and project dependencies.  This is a continual process that evolves throughout the budget year.

The research on Information Technology Portfolio Management provides an array of different approaches for a common objective. The goal of all approaches to portfolio management is to focus resources on the appropriate projects and assets to meet the needs and objectives of the business. Key prerequisites for a successful implementation are governance rules, business engagement and executive sponsorship. The statistics prove that Information Technology Portfolio Management can affect the bottom line for spending. Project selections are no longer evaluated on the bases of who makes the loudest request. Hard numbers supporting the return on the investment are required for justification. This shift in the evaluation eliminates “pet” projects from receiving a high priority over more profitable ones. Portfolio Analysis of all forms leads to a common goal. The profitable return on investments from all product lines and business units is the end objective.

Benchmarks for industry standard portfolio investment mix are available for comparison to standard practice. With an eye toward business goals, decisions are migrating to a structured distribution for investing the limited resources available. Variations from the industry are common, but should require business critical justification for successful Information Technology Management.

The trend to relate information technology and business savvy is evident in the job market. A Gartner Group study reports that by the year 2010 six out of ten information technology employees will have business-facing roles. The need to have a strong business knowledge foundation and education are rapidly becoming requirements in the recruiting of mid to top level information technology positions. These positions all require strong partnership with the business. Employers are looking for experience that can not come from an individual straight out of college.

The substance of Information Technology Portfolio Management is to measure, manage and control information technology investments. The terminology and metrics are secondary to the continual evaluation of investments and spending. The once or twice a year review of budget numbers is no longer sufficient for management of modern day information technology departments.

The business case development captures the risk and rewards for a proposal. A strong business case is more import than ever. Companies are moving to a model that relies more on the true Return on Investment (ROI) then ever. The supporting information behind a proposal determines how it will compete with the various information technology priorities.

Project Portfolio Management metrics have been established by professional organizations evolved with business practice and converged with Six Sigma concepts. The PMBOK Guide was developed by the Project Management Institute as a standard for project management techniques. This guide is an accumulation of “generally accepted” project management practices. The guidelines can be adapted to fit different types of business applications. In more recent years these guidelines have been combined with the methods and tools of Six Sigma. This section will discuss the metrics from the PMBOK, Six Sigma and standard business practice.

The goal of this research is to examine the methods used in current Portfolio Management practice for decision making in large corporations. The primary example used for this study will be International Defense Contractor (IDC) currently developing a Portfolio Management Prototype. The following questions will be addressed in resolving this question:

1. What is Information Technology Portfolio Management, and why is it important in todayís business environment?
2. What metrics are used in the implementation of Information Technology Portfolio Management?
3. How does Information Technology Portfolio Management affect the use asset and project planning?

Summary of Findings
Some people describe the information technology investments as classified into Transactional, Informational, Strategic and Infrastructure. Transactional investments reduce the cost of processing systems or increase the throughput. Informational investments improve the availability of analysis data for accounting, management, control, communications or collaboration. Strategic investments improve competitive advantage or market share. Infrastructure investments are the foundation of the shared information technology environment including networks, personal computers, servers and data bases.

The mix of these investments requires management and balance based on the priorities and goals of the business. The pyramid visualizes the balance of Information, Strategic, Transactional and Infrastructure investments by percentage. Infrastructure is at the base of the pyramid to represent the foundation of the information systems. Based on a study of 147 firms in 2001, the average percentage of total information technology spending allocated to infrastructure was 54%. Transactional systems represented 13% on average. In environments where new transactional systems are being implemented, this percentage was also affected by the existing infrastructure. If the necessary infrastructure is already in place for a new transaction system, the cost of the new investment was decreased. When an additional investment is needed to support a new transaction system, the percentage increased in both areas. Informational systems averaged 20% and depend on both the Transaction and Infrastructure to support new investments. The remaining 13% of the total average is Strategic with a possible dependency on existing systems.

Business objectives drive information technology investments. The balance of investments are demonstrated based on business goals. A cost focused firm has a lower total spend with an average distribution of only 5% in strategic investment. Agility focused firms tend to have a higher total Information technology spend with an average distribution of 17%. One point of interest on the distribution for the agility focused firm is that the infrastructure percentage is also increased. This demonstrates the close relationship between new strategic initiatives and the infrastructure to support these efforts. Economic factors also play a part in the weighting of Information Technology Portfolios. Tough economic periods force firms to take a cost-saving-oriented approach to Information Technology Portfolio Management.

The Framework and Process can be divided into three sub portfolios. The Discovery Portfolio is composed of investments that are in the infancy of development. These investments are ideas that need to be captured and developed. The Project Portfolio is composed of investments under way. These projects have passed the initial approval process and are in various stages of development. The Asset Portfolio is made of the existing investments.  These investments include infrastructure, software, data and information, people and processes. There is a distinctive flow from Discovery, to Project, to Asset.

In another case study around the implementation of Information Technology Portfolio Management significant benefits were achieved. Since the implementation some companies achieved a 193% ROI on its investments. Labor Expenses have been reduced by 8% in only one year. An amazing $10 million savings was accomplished with a single Enterprise Geographical Information System Implementation versus decentralized systems. The organization was able to adapt rapidly to changes in business priorities. Adjustments to the budget moved to fact based decision making. Customer satisfaction and confidence increase exponentially as the portfolio maturity increased.

Final Conclusions
Why do Information Technology Portfolio Management? The statistics are clear on the improved capability and productivity that can be gained. The advantages range from the ability to detect overlapping projects to a stronger alignment with the business goals and objectives. The obstacles encountered in establishing the portfolio pale in comparison to the gains it brings to the improved investment results. some have proposed that information technology should be run like a business. The point that information technology organizations have been preoccupied with technology and neglected the business sense in budget management. The process of portfolio management is a high priority and visibility effort. The position of Chief Information Officer has been created to shoulder the responsibility of this area. This demonstrates the level of commitment invested into the concept.

The advantages to the business range across many possible improvements. Evaluation at the enterprise level can yield improved revenue overall or within a specific sector. Opportunities to create, consolidate, and retire products become visible with the creation of the asset portfolio. The evaluation of investments by classification demonstrates the focus of capital. This distribution of investments can be measured against industry standards and compared with the business goals for improved alignment.

Portfolio Management changes the conversation with the business customer. The past practice of holding the CIO to a fixed budget with an endless list of business requirements migrates to a discussion of decision making based on resources and business priorities. By viewing information technology as a business within a business, a new healthier relationship with the customer can be achieved. The days of shopping cart approach to picking and choosing technology based on emotion and buzz word trends are numbered. The discipline established by a strong portfolio moves to an environment tied to hard returns and business objects focus.

A stronger governance structure is very important to bring the full strength of the portfolio to an optimized state. It has been described as the two main components of governance as the decision-making mechanisms, and the assignment of decision making authority and accountability. In organizations that support local spending and decision making, it is impossible to optimize spending for the enterprise. The governance structure must support visibility and accountability at the enterprise to meet the needs of the portfolio.

Many companies fail to gain control of the portfolio because they do not have the information in place to implement a portfolio. According to research done by the Meta Group, 89% of companies do not have the metrics in place to perform portfolio management. Business Cases are only completed by 16% of companies. In 84% of companies, the budget review and adjustment process only takes place once or twice a year.

The Project Portfolio is an important tool for appropriately managing the Information Technology Portfolio. Projects are the frequently managed in separate planning tools. The lack of an overall view of the resource allocation for the total resource pool leads to over allocation and poor visibility of the issue. A centralized planning tool provides visibility of contentions between projects. In the interviews with the IDC sector representatives, the lack of resources on the right projects at the right times became a common theme. At this point in time, the sharing of resources between sectors is very limited. The ability to shift resources to business critical initiatives is coordinated through phone calls and e-mails. The most valuable resources are frequently over extended with no relief from the current planning system. Industry estimates are projected at an over commitment in the range of 200 to 300% on resources of an average research and development organization.

An effective Information Technology Portfolio goes beyond the measurement of ROI. To truly optimize the resources and opportunities of the Information technology organization, other factors need to be considered. The satisfaction of the business customer with the technology is difficult to measure, but is an important piece of the evaluation of assets. The ability to manage, grow and evolve operational system over the long term will influence replacement, upgrade and retirement decisions. New initiatives require a direct tie to strategic goals. Efforts that do not support the strategic goals of the customer are suspect ìpet projects.î Technology for the sake of technology efforts frequently do not add to the bottom line.  To bring the investment full circle, the estimated value must be measured against the actual results. This is an area that many companies fall short.  The business case evaluation at the end of the initiative should receive the same amount of scrutiny as at the proposal phase. Providing this feedback to the business customer creates an environment of trust and value realization.