Faced with an ever-expanding number of projects, applications and stakeholder expectations, IT executives must balance three prime directives: align IT with strategic business objectives; increase opportunities for IT to contribute to growth and profitability; and manage new and existing IT investments. To deliver, they need a balanced approach to IT portfolio management.
IT Portfolio Management (ITPM) is a disciplined and structured approach designed to map business requirements to IT decisions. Taking a portfolio approach enables IT organizations to categorize, evaluate and prioritize initiatives and manage IT resources to create new business opportunities or enhance the value of existing investments. This approach enables IT to align their spending with business priorities and achieve an optimal balance of risk and reward.
A critical aspect of IT Portfolio Management — and effective IT governance — is the ability to track where and how resources are utilized across the organization, determine what applications are strategic, and measure the true cost of IT initiatives and associated risks. This comprehensive view, however, can only be achieved when IT organizations are able to manage their portfolio with a disciplined approach: automating and optimizing the management of projects, applications, resources and processes to provide real-time visibility