Be Selective

  Governance   Portfolio Management   ProjectsAtWork  

With IT budgets level or even shrinking, it is more vital than ever to ensure that IT staff is working on the most valuable project at any given time. Properly managing demand for IT services relative to capacity enables IT organizations to deliver what’s promised, when it’s promised, enhancing their credibility with business executives and users.

This is the fourth in a series of articles describing best practices for implementing and executing portfolio management.

Organizations trying to improve IT delivery frequently start with execution. This is natural enough. But it is also a long, steep and potentially expensive learning curve to grow project management skills and build development lifecycle processes. The faster, cheaper route to improved delivery and IT value is improving the project selection governance processes and managing change so that the business becomes more consciously aware of its demand for IT services and the relative importance of those demands. Most product companies that sell on value strive for an educated consumer, and that is what IT organizations must promote with internal consumers as well.

There is a good way and a bad way to manage demand. The bad way is to just say “no” to the business when they ask for an enhancement or project. Or, you can continue to say “yes” but not deliver on time, …

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