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

5.6. STAGE 5: BALANCING

Systems are supposed to tend toward equilibrium . . . but only in thermodynamics. The IT portfolio is by no means a thermodynamic system. It is a complex mix of new technologies, old technologies, people, projects, and ideas. Without a framework to rationalize the IT portfolio, it will probably decay. IT portfolio management provides this framework.

To this point, objectives have been defined for the IT portfolio. These objectives have been tempered with the realities of the organization's culture and abilities. The structure of the portfolio has been designed. The portfolio structure has been populated. The populated IT portfolio has been analyzed and assessed against the goals, desired returns, and tolerance for risk. There is most likely a gap between the existing IT portfolio and the desired one.

Using the portfolio performance report, the validated portfolio, and the various views from stage 4, balancing the portfolio involves creating a set of repeatable processes for adding, subtracting, repositioning, and performing what-if trade-off analysis to maximize IT value. During the assessment phase, the performance of the portfolio should have been well documented; a list of gaps should have been made to enable portfolio tuning. Stage 5 is fundamentally the tuning phase, along with the refinement of the tuning processes. Of the various options, the optimal ones are selected and acted upon. Depending on the selected portfolio tuning options, balancing could ...