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

5.7. STAGE 6: COMMUNICATING

If you wait until the portfolio has been optimized to communicate, you will fail. We have tried to make this message loud and clear. We have tried to incorporate communication tasks in each stage. There is, however, a structured approach to communication.

The communication stage is not part of a sequential stage in portfolio building. Communicating happens throughout all stages of the IT portfolio management process. As previously mentioned, technology does not make decisions; people do! This includes identifying key audiences and key messages and measuring communications success. Mapping communication content to each audience is based on the results of stakeholder analysis and assessment. It involves understanding the best way to communicate to each audience, how often, and how to address people's needs and concerns, the medium that should be used, and knowing who should do the communicating. Above all else, IT portfolio management is about:

• Identifying the need for change and communicating that need to the right people

• Enabling analysis now and in the future, and communicating the need for change

• Driving support to make agreed-upon changes to the portfolio

• Setting up a structure to communicate changes to the portfolio that may require adjustment, balancing, or resetting of expectations

• Setting up a structure to communicate changes in the environment that will affect the portfolio

• Enabling a constant dialog between IT and business to improve effectiveness ...