5.9. STAGE 8 ASSESSING EXECUTION

Objectives were set at the onset of the IT portfolio management process. The assessing execution stage asks if the results of the current iteration of the IT portfolio management process meet the expectations defined in the game plan. More and more, IT initiatives must live up to the business cases that funded them. Do the costs of IT portfolio management outweigh the benefits? Stage 8 is often left out, but it is crucial for enhancing readiness, maturing capabilities, and improving. It is a closed loop of information and communication flow that feeds back into prior stages of the process and helps modify, improve, and enhance future decisions and iterations.

Prescient IT portfolio managers know better than to wait until the end of a cycle to demonstrate value and success. If metrics and objectives attainment have been part of the process all along, communication of successes can occur throughout the process. This is important for maintaining support and involvement. Assessing execution involves:

  • Collecting portfolio management process metric measurements necessary to reflect the outcomes of the current iteration of the portfolio management process.

  • Comparing planned objectives with the actual program plan (comparing the actual outcomes of the portfolio management processes with objectives established during the game plan stage of the current iteration).

  • Determining program lessons learned by identifying the improvements that need to be made and ...

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