It Portfolio Management: Techies, Get Your Basics Right

Who would want to see their millions reduce to peanuts overnight? Which business leader would like to deliver bad results? Which IT professional would like to see his/her brainchild go down the drain? Not one, in our opinion. Yet that is exactly what countless people land up doing. So are we offering a quick fix solution, you ask? Not really, but if you follow our tips on IT portfolio management, you could save your millions and your reputation.

While an IT portfolio management exercise could take on different dimensions in different companies, it basically refers to making and managing an investment in an IT project or firm. Regardless of the size or composition of an IT portfolio, managing it well is of vital importance. Ask the bigwigs and they’ll tell you the same thing.

Is there a way to do it? Indeed. A lot of guidance is available at sites like. To make it easier, we propose some tried and tested portfolio management techniques customized to serve your needs in the booming IT industry.

Have an eye for detail: Well, you‘re gonna need it. To make your IT portfolio successful, you have to get all the data about all your projects neatly organized. By this we mean the estimated time, costs, sources, objectives of the projects including the expected returns and benefits. Nothing stays new in this industry for long, so keep updating and most importantly, keep an eye on the clock. This could seem like a steep climb uphill, but once there, the view will be breathtaking, we promise!

Decide business objectives: What are the strategic objectives of your business? Compare them with those of your projects. Remember, this is where you separate the gems from the stones, or even more difficult, choose between two precious stones. So take a good look at all your projects, selecting those that bring in the most value and discarding those that don’t.

Classify and grade: It’s quite natural to have vastly different projects; the key is to categorize them accordingly. Many successful firms do this in terms of the financial commitment demanded by each project: large, medium or small. Ernie Nielson of the Brigham Young University has designed a model to scientifically grade IT portfolios, which is summarized here. The first thing to do is to zero in on a couple of appropriate strategies, for example minimizing risk or improving efficiency. Next, decide on key deliverables that will help in the evaluation of these strategies. Studying other firms that employed similar strategies can prove to be of immense value. Also analyze the strategy from a feasibility point of view. A key to succeed in this business is to give everything a quick second thought. Is it possible to continue with the project going by the criteria that you employed for evaluation or does it seem a lot more demanding? Finally, grade your projects accordingly. You could score it on a scale of 1 to 5 or grade it ‘A’ through ‘Z, it’s your call.

Monitor: Do what you what you would otherwise do right at the end, at least ten times in between. Keep an eye out for your projects, meet regularly, discuss if the execution is as desired or needs any course correction. If you need to shelve a project that’s not working for you, the earlier you do it, the less you lose.

Done right, IT Portfolio Management could help change your outlook as a firm. Look closely at all that we have taken you through. Like any other initiative, this too requires a sincere attempt, which means keeping an open mind and being ready to mingle (We mean teamwork of course). Give it a shot and enjoy the results!