Prioritizing It Project Management Portfolio

What is the current state of IT projects? What are key factors for successful IT projects? Hint: Refer to the summary of CHAO study

The sheer volume of information of all types is ever increasing, making the job of IT manager more difficult. To remain competent, IT managers must keep up with the latest trends and new technologies. The evaluation of new technology is another skill related to information literacy, since the information describing such technology can take many forms. The best IT managers are highly skilled in such evaluations. These effective managers seem to be rare, as found in Li (2009). That study found that to deal with the difficulties of IT management, many organizations used encroachment, to save face for executives by simplifying and deflecting harmful results and analysis. This spreads the managerial blame and deals with the well documented fact (every computer science student is taught this) that over 60% of all technology projects fail and software development projects in particular fail even more frequently. The reasons for the failure of such projects include the incompetence of IT management (Toader et al., 2010). This is increasingly exemplified by the inability to communicate effectively with workers of foreign origin and incorrect evaluations of technology.

Project three proposes that the company replace all the PCs for the company's sales team and upgrade the CRM (customer relationship management) software. Although this project isn't expected to have a direct impact on revenue, furnishing the sales team with new equipment and more powerful, up-to-date software is likely to motivate the sales people. Criteria one is scored as 'Y'. Project three will not cut any costs; therefore, it will earn an 'N' score for criteria two. Additionally, project three is not mandated by law, earning criteria three an "N' score as well. What CRM software solutions our company's competitors are using is unknown, thus resulting in a 'U' score for criteria four. The total score for project three is one.

The special IT Project responsibility and accountability legislation should also prescribe adherence to a standard IT project prioritization, selection and execution pipeline for technical assurance according to the control checklists for each IT project stakeholder at each phase gate for accountability and effective decision. Independent, disciplined, cautious controls are critical in Gates 1 and 3. The process is already contained in the policy document titled ‘Managing Government Investment Projects’ and ‘Major Projects Performance Reporting’.

Project portfolio management can enable an organization to prune redundant or overlapping projects, use resources more effectively and to keep closer watch on projects' progress to ensure projects do not go over-budget or overtime (Solomon 2002:1). However, despite the technique's obvious advantages, it can meet with profound resistance when it is implemented in practice. 'Turf wars' are common at many organizations, in which representatives of various departments jockey for scarce resources. Every department has its 'pet projects' that it may fear losing to overly rigorous scrutiny.

The fact that opportunities for strategic advantage from information technology is rapidly disappearing, it is important that companies look critically at how they invest in IT and how they manage their systems by avoiding wasteful spending, waiting to purchase an IT commodity until you are sure of its authenticity and also focus on vulnerabilities not opportunities.

Most organizations have a so many factors to consider when prioritizing IT projects. In reality, IT

A project portfolio is a group of projects that share and compete for the same resources and are carried out under the sponsorship or management of an organization (Archer & Ghasemzadeh, 1999a, 1999b). Turner and Müller (2003, p. 7) defined a portfolio as “an organization (temporary or permanent) where projects are managed together to coordinate interfaces, prioritize resources between projects, and thereby

In this case VWOA had two processes one was the old process and the other was the new process. The old process was the IT projects priorities were made by the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) with some discussion and evaluation of project and fund those were available the decisions were made. This process was not structured neither, they involved any departmental heads to discuss on the prioritization of projects. On the other hand with the new process that Dr. Use Mathulovic, Chief information officer (CIO) of VWOA implemented and thought that would improve the way of prioritizing the IT projects was “to make trade-offs explicit and link the projects and the core business

It is relative right of prerequisite to the rare assets. On the off chance that the assets are high there is no need of prioritize things. Here the assets are the things like time, human assets like staffing, spot to do work and numerous different assets.

Collins (2001) recommends that companies should “crawl, walk, run” (p.163) in relation to investment in IT and this can be a very effective approach, even during times of rapid and radical technological change.

Contrary to popular belief, Information Technology (IT) professionals do not like to implement technology for the sake of technology. Technology is developed and advanced to help improve our lives. If IT professionals are just trying to better people’s lives, then why is it so difficult to get customers to accept a technology change? IT professionals leading a project must build enthusiasm for technology change to ensure approval and user acceptance. I will be proposing changes to my employer’s IT project management processes to help our project leaders develop enthusiasm for our IT projects.

This paper will discuss the processes and pitfalls faced by Information Technology managers in today’s world of business. Today’s IT managers need not only be savvy about existing equipment and upcoming technology; but must also understand the budget issues they face and how to properly address them. The IT manager is asked to look into a crystal ball and predict what products will be beneficial and which requirements can be cut from the budget. They must be able to differentiate between the new shiny fad and products that will be a true asset to the company’s visions and goals. An IT budget can no longer be a static number on the company’s finance sheet; it must be a clear vision of the department’s future spending while falling in line with the goals and expectations of the company.

Information systems are vital to the operation and management of every organization. Managers investing in IS are interested in the benefit their organizations gain from this investment. However, neither managers nor researchers have found a way to justify investment in IS based on its contribution to an organization’s performance. Most studies examining the relationship between IS and performance level have found no positive relationship between the two variables [7]. But these studies have been holistic, relating the total IS investment—software, hardware, personnel—to the total profit of the organization. Our study now suggests that the analysis should be particulate, not holistic. An

Based on a report by AMR Research 75% of IT organizations have little oversight over their project portfolio, this can cause duplicity of projects and increase the total cost of IT expenditure. Dennis S. Callahan CIO of Guardian Insurance claims that portfolio management has reduced their companies overall IT application expenditures by 2% and maintenance cost have been reduced by a 12%, Eric Austvold, a research director at AMR Research, says that portfolio management reports has saved 2 to 5% annually on companies IT budgets. IT portfolio management can be defined in the company ICT Governance. (Datz, 2003)