The Art and Science of Grouping Projects into Programs

Posted on March 6, 2009 by Vaughan Merlyn

I just received a comment on an old post, Project vs. Program vs. Portfolio Management.  This has been a popular post since it was written back in October 2007.  The comment read: I’m doing a research on how do organizations group their projects into programs, please tell me how do they go about doing that. [...]

Filed under: Business-IT Governance, Change Management, IT Management, Portfolio Management | Tagged: , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Business-IT Alignment As Simple Rules

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Vaughan Merlyn

Back in 2001, Kathleen M. Eisenhardt and Donald N. Sull published a Harvard Business Review paper called “Strategy as Simple Rules.“   This was a great paper that spoke to the need for a few straightforward, hard-and-fast rules that define direction without confining it.  It resonated strongly with my colleagues and I as the term “simple [...]

Filed under: Change Management, IT Management, IT Maturity, Key Frameworks, Useful Tools | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Why a Good Business Case or ROI Analysis Doesn’t Ensure Value Realization

Posted on January 20, 2009 by Vaughan Merlyn

I find that most companies I work with nowadays are pretty good at insisting that business requests for IT solutions are accompanied by a robust business case that surfaces all the costs (including total life cycle costs), expected return on investment (ROI), risks, mitigation strategies, and so on.  They have good business case templates, and [...]

Filed under: IT Management, IT Maturity, Key Frameworks, Portfolio Management | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Process vs. Outcomes – Striking the Right Balance

Posted on November 17, 2008 by Vaughan Merlyn

I was watching BBC America World News the other day, and there was an interesting piece on the G20 summit.  Dr. Irwin Stelzer, Senior Fellow at the Hudson institute made the assertion, “Europeans are very much in love with process, while Americans are very much in love with results.” As a European who has lived [...]

Filed under: IT Management | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

You Know You’ve Reached Level 3 When…

Posted on December 11, 2007 by Vaughan Merlyn

Less than 60% of IT spend is to “keep the lights on and the trains running.” You have a real “partnership” with your business partners – they seek your advice frequently; you can “push back” on dumb or ideas for IT that will probably yield low value; they are open to your ideas, no matter [...]

Filed under: Demand Maturity, IS Management, IT Infrastructure, IT Management, IT Maturity, Portfolio Management, Supply Maturity | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

You Know You’re Stuck at Level 2 When…

Posted on December 10, 2007 by Vaughan Merlyn

Between 60% and 70% of IT spend is to “keep the lights on and the trains running.” (If it’s >70%, you know your in Level 1!) Your business partners treat you as “order takers” – bringing you somewhat fleshed out needs that they want you to act upon. You’ve implemented Portfolio Management disciplines, but only [...]

Filed under: Demand Maturity, IS Management, IT Management, IT Maturity, Portfolio Management, Supply Maturity | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.