An IT PMO Glossary

Posted on April 6, 2009 by Vaughan Merlyn

I’ve been working with a couple of clients around PMO’s and the thorny space of Portfolio and Program Management.  Not coincidentally, this continues to prove to be an area of great leverage for organizations trying to drive up their business-IT maturity (and with that, increase the business value delivered through IT investments, assets and capabilities.)  [...]

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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 »

IT and Recession: Time to Partner With the CFO?

Posted on February 11, 2009 by Vaughan Merlyn

I’ve posted before that realizing value from IT-enabled business investments requires both a partnership between IT and the business (duh!), but also a partnership between the CIO and CFO.  This can provide the credibility and linkages necessary to ensure that meaningful metrics are defined and tracked, and that accountabilities, both for costs and value, are [...]

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The IT Infrastructure Investment Deficit Disorder

Posted on February 2, 2009 by Vaughan Merlyn

How should you treat IT infrastructure investments in a recession?  I was listening to an interesting piece that got me thinking about this question on NPR this morning titled “Obama’s ‘Big Fix,’ And Investment Deficit Disorder.” Renee Montagne interviewed New York Times columnist David Leonhardt about his January 27 article, “The Big Fix.“ Determining IT Infrastructure [...]

Filed under: Business-IT Governance, IT Infrastructure, IT Management, Portfolio Management | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Increasing Business Value Through Demand Shaping

Posted on January 26, 2009 by Vaughan Merlyn

A key role for IT leaders, especially during recessionary times, is Demand Shaping.   A perennial reality in the business-IT world is that demand seems to exceed supply. Of Backlogs and Early Cloud Computing When I entered the field of IT back in the 1960′s, the term “backlog” was pervasive – that huge list of requests [...]

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Getting Control Over Business Demand – How to “Just Say No!”

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Vaughan Merlyn

Did you ever feel that some of the things you are asked to do by your business partners just don’t make sense?  That they won’t deliver value that truly justifies their cost?  I find this to be a common issue.  And it’s not just the questionable value associated with some of these requests. Low value [...]

Filed under: Business-IT Governance, Customer experience, IT Management, IT Maturity | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Business Implications of SOA

Posted on April 7, 2008 by Vaughan Merlyn

It’s time (perhaps even long overdue!) to tackle the thorny topic of Service Oriented Architecture.  I’ve been preparing an executive presentation on this subject, drawing on one of our multi-company research projects, so it’s fresh in my mind. The research was focused on business implications of SOA, as this was a perspective and context that [...]

Filed under: Business-IT Governance, IT Infrastructure, IT Management | Tagged: , , , , , | 4 Comments »

You Know You’ve Reached Level 3 When…

Posted on March 4, 2008 by Vaughan Merlyn

  Back in mid-December, I posted “You Know You’ve Reached Level 3 When…“   As the BSG Alliance multi-company research project that has been examining Reaching Level 3 Business-IT Maturity shifts gears from its research to its reporting phase, I want to revisit that headline.  Here are some ‘one-liners’ that are being discussed in today’s WebEx [...]

Filed under: Business-IT Governance, Demand Maturity, IT Management, IT Maturity, Portfolio Management | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

The “Secrets” of Consulting: Principles as a Problem Solving Tool

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Vaughan Merlyn

  I want to continue on this ‘secrets of consulting’ thread, and deal with one particular tool – principles.  Over the years, in many different situations, I’ve found this to be a remarkably powerful tool for resolving problems, clarifying positions, and, in many cases, driving significant change in behaviors. As a tool, Principles are both easy [...]

Filed under: Business-IT Governance, IT Management, Key Frameworks | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

The “Unwritten Rules” of Business-IT Maturity – Part 2

Posted on January 28, 2008 by Vaughan Merlyn

Today I will expand upon the introduction in my last post to the topic of ‘unwritten rules’ as they pertain to Business-IT Maturity.  First a reminder – the Business-IT Maturity model I’ve discussed from various angles since starting this blog last October addresses ‘two sides of the coin’, those being Business Demand maturity(the business appetite for [...]

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

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