投资组合的内容及其管理框架

IT投资组合投资组合的内容 The IT portfolio consists of:Application systems,products,and suites Processing hardware infrastructure and operating systems Network equipment and software Services(including consultative)Distinct technology products Human resources-internal and external contract Data/information There is also an IT project portfolio,which includes:Projects that expand the portfolio Projects that renew elements of the portfolio Projects that correct problems within the portfolio Other,less tangible portfolio holdings include:Knowledge and experience embedded in people,systems,and databases Intellectual and innovation capital Customer/user capital Relationship capital 投资组合管理框架 投资组合的作用 Management Role(s)The portfolio management model actually forces a true bridging and integration between IT and the business.Costs,business benefits,technical performance,and capital creation(tangible and intangible)are managed within one framework and require joint participation.All stakeholders-from programmers and project managers to business and IT managers-have the role of managing some aspect of the investment portfolio.And,in totality,the organizations IT investment is really being managed as a business investment.The enterprise CIO may be the overall fund manager working to assist in the diversification and management of investments across lines of business.LOB CIOs and IT department heads can be viewed as portfolio managers with the goal of maximizing the cost/benefit performance of the systems,services,or technology under their control.The project origination process is fluid.Proposals from the business and from those in IT with stewardship for results maximization bear equal weight.The project funding process,whether for a new project or renewal of an existing asset,is a joint one.Overall,the common thread within this model is value.Whether value is tangible or intangible,and whether it is expressed in terms of dollars or quality of life,value is what information technology for the next millennium is all about.投资组合概论投资组合模型 Active Management of the Portfolio:The Operational Model The key operating considerations for portfolio management of IT are the continuous monitoring of existing investment performance(the portfolio component)and the process for adjusting the portfolio through projects that impact it.Investment performance should be monitored through visibility of cost,risk,benefits/yield,and alignment with goals.At the portfolio management level,this must be done in business-facing terms.This is easier said than done.Also,doing so requires stepping back to the point in time at which the portfolio component was introduced and staying in touch with its original justification,predicted performance,and any adjustments that have been made over time.This implies that active portfolio management requires:From a cost perspective,that the component is performing within the expected cost performance bandwidth in terms of operating and personnel costs and that this cost structure is competitive in the context of value per dollar.From a benefits perspective,that the component is maintaining its expected yield in terms of impact on business cost structure,performance,shareholder value,and/or business customers and relationships and/or internal processes and/or the ability of the organization to learn and improve.In terms of yield,it is critical that the element of benefits timing is introduced,because benefits are expected to accrue at a particular point in time,and associated with this is a benefits trajectory.In managing benefits,it is also critical to factor in external market,regulatory,temporal,or competitive forces that can impact value.Value must also be associated with alignment with enterprise goals.From a risk management perspective,the components of the portfolio should be diversified and managed along the lines of the amount of risk the enterprise can tolerate.Portfolio components can be segmented into levels of yield and also into levels of risk.Risk factors have to do with the probability of achieving the desired benefits,stability,and pure technology risk.The level of risk associated with a component determines the tightness with which it is managed-the frequency of review and even its renewal-funding model.The static portfolio of existing assets should be managed from the perspectives espoused in the previous paragraphs and also from an interaction perspective.That is,how do they interact with each other,and how do they interact with the enterprise?In perhaps more tangible terms,the portfolio consists of baseline components-things that have to be in place to support the business-and discretionary components-things that must have individualized funding justification to support their existence.In fact,from a budgeting perspective,this implies zero-base budgeting.The project portfolio must use a similar management model.Anything that impacts the portfolio must initially be costed and justified in terms of one or more of the benefits accrual categories.In addition,management must be active to ensure that any deviations from the original plan are evaluated in the context of portfolio impact.Deviations may take the form of changes in costs,timing,potential for value generation,and benefits timing.In addition,deviation may be induced by changes in enterprise strategy or competitive forces in the marketplace.For example,a project being justified on the basis of being first to market will have a radical change in value if a competitor gets there first.Therefore the project portfolio requires active management triggered by periodic reviews and external market triggers-technology changes,human resource cost and availability triggers,business alignment triggers,and competitive and regulatory triggers.Risk also must be factored in,and should range from low levels of risk to high-risk/high-yield.The level of risk,by the way,also influences the project management methods and tempo.At the extreme,the riskiest project should be managed as part of a venture portfolio,using a venture management model.In addition,valuation within the project portfolio must be viewed as dynamic in terms of intraportfolio interaction.Organizations do not typically have unlimited resource pools(either dollars or people).Therefore,a change in valuation of one project may impact the others and even the static portfolio.实施投资组合 Portfolio Management in Action It is unlikely that any organization can enact these ideas from ground zero.Therefore,portfolio management needs to be put into action in vitro.The inventory of existing(static)assets must be created;cost,resource consumption,and acceptable bandwidths for cost and quality must be captured;and valuation(and its bandwidth)must be determined.Constructs(metrics)must be implemented to provide the needed visibility into the existing portfolio.Coverage of a number of basic areas is needed:finance,quality,performance,change velocity,staffing/skills,risk(and perhaps audit),profile,effectiveness.Continuous monitoring of these metrics versus target characteristics enables decisions to be made for the renewal,development,and perhaps the retirement and replacement of portfolio components.This is one mechanism by which projects are originated.In addition,the inventory of existing projects must be captured and in-process metrics must be developed.These need to focus on various attributes of the project:On-time behavior On-cost behavior On-scope behavior On-value behavior(includes benefits trajectory along with expected value)Risk level Behaviors trend Intraproject portfolio impact Portfolio impact Revaluation triggers Thresholds of tolerance for deviation from plans Management tempo and funding model(from traditional to venture)Management of the existing portfolio and the project portfolio must work concurrently.As is true in financial markets,there are both tightly coupled and loosely coupled linkages in the way they interact.投资组合发展阶段 Where Portfolio Management Fits in IT Organization Evolution IT organizations appear to be going through a series of evolutionary stages.The first of these is typified by the role of being a service,or order taker.Although the role of IT in this stage is not considered strategic in terms of supporting business growth,the cost of IT is.Therefore,the primary focus of IT organizations at this stage is cost management and operational efficiency.Benchmarking is frequently applied as a positioning tool in such organizations,as is radical downsizing.The second stage is typified by the role of being a business enabler.The role of IT is considered to be somewhat strategic in supporting growth and looking for new ways to enhance profitability.Aggressive IT investments are often made at this stage.The focus is now shared between cost efficiency and the intangible notion of effectiveness.More advanced IT organizations at this stage typically try to enact balanced-scorecard projects to monitor both their fiscal accountability and their impact on business customers and processes.The third stage is typified by the role of the IT organization as a business within a business.The IT organization still plays a provider role but is held to more rigorous cost and performance standards,with a view to behaving as a free-market competitor.Again,scorecards come into play,with a focus on performance and comparisons with the external world in the dimensions of cost,service quality,relationships,and process efficiency/effectiveness.The fourth stage is full business integration.The IT organization acts like a business and is managed like a business.This is the stage of portfolio management.In this stage,the IT organization manages its portfolio of activities-from baseline business support to asset renewal and development to high-risk business/IT ventures-in a manner consistent with the principles of best-in-class business practices.The portfolio is actively managed with a focus on yield,risk,risk-taking,and agility.As stated in the preceding paragraph,portfolio management is a characteristic of this fourth stage but is also somewhat of a precursor to it.Unless portfolio management is embraced,full business integration and a business model of IT cannot be embraced.Perhaps in the full business model there will be no distinction between IT and the business.In addition,the concept of portfolio management itself may not be enough.From a total enterprise perspective,the enterprise is a collection of portfolios.For example,in financial services there may be a retail portfolio,a global portfolio,a wholesale portfolio,and so on.Although IT is integrated into each area and there may be cross-area dependencies,the enterprise itself must decide how to balance and manage its investments across these business portfolios along with their IT components.Therefore,at the enterprise level,a fund management model may be appropriate to model the movement and allocation of funds across diversified investments.项目投资组合 项目投资组合概述 IT portfolio managementBalancing risks and rewards of projects yields significant returns.Investing your entire nest egg in one risky Enron-like venture is unwise to say the least.So why do so many IT organizations bet the bulk of their budget on one huge risky project?Diversification works well for your stock portfolio,so why not apply it to your IT project portfolio as well?Thats the point of IT portfolio management,a methodology for ensuring that every project within an IT organizations portfolio is analyzed and balanced for risk and return.When implemented right,IT portfolio management ensures that the entire range of IT projects performs successfully in real world conditions.In its most basic terms,IT portfolio management consists of three steps.The first is to list in a central place every IT project in the organization,together with its resource requirements and stated objectives.Unfortunately,that first step is where many organizations stop the process.But the key to reaping the true benefits of IT portfolio management is following through and evaluating the projects for risk and return.Step three,ongoing risk assessment,is also often overlooked.Risks need to continually be assessed as the project progresses.If the benefit no longer outweighs the risk,the project needs to be revamped or even cancelled.Another area people need to focus on is value,too often,IT is focused on delivering projects on time,and on budget,when the real concern should be whether the intended value was delivered.If the project goes like clockwork,but doesnt gain acceptance,its still a failure.When implemented correctly,IT portfolio management ensures that the projects IT implements are those that will deliver the most value to the business,an important point in this lean era of tight budgets.项目投资组合目标 As with any investment portfolio,the IT portfolio should be managed with three goals in mind:maximizing the value of the portfolio,aligning the portfolio with business goals,and balancing the risk/reward potential within the portfolio.Maximizing IT Portfolio Value.With many corporate executives demanding that CIOs demonstrate value,maximizing portfolio value is the goal most frequently mentioned among IT organizations.The tools we recommend in this effort include financial indexing or scoring models such as economic value sourced(EVS),economic value added(EVA),risk-adjusted net present value(NPV),return on investment(ROI),and return on net assets(RONA).Aligning the Portfolio.Strategic alignment is another important goal for portfolio management.Typically a bottom-up or top-down approach(or a combination thereof)should be employed to systematically align IT value with corporate objectives.For example,if the business strategy emphasizes growth,IT spending patterns should reflect increased support for business or market development.The strategic fit and link to the business strategy make the balanced scorecard technique an effective approach for exposing value while managing the portfolio across a range of conflicting business objectives.Balancing the IT Portfolio.Finally,portfolio management enables companies to balance their portfolio,considering various factors that must be weighed to ensure the right mix of investments and initiatives.These factors include:o Term-Short to longo Risk-Low to higho Size-Small to largeo Scope-Local to globalo Expense-Moderate to majoro Posture-Offensive to defensiveo Position-Entrant to dominant 项目分类模型 Run the business 项目的组合分析 Run the business(RTB)investments involve keeping the business operational.Items falling under this category often include utilities,maintenance contracts,and disaster recovery,with the following metrics used to measure the effectiveness of such investments:Budgeting:Account allocations,cash flow,project cost and scheduleCost reduction:Rework,defect tracking,inventoryMaintenance fixes:Effort,staffing levelsService-level agreements:Availability,downtime,mean time to repairCustomer satisfaction/retentionThe nature of RTB investments fall into two areas.Core.Spending in this category provides mission-and business-critical services for the front office(sales order entry,customer service)and back office(payroll,accounting,HR).Common spending entities in this category include electricity,lighting,heating/air conditioning,telephone dial-tone,network services,data center operations for specific services,IT vendor support,backup/restore,and disaster recovery.*Business risk:Because assets in this category have instantiated processes and use does not typically change,the business risk potential is usually low.*Business reward:Business reward potential in this category ranges from medium to high.Non-Discretionary.Spending in this category mitigates the impact of organic growth in consumption of core/operational assets such as infrastructure(e.g.,server,storage,middleware,DBMS,network),operations,and related processes on existing IT service performance.Typical external influences that modify spending decisions in this category include business climate changes and corporate events or activities(e.g.,mergers,acquisitions,divestitures).*Business risk and reward:Because spending activity in this category centers on expanding existing capacity to meet growth requirements(rather than to introduce new services),it represents an ideal investment to actually reduce business risk and stabilize business reward.grow the business 项目的组合分析 Directly above the horizontal line in Figure 1 are grow the business(GTB)investments,which are made to expand the organizations scope of products and services.Investments here could be for upgrading software,adding incremental capacity,or developing skills within the staff through additional training or other efforts.Metrics to measure the success of these investments include:Financial analysis:ROI,EVA,capital,IT budget/revenueInvestment planning:Risk analysis,scenarios,portfolio planning(three-year model),supply chain analysisEnhancements:Project phase analysis,cost of qualityDelivered information valueCustomer loyalty:Lifetime value Transform the business 项目的组合分析 Transform the business(TTB)investments involve moving into new markets.Sample TTB investments include new business ventures,mergers and acquisitions,new products,application package additions,outsourcing,or the hiring of employees with new skills.Possible metrics in this area include:New market shareModeling:Portfolio analysis,future valueGTB and TTB investments fall into three areas.Discretionary.Spending in this category affords new levels of process efficiency and effectiveness that the business perceives it will need but that current assets(plus non-discretionary enhancements)cannot justifiably deliver.Assets in this category influence business performance through process agility(effectiveness)or the ability to respond to new service requests much more quickly.Internal controls must be implemented along with new assets to ensure that integrity of all processes(particularly financial)remains intact throughout the changeover and post-changeover periods.Business risk:Business risk is moderate for this category.Although the new asset is intended to be a functional replacement,thereby minimizing process disruption,its architecture typically differs from the original.Therefore,it introduces business risk that has been known to make some businesses unviable.Business reward:Business reward potential in this category is moderate.Assets in this category provide a moderate increase in efficiency over the assets they replace(e.g.,legacy services versus enterprise resource planning).This benefit is typically short-lived and therefore should not be a primary investment driver.Growth.This category includes project-based spending that creates new IT services to deepen an enterprises market penetration.Successful services in this category will logically align with established commerce chains.Business risk:Business risk in this category is moderate to high,measured by the amount of brand recognition and levels of customer/partner relationships that can be or are being leveraged.Business reward:Business reward potential is moderate to high.Assets in this category provide incremental revenue streams from an established client base or similar market buyer.Venture.This category includes project-based spending that creates new IT services to broaden an enterprises reach to new,untapped markets.Emphasis is on the speed required to gain control of a new market via first-mover advantage.Business risk:Business risk is highest in this category:Many existing processes will be exposed to unplanned events.Business reward:In this category of spending,business reward potential ranges widely.Using the venture capital analogy,the rewards of successful venture initiatives should offset the relatively high rate of failure among other such initiatives.资产投资组合 资产投资组合概述 IT portfolio management is the term that describes the formal process for managing IT pro