IT Portfolio management from a academic perspective

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IT Portfolio management from a

academic perspective

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Introduction

Academic experience

• PhD-student at Centre for IS management , Aalborg University

• Attached to the DISIMIT-project

• Grounded in the field of Information Systems (IS) (The difference between IT vs. IS)

• Investigating IT portfolio management in a public organization

Practical experience

• 3 years experience as IT project manager employed in:

• The municipality of Copenhagen city

• The Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs/ The Danish

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Agenda

Part one:

IT Portfolio management (IT PM) as an academic field

• Definition

• Distinctions

• Relevance in practice

• Relevance in academia Part Two:

“There is more to IT portfolio management than top-

management making the right decisions: A review of the IT PM literature”

• Describe four discourses in IT PM

• Provide a path for future research and practice

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Part one:

Distinctions and definitions of IT PM

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Definition IT PM:

• ITPM as a continuous process to manage IT project, application, and infrastructure assets and their

interdependencies, in order to maximize portfolio benefits, minimize risk and cost, and ensure alignment with

organizational strategy over the long run.(Kumar et. al 2008)

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IT PM is management of three different

sub-portfolios

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IT application portfolio management

(Adopted from Kumar et. al 2008) 7

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IT application portfolio management

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IT infrastructure portfolio management

IT PM is management of three different sub-portfolios – each portfolio involves different mechanisms

(Adopted from Kumar et. al 2008) 9

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IT infrastructure portfolio management

• Definition; centrally coordinated, shared IT services providing a foundation for the enterprise's IT capabilities and typically created before the precise usage needs are known (Weill and Ross 2004)

• Changing processes are constrained or enabled by IT infrastructure (Broardbent 1999) .

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IT infrastructure portfolio management

Top six of core IT infrastructure services (Broardbent et.

al 1999):

1. Manage firm-wide communication network services 2. Manage group-wide or firm-wide messaging services

3. Recommended standards for at least one component of IT architecture (e.g., hardware, operating systems, data, communications)

4. Implement security, disaster planning, and business recovery services for firm-wide installations and applications

5. Provide technology advice and support services

6. Manage, maintain, support large-scale data processing facilities (e.g., mainframe operations)

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IT Project portfolio management

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IT Project portfolio management

• [management of] a group of projects that are carried out under the sponsorship and/or management of a particular organization. These projects must compete for scarce

resources (people, finances, time, etc.) available from the sponsor, since there are usually not enough resources to carry out every project proposed which meets the

organization's minimum requirements on certain criteria such as potential profitability, etc” (Archer and Ghasemzadeh,

1999).

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IT Project portfolio management

IT project portfolio management (IT PPM)

• A dynamic range of mechanisms conducted in phases (Archer

& Ghasemzadeh 1999)

• These phases can according be synthesized to:

• The pre-selection phase

• The selection phase

• The post-selection phase

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IT Project portfolio management

15 Adopted from Archer and Ghasemzadeh (1999)

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IT Project portfolio management

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IT PM is management of three different sub-portfolios

Reflections:

• The literature emphasizes three types of intervening IT portfolio management:

• IT application portfolio management

• IT infrastructure portfolio management

• IT project portfolio management

1. Does this reflect how IT PM is conducted in practice?

2. How are these different (sub) IT portfolios integrated in practice?

3. What are your challenges and what is your focus regarding IT PM?

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Relevance to practice:

• Organizations experience ongoing challenges in their

management of their portfolio of Information Technology (IT) as IT expenses have become a major part of the

organizational budget (Jeffery and Leviveld 2004).

• Hence, organizations implement a wide range of IT portfolio management (IT PM) arrangements to gain value from IT investments (Kumar et. al. 2008).

• However, research shows that a vast amount of organizations are less successful in gaining value from their IT investments (Jeffery and Leviveld 2004; Weill and Aral 2006; Singh 2009;

Weill and Ross 2009)

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Relevance to practice:

Reflections:

• The maturity of IT PM/IT PPM in Danish organizations?

• In the public sector?

• In the private sector?

• Who are the front-runners?

• Which IT PM concepts are gaining a footing in DK?

• P3O, PMI, Gartner, Project Excellence, Stanford's model, CA Clarity

• Where do you find information about maturity in DK

• IT i Praksis

• DISIMIT-project

• Dansk IT ₁₉

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Relevance to academia

• IT PM has been on the research agenda for more than three decades (McFarlan 1981)

• Portfolio management is more developed in:

• portfolio management in finance

• portfolio management in research and development (R&D)

• New Product Development (NPD)

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IT PM as an interdisciplinary field

• An interdisciplinary field straddling other disciplines, you

often must look not only within the discipline when reviewing and developing theory but also outside the field (Webster and Watson 2002)

• A high-quality review is complete and focuses on concepts. A complete review covers relevant literature on the topic and is not confined to one research methodology, one set of

journals, or one geographic (Webster and Watson 2002)

• Therefore, a concept-centric review was conducted

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IT PM as an interdisciplinary field

A concept-centric search for relevant IT PM literature (across different research field)

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IT PM as an interdisciplinary field

23 The fourteen journals containing most articles regarding IT PM

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IT PM as an interdisciplinary field:

Reflections:

• Which outlets are you utilizing knowledge from?

• Journals?

• Books?

• Conferences?

• Communities?

• Courses?

• Research institutions?

• Research fields?

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Part two:

There is more to IT portfolio

management than top-management making the right decisions: A review of

the IT PM literature.

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Scope of the article

The topic of this part of the presentation:

• “There is more to IT portfolio management than top-

management making the right decisions: A review of the IT PM literature”

• Describe four discourses in IT PM

• Provide a path for future research and practice Note:

• The examples in the articles are specific about IT PPM

• The term IT PM is used due to an academic technicality; the article must communicate with the existing IT PM literature

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There is more to IT portfolio management

“There is more to IT portfolio management than top-

management making the right decisions: A review of the IT PM literature” (Hansen and Kræmmergaard 2011)

• The literature vastly emphasizes the organizational benefits of establishing IT PM when managing IT investments. Only a minor part of the literature emphasizes the unintended and negative consequences of IT Portfolio Management.

• Thus, our paper aims to answer two research questions.

1. How is this bias discursively constructed in the IT PM literature?

2. Second, how can we provide a path for future research and practice?

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2) There is more to IT portfolio management

A concept-centric search for relevant IT PM literature (across different research fields)

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The framework by Deetz (1996)

• Stanley Deetz, grounded in organizational science

• Rethinking Burell and Morgan (1979) “Social Paradigms and Organizational analysis,”

• The term “discourse” has been used by former researchers to describe different assumptions in organizational science

research (Deetz 1996).

• The framework can be used in management and organizational science

• Schultze and Leidner (2002) have used the framework to investigate Knowledge management

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The framework by Deetz (1996)

Dissensus

Local/Emergent Elite/A Priori

Interpretive

Dialogic Critical

Normative

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The framework by Deetz (1996)

31 Dissensus

Consensus

From Deetz (1996)

How do researchers consider the natural state

(regarding conflict) in the organization?

What source of knowledge does the researcher rely upon? A theoretical/and a top management perspective - or more emphasis upon empirical data emerging from local or lower ranks in the organization

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The framework by Deetz (1996)

Local / Emergent Elite/A Priori

Particularistic Universalistic

Atheoretical Theory driven

Situational or structural determinism Methodological determinism Sensuality and meaning as central

concerns

Rationality and truth as central concerns

Situated, practical knowledge Generalizable, theoretical knowledge Tends to be feminine

in attitude Tends to be masculine in attitude

Ontology of "otherness"

over method

Epistemological and procedural issues rule

over substantive assumptions

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The framework by Deetz (1996)

Consensus Dissensus

Trust Suspicion

Hegemonic order as natural state Conflicts over order as natural state

Unified science Positional complimentarily

Naturalization of present Present order is historicized and politicized

Integration and harmony are possible Order indicates domination and suppressed conflicts

Research focuses on representation Research focused on challenge and reconsideration (representation) Mirror (reflecting) dominant metaphor Lens (seeing / reading as)

dominant metaphor

Validity central concern Insight and praxis central concern Theory as abstraction and triangulation Theory as opening

Science is neutral Science is political

Autonomous/free agent Historically / socially situated agent Life is discovery Life is struggle and creation

Researcher anonymous and out of time

and space Researcher named and positioned

(Deetz 1996) 33

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The framework by Deetz (1996)

Dissensus

Consensus

Interpretive

Dialogic Critical

Normative

Organizational metaphor:

Community

Marketplace Organizational

metaphor:

Polity Ambition:

Participation, expanded knowledge

Carnival Ambition:

Creativity and Diversity

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The distribution of the IT PM literature

35 Dissensus

Consensus

97 3

5 2

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An exemplary article from the normative discourse

• Authors: De Reyck et. al. (2005)

• Title: The impact of project portfolio management on information Technology projects

• Grounding in empirical data: a survey with 31 responses

• The outlet of the article: International Journal of Project management

•

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An exemplary article from the normative discourse

The plot of the article:

• Using a literature review, De Reyck et. al. (2005) finds the

“preconditions” and “key elements” in IT PPM

• Makes an adoptions scheme containing all the “best practices” and defines three stages of PPM adoption

• Investigates the impact of IT PPM upon; project performance and project problems

• Provides a phased implementation plan for IT PPM.

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An exemplary article from the normative discourse

The preconditions in IT PPM according to De Reyck et. al.

(2005):

• Organizational strategy:

• Business leaders involvement

• Team skills

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An exemplary article from the normative iscourse

Key elements in IT PPM (De Reyck et. al. 2005):

• Centralized view on all projects

• Financial analysis

• Risk analysis

• Independencies

• Prioritization

• Constraints

• Dynamic re-assessment of the portfolio

• Need for specialized software

• Impact on organizations

• Problems within organizations

•

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An exemplary article from the normative discourse

The four aspects with the most impact (De Reyck et. al.

2005):

• An inventory of projects (90% emphasize impact – strong!)

• Align the project portfolio to a clear statement of the organizational objectives (88% emphasize impact)

• The consolidation of information about projects and a

standardization of project analysis (89 % emphasize impact)

• Considerations about project interdependencies (86%

emphasize impact)

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An exemplary article from the normative discourse

Stage I: portfolio inventory

• Centralized project administration

• Risk evaluation procedures

• Explicit incorporation of resource constraints

• Increasing business leaders’ accountability for project results Stage II: portfolio administration

• Project categorization

• Evaluation of customer impact of the project portfolio results Stage III: portfolio optimization

• A project committee

• Assessment of the financial value of the portfolio

• Management of the project interdependencies

• Tracking project benefits

•

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An exemplary article from the normative discourse

Contributions from the article by De Reyck et. al. (2005):

• There is a positive correlation between organizations’ IT PPM- adoption level and project benefit from projects

• There is a negative correlation between organizations’ IT PPM-adoption level and reported project problems

• Organizations do not need to implement all elements to create benefits

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An exemplary article form the normative discourse

Particularistic Universalistic

Atheoretical Theory driven

Situationally or structural

determinism Methodological determinism

Sensuality and meaning as central

concerns Rationality and truth as central

concerns

Situated, practical knowledge Generalizable, theoretical Knowledge

Tends to be feminine

in attitude Tends to be masculine in attitude

Ontology of "otherness"

over method Epistemological and procedural

issues rule over substantive assumptions

Deetz (1996) 43

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2) There is more to IT portfolio

management (the normative discourse)

Trust Suspicion

Hegemonic order as natural state Conflicts over order as natural state Unified science Positional complimentarily

Naturalization of present Present order is historicized and politicized Integration and harmony are possible Order indicates domination and suppressed

conflicts

Research focuses on representation Research focused on challenge and reconsideration

Mirror (reflecting) dominant metaphor Lens (seeing / reading as) dominant metaphor

Validity central concern Insight and praxis central concern Theory as abstraction and triangulation Theory as opening

Science is neutral Science is political

Autonomous/free agent Historically / socially situated agent Life is discovery Life is struggle and creation

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An exemplary article from the normative discourse

Critique of De Reyck et. al. (2005)

The empirical grounding:

• Direction in correlation between adoption and positive benefits?

• Builds upon a survey with a respons-rate of 25%

A critique of the assumptions in the article:

• Is IT PPM only involving top-management?

• Is IT PPM a strictly rational endeavor?

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A metaphor developed from the normative discourse

• The articles representing the normative discourse are primarily inspired by economics and mathematics.

• Verhoef (2002) regards IT PM as an: approach where decisions on whether or not to invest in IT are based on potential

return, and decisions to terminate or make additional investments are based on performance much like an investment broker is measured and rewarded based on managing risks and achieving results (Verhoef 2002).

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A metaphor developed from the normative discourse

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Four categories of IT PM litterature(across different research fields)

Dissensus

Consensus

Normative

“IT PM as market relations”

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An exemplary article from the critical discourse

A exemplary article form the critical discourse:

• Authors: (Platje and Seidel et. al. 1993)

• Title: Breakthrough in multiproject management: how to escape the vicious cycle of planning and control

• Grounding in empirical data: Not clear

• The outlet of the article: International Journal of Project management

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An exemplary article from the critical discourse

The plot:

• Planning and controlling concepts are not suitable for multi project situations.

• Uses organizational sociology and chaos theory to shown that multiproject environments may lead a organization into a

vicious cycle of bureaucracy and inflexibility

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An exemplary article from the critical discourse

The problem:

More control

More rigidness Demotivatio

n More rules centralizatioand

n

The vicious circle:

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An exemplary article form the critical discourse

The solution:

51 Platje and Seidel et. al. (1993)

Provides:

• The construction of a feasible portfolio

• Tradeoff between (often conflicting interests)

• The communication between department heads and project leaders

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An exemplary article from the critical discourse

Particularistic Universalistic

Atheoretical Theory driven

Situational or structural determinism Methodological determinism Sensuality and meaning as central

concerns

Rationality and truth as central concerns

Situated, practical knowledge Generalizable, theoretical knowledge

Tends to be feminine in attitude

Tends to be masculine in attitude Ontology of "otherness"

over method Epistemological and procedural

issues rule over substantive assumptions

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A exemplary article form the critical discourse

Trust Suspicion

Hegemonic order as natural state Conflicts over order as natural state

Unified science Positional complimentarily

Naturalization of present Present order is historicized and politicized

Integration and harmony are possible Order indicates domination and suppressed conflicts

Research focuses on representation Research focused on challenge and reconsideration (representation) Mirror (reflecting) dominant metaphor Lens (seeing / reading as)

dominant metaphor

Validity central concern Insight and praxis central concern Theory as abstraction and triangulation Theory as opening

Science is neutral Science is political

Autonomous/free agent Historically / socially situated agent

Life is discovery Life is struggle and creation

and space Researcher named and positioned

(Deetz 1996) 53

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A exemplary article form the critical discourse

Critique of Platje and Seidel et. al. (1993):

• How do the researchers know, before doing the fieldwork, where conflicts will arise, and who will be involved?

• The finding are not grounded in empirical evidence

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A metaphor developed from the critical discourse

• The articles representing the critical discourse are few.

• These show how lack of open communication makes different parties cocooning their interests.

• The aims of articles from this discourse to:

• articulate that IT PPM is about conflicting interest

• to provide a “parliament” where this conflict can be shoveled.

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A metaphor developed from the critical discourse

Four categories of IT PM litteratur (across different research field)

Dissensus

Critical

“IT PM as polity”

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A exemplary article from the interpretive discourse

• Authors: (Blichfeldt & Eskerod 2008)

• Title: Project portfolio management – There’s more to it than what management enacts

• Source of data: Based on 128 in-depth interviews in 30 (Danish) companies.

• Outlet: International Journal of Project Management

• Citations: 26 in Google scholar (June 2011)

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An exemplary article from the interpretive discourse

• Although companies manage project portfolios concordantly with project portfolio theory, they may experience problems in the form of delayed projects, resource struggles, stress, and a lack of overview.

• Finds the concrete problems:

• Projects are not completed according to plan

• Management and employees miss having a broad overview of ongoing projects

• People experience stress as resources are continuously reallocated across projects (to make ends meet)

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An exemplary article from the interpretive discourse

The dilemma:

• Wanting to include all projects in PPM, and aiming at keeping the resources and cognitive burden of doing PPM at a

reasonable level The solution:

• Take the decision about including all projects in PPM or not:

• A “not all inclusive PPM” – make a pool of resources to the unknown projects

• “Include all projects”. Be careful because this easily provides a cognitive overburden and de-motivation of employees.

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An exemplary article from the interpretive discourse

Local / Emergent Elite/A Priori Particularistic Universalistic

Atheoretical Theory driven

Situational or structural

determinism Methodological determinism

Sensuality and meaning as

central concerns Rationality and truth as central concerns

Situated, practical knowledge Generalizable, theoretical Knowledge Tends to be feminine

in attitude Tends to be masculine in attitude Ontology of "otherness"

over method

Epistemological and procedural issues rule over substantive assumptions

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An exemplary article from the interpretive discourse

Trust Suspicion

Hegemonic order as natural state Conflicts over order as natural state Unified science Positional complimentarily

Naturalization of present Present order is historicized and politicized Integration and harmony are possible Order indicates domination and suppressed

conflicts

Research focuses on representation Research focused on challenge and reconsideration (representation) Mirror (reflecting) dominant metaphor Lens (seeing / reading as)

dominant metaphor

Validity of central concern Insight and praxis central concern Theory as abstraction and triangulation Theory as opening

Science is neutral Science is political

Autonomous/free agent Historically / socially situated agent Life is discovery Life is struggle and creation

Research anonymous and out of time and

space Researcher named and positioned

(Deetz 1996) 61

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An exemplary article from the interpretive discourse

Critique:

• Emphasizes social integration of the different organizational levels and units. This assumption may be criticized for giving a too naïve and optimistic description of IT PM in

organizations.

• In opposition to the definition of IT PM put forward by this paper, stating that: “[IT PM] is a competition for scarce

resources available from the sponsor, since there are usually not enough resources. It can be argued that different

organizational levels and units hold fundamental different

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An exemplary article from the interpretive discourse

Developing a metaphor:

• Blichfeldt & Eskerod (2008) have asked people about the problems they experience in (IT) PPM.

• Cooper and his colleagues are another example of a solid empirical grounded investigation identifying the problems experienced by the people in organizations, e.g. “The

resource crunch”

• But is it reflecting our empirical reality that IT PPM is a sphere of harmony?

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A metaphor developed from the interpretive discourse

Four categories of IT PM litterature (across different research fields)

Dissensus

Interpretive

“IT PM as social relations with

dilemmas”

”

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An exemplary article from the dialogical discourse

• Author: Kirsch (1997)

• Title: Portfolio of Control Modes and IS Project Management

• Grounded in empirical data: A comparative case study of four companies. Data collection was conducted during a period of 11 months. Interviews, reviews of a range of project

documents. -> rich data!!

• Outlet: This is an article from a top ranked IS journal (Information Systems research)

• Citations: 251 in Google scholar (June 2011)

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An exemplary article from the dialogical discourse

• States the question: How are control modes implemented in IS projects and why do stakeholders use that particular

combination of control modes?

• Is this about IT PPM? (yes, but implicitly - the article talks about IS and user stakeholders).

• Kirsch (1997) is interested in both the formal and the informal side in managing the projects of an organization.

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An exemplary article from the dialogical discourse

67 Kirsch (1997)

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An exemplary article from the dialogical discourse

Findings by Kirsch (1997):

• Users has no formal control in development projects (even though they have a lot of useful knowledge)

• Makes a model to understand why stakeholders choose the particular combination of modes of control in management of projects.

• A solid empirical grounding provides the foundation for a rich analysis of the research questions (A dialogue with the data and the theory)

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An exemplary article from the dialogical discourse

(Kirsch 1997) 69

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An exemplary article from the dialogical discourse

Local / Emergent Elite/A Priori Particularistic Universalistic

Atheoretical Theory driven

Situational or structural determinism

Methodological determinism Sensuality and meaning as

central concerns Rationality and truth as central concerns

Situated, practical knowledge Generalizable, theoretical knowledge Tends to be feminine

in attitude Tends to be masculine in attitude

Ontology of "otherness"

over method Epistemological and procedural issues rule over substantive assumptions

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An exemplary article from the dialogical discourse

Trust Suspicion

Hegemonic order as natural state Conflicts over order as natural state

Unified science Positional complimentarily

Naturalization of present Present order is historicized and politicized

Integration and harmony are possible Order indicates domination and suppressed conflicts

Research focuses on representation Research focused on challenge and reconsideration (representation) Mirror (reflecting) dominant metaphor Lens (seeing / reading as)

dominant metaphor

Validity central concern Insight and praxis central concern Theory as abstraction and triangulation Theory as opening

Science is neutral Science is political

Autonomous/free agent Historically / socially situated agent Life is discovery Life is struggle and creation

and space Researcher named and positioned

(Deetz 1996) 71

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An exemplary article from the dialogical discourse

Critique of Kirsch (1997)

• The insights are difficult to transform to normative guidelines for practitioners.

• Could it be that the rigorous style of a top-ranked journal is shading the interesting and relevant story

• Is IT PPM only about control (vertical relations)

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A metaphor developed from the dialogical discourse

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Four categories of IT PM litteratur e(across different research fields)

Dissensus

Consensus

Dialogic

”IT PM as a carnival of power

mechanisms ”

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There is more to IT portfolio management - the four discourses

Four categories of IT PM litteratur e(across different research fields)

Dissensus

Interpretive

“IT PM as social relations with

dilemmas”

Dialogic

”IT PM as a carnival of power

mechanisms ”

Critical IT PM as

polity between interests

Normative

“IT PM as law-like market relations”

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There is more to IT portfolio management - the four discourses

• Practitioners may use these metaphors to consider whether their efforts to improve IT PM mediate the aspects that each metaphor articulates.

• Eskimos living in an environment of ice and snow have a great need for a vocabulary describing different aspects of snow and ice. This ability to perform sophisticated

descriptions and understanding of a wide range of aspects of these conditions are essential to the survival of the Eskimos.

• Similarly, as the need of IT PM becomes urgent in

organizations and IS research, a more complex understanding of IT PM is called for. Explicit use of the four discourses by

Deetz (1996) in IT PM research seems like a fruitful path.

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Finish

Thank you for your comments and attention:-)

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The applied theoretical frame in my thesis

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2) Brug af work design teori til at undersøge en “real life” case

Conceptualizing Work Design Problems: Within and Between Organization:

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IT Project portfolio management in threes phases

IT project portfolio management (IT PPM)

• A dynamic range of mechanisms conducted in phases (Archer

& Ghasemzadeh 1999)

• These phases are:

1. The pre-selection phase 2. The selection phase

3. The post-selection phase

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3) A work design – a organizations IT

project portfolio

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3) The preliminary result indicates a increasing complex network problem after the projects are selected.

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Figure 1: Adopted from Sinha and Van de Ven (2005)

1 2

3