Strategic planning between enterprise architects and portfolio managers sounds simple enough. It’s just two groups coming together to make a plan, right?
But the reality is more complicated.
Strategic planning is a difficult process — even when there’s strong collaboration and open communication between groups.
It’s even more challenging when the groups that need to work together are operating in silos. The impact of the collaboration gap can be significant, often contributing to issues like:
- enterprise architecture and portfolio management being disconnected and misaligned,
- little to no transparency on strategic investments and how to best prioritize,
- decisions made with limited/outdated information or understanding of risk, and
- data being in disparate systems — often out-of-date and not useful — and taking weeks to run scenario analyses.
Those are common challenges between enterprise architects and portfolio managers during the strategic planning process. It’s easy to get out of step with each other.
But here’s the thing.
Even though a lot can go wrong, a lot can also go right.
Like when:
- enterprise architecture and portfolio management operate using a single set of metrics, data, and processes,
- all strategic initiatives are aligned on business outcomes,
- you have increased confidence in strategic initiative investments backed by data, and
- integrated tools ensure data is up to date in all systems, so you can scale investments.
Enabling our customers to achieve those and other equally critical business outcomes is what drives our mission to build the future of connected work. That’s why we’re excited to announce an advancement in your shared strategic planning capabilities that will enable you to build even stronger connections among your strategy, teams, and outcomes.
I sat down with Sr. Product Manager Dominique Trimino and Product Manager Jordan Nguyen to learn more.
What’s being announced?
We enhanced the way enterprise architects and portfolio management leaders can work together to turn the technology strategy into portfolio and initiative plans by expanding the connectivity between Planview Enterprise Architecture and Planview Portfolios.
Planview firmly believes Enterprise Architecture serves as a key pillar in Strategic Portfolio Management. With Enterprise Architecture, organizations can prioritize and optimize investments based on strategic objectives, as well as architectural insights, to ensure a sustainable architecture for future business capabilities and opportunities.
Read Next: Enterprise Architecture: Essential for Digital Transformation
Why are these capabilities important?
Organizations need to align their strategic vision with effective planning to achieve success in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. By further connecting our existing integration with Portfolios, we are enabling organizations to deepen their connections across strategy and planning, driving collaborative efforts and ensuring shared objectives.
This capability aims to revolutionize the way businesses approach strategic planning by seamlessly integrating strategy, enterprise architecture, and program management teams.
What is the significance of shared strategic planning?
Shared strategic planning serves as the foundation for aligning the priorities and actions of different departments, teams, and individuals toward a common goal. By fostering collaboration and breaking down silos, shared strategic planning enables organizations to maximize their resources, manage risks effectively, and drive innovation. It transforms strategy from a static document into a dynamic roadmap that guides the entire organization.
How do enterprise architects and portfolio managers help to align objectives for organizational success?
By connecting strategy and planning, it enables seamless communication and collaboration between different teams and departments. With a shared understanding of the strategic vision, teams can align their objectives, ensuring that every action contributes to the organization’s overall goals. This alignment enhances productivity, eliminates duplication of efforts, and promotes a culture of collective ownership.
What is the relationship between Enterprise Architecture and Portfolio Management?
With Enterprise Architecture, Planview can enable organizations to prioritize and optimize investments based on strategic objectives, as well as architectural insights, to ensure a sustainable architecture for future business capabilities and opportunities. Integrating and aligning the two functions offers enhanced visibility into project impacts, mitigating risks and maximizing value across the portfolio.
How can Enterprise Architecture and Portfolio Management collaborate and integrate processes for delivering on strategic objectives?
Enterprise architecture and portfolio management can collaborate and integrate processes in three key ways:
Architecture-driven demand. Enterprise Architects can inform strategic initiatives by identifying critical business capabilities or value stream improvements in the form of plans. These plans, created in Planview Enterprise Architecture, flow into Planview Portfolios at the strategy level for inclusion in prioritization and funding approval.
Business case collaboration. Portfolio Managers can then collaborate with Enterprise Architects, leveraging their deeper understanding of enterprise-wide impacts and dependencies to ensure that all aspects are thoroughly considered and aligned.
Shared portfolio governance. As plans are evaluated and approved in Planview Portfolios, Enterprise Architects are kept up to date on the latest status, ensuring that the architecture aligns with ongoing portfolio delivery.
Learn more about the Strategic Portfolio Management solution
Planview’s strategic portfolio management (SPM) solution enables executives, finance, and EPMOs to drive their organizations’ transformation and initiatives, adapt with change, and accelerate on-strategy delivery. Visit the SPM solution page or watch the on-demand SPM solution demo for more information. Customers are encouraged to contact their Planview representative.
