IT PMO responsibilities are typically centered around delivering projects on time, on budget, and in scope. But the question the IT PMO should be asking is whether those projects are still high value to the business or if things have changed – driving the need to re-prioritize the portfolio. Traditional metrics are failing to provide expected value and alignment to those business objectives and priorities.
Reporting and qualitative measurement is available via portfolio and resource management solutions. The eBook “The Top 6 Reports for IT PMOs” highlights two reports that are critical to understanding investments, resource capacity, and financials related to the strategic plan.
When it comes to investments and resource capacity as it relates to planning, I have talked to many IT PMO leaders and business executives and these questions typically rise to the top.
How do we:
- Bring value to the business and when will it be delivered?
- What else should we do?
- What else can we do?
The right investment and resource capacity reports (delivered via a PPM solution) provide the data you need to easily improve communication between IT and the business for prioritization and planning. It allows you to create and model different trade-offs against capacity ensuring IT can deliver any of the various scenarios. Then use those scenarios to answer these alarmingly simple questions that are often so difficult to answer.
The IT PMO can also be the key to bringing IT, the business, and financial leaders together so that decisions are aligned not only to resource capacity, but strategic and operational spend.
When it comes to financial planning, leaders often juggle with these questions:
How can we:
- Track and trend investment forecasts over time – against a budget, a monthly process, or through a gating process?
- Accurately forecast and identify investments that are performing well and those performing poorly to create opportunities to drive better planning and adaptability?
The right reports help you visualize financial information with the ability to create and model decisions in different scenarios using real-time data (via a portfolio and resource management solution). It allows you to visualize the portfolio’s summary and ROI to better understand the different decision sets giving you the ability to adapt and work on the most valuable priorities. In addition, you will have access to financial burn down charts for each project as well as the overall portfolio, to understand the original plan, the current plan, and its continuous evolution throughout the year.
Inform stakeholders consistently, confidently, and often. Get a look at the reports I highlighted in this blog or download the eBook, “The Top 6 Reports for IT PMOs” to view them all.
- Investment and Capacity Planning
- Financial Planning
- Resource Capacity and Demand
- Process Analysis
- Monitoring Project Health
- Plan vs. Actuals
Stay tuned to the Planview Blog for more information on reports 3-6. If you’re interested in the topic of planning follow #BethatPMO on Twitter.
I’d like to hear from you. What are the top reports in you IT PMO? Share by leaving a comment below.
