What's the most effective way to manage your IT strategy roadmap and portfolio?

Phrase the vision as the accomplished state at the end of the roadmap horizon. An inspirational aspiration like, "Deliver the leading widget processing application for the transportation industry." A vision statement defines 'what' the objective is for the entire portfolio horizon. Aligning portfolio requests to the vision directly helps keep the delivery team and stakeholders accountable to the primary objective.

When undertaking a specific transformation activity, one of the most important factors was to have the ability to tangibly measure current state. This means that the "needles" used to measure where the enterprise currently sit are critical to ensuring you have the right strategy. Once you know where you are at, it becomes a lot more straightforward to understand where you want to be. Then by aligning the metrics to your vision tactical plans can be created that highlight a step by step guide towards moving those metrics in the right direction.

Collaborating with stakeholders throughout the process of creating the IT strategy and roadmap helps ensure that the end product meets the needs of those who are impacted by it, that it is aligned with related strategies from other parts of the organization, and helps ensure that the strategy is well understood – and supported – by those who are impacted by it.

Any map is only useful if there's an accurate sense of 'you are here'. Business architecture assets and practices help to illustrate where the organization is and how mature the capabilities of each function are. The quality and efficacy of data, policies, products, processes, and people are all factors to consider and measure to clearly approach improvement with intention.

It is also very important to know the business partners that you are trying to enable as well. In the corporate technology space quite often the big picture should be defined alongside teams like HR and Legal as well. If you look at a process like Day 1 readiness for new hires, taking into consideration not only the IT components but also the experience that HR wants to provide and any Legal considerations is a big opportunity. Now you are focused on how the overall picture looks instead of one portion of it.

It is also very important to understand key business partners goals and deliverables. When the time for budgeting comes into the picture, having those initiatives identified that are cross functional will ensure that focus on value remains at the forefront of thought. Often times the pet projects and new capabilities get more funding than what is actually value focused for the business.

IT should be viewed as a trusted partner and ideally take part of the stakeholders strategy and portfolio discussions as well. This has been in my experience a great way to drive engagement. Sometimes there will be competition of resources and various teams like Finance, HR and Legal often will not reach across the aisle to ensure alignment. This is where as an IT partner you have the ability to bridge gaps to show asks that are similar to each other and potentially drive collaboration for the good of the enterprise.

Scope creep is always a big challenge to ensure that success is not something that comes with cost overruns. While iterative development is a great way to stay agile, it also needs to have measurable outcomes that do not go on forever. Having checkpoints or milestones tied to releases and ensuring a tight change control process is a crucial component here.

Managing an IT strategy roadmap and portfolio effectively requires careful planning, coordination, and ongoing monitoring. Follow these steps to insure success: 1. Define your IT strategy. 2. Establish a governance framework. 3. Conduct portfolio analysis. 4. Prioritize initiatives. 5. Create a roadmap. 6. Resource allocation. 7. Monitor and review. 8. Communication and stakeholder engagement. 9. Adapt to changes. 10. Embrace innovation. Remember, effective management of an IT strategy roadmap and portfolio is an ongoing process. It requires continuous monitoring, evaluation, and adjustment to ensure alignment with business goals and changing circumstances.