IT Portfolio Research Articles

Implementation of The Open Group Architecture Framework to See the Readiness of Smart Schools in Pekanbaru

Smart Schools are a derivative of smart people in the 6 pillars of Smart City. Smart Schools is also a school concept utilizing information technology used in the teaching and learning process in the classroom and school administration. One of the schools in Pekanbaru City that will implement smart schools is Junior High School 17 Pekanbaru. Currently, the school already has several infrastructures including servers, laboratories, and administrative rooms, but it is necessary to analyze the technology architecture aimed at implementing Smart Schools. The technological architecture would be analyzed using TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework) Framework version 9. The TOGAF framework is a framework for enterprise architecture which is able to develop an enterprise architecture in an organization. Enterprise architecture is an explicit explanation and current documentation of the relationship between management, business processes, and information technology. This research describes the current architectural conditions and target architectures to include the rules, standards, and lifecycle of information systems to optimize and maintain the environment of organizations that want to create and maintain by managing the IT portfolios. The results of this study are to produce an IT blueprint that is used as a school guide in implementing technology architecture to support the implementation of Smart Schools in Pekanbaru City.

Issues regarding IT Consumerization: How Mixed IT Portfolios of Private and Business IT Components Cause Unreliability

With increasing mobile work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the usage and relevance of consumer IT for business purposes have substantially increased. In this light, an understudied area of IT consumerization, the adverse outcomes for employees using consumer IT for business purposes, is of major importance. We conduct a mixed-methods study to investigate the adverse outcomes of IT consumerization. We build on prior studies and end-user interviews to draw connections between IT consumerization and unreliability as one known technostressor. A quantitative survey of 162 full-time employees shows that IT consumerization is associated with increased unreliability. The users’ general computer self-efficacy, instead, decreases unreliability, and unreliability leads to various job-related and health-related outcomes. We show that unreliability is driven by users’ experience while trying to integrate private and business IT components for business purposes. We follow up on this observation through a qualitative analysis of open-ended survey questions to detail users’ experiences. Our findings emphasize the need to examine the negative outcomes of IT consumerization, despite its well-studied positive effects. We suggest that organizations should strive to integrate business and private IT as much as IT security constraints allow for reduced technostress.

Enabling Autonomous Teams and Continuous Deployment at Scale

In this article, we advise on transitioning to a more agile delivery model for large-scale agile development projects based on experience from the Parental Benefit Project of the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration. The project modernized a central part of the organization's IT portfolio and included up to ten development teams working in parallel. The project successfully changed from using a delivery model that combined traditional project management elements and agile methods to a more agile delivery model with autonomous teams and continuous deployment. This transition was completed in tandem with the project execution. We identify key lessons learned, which will be useful for other organizations considering similar changes and report how the new delivery model reduced risk and opened up a range of new possibilities for delivering the benefits of digitalization.

Critical Success Factors Evaluation by Multi-Criteria Decision-Making: A Strategic Information System Planning and Strategy-As-Practice Perspective

Strategic information system planning (SISP) is a central process that enables organizations to identify the strategic alignment of their IT portfolio to achieve their business needs and objectives. The extant SISP literature has focused on theoretical and processual aspects and has left methodological ambiguity about how SISP is practiced. This paper contributes to the current knowledge by providing a mixed-methods SISP framework labeled CSF-MCDM for company-wide strategic alignment. The paper conducts a methodological synthesis, embracing an expert-based qualitative approach based on a PEST-SWOT and causal layered analysis to draw the critical success factors of a next-generation business system for an automotive company in South Korea. The derived CSF dimensions and sub-criteria are evaluated by the multi-criteria decision-making model, engaging a strategy-as-practice lens to SISP to enable an integrative analysis of IS strategy formulation, planning, and implementation. The findings reveal the relative strategic priorities of dimensions, the following core activities, and the global priorities for resource distribution planning for IS strategy of the firm. This paper argues that bringing replicability with SISP and diversifying methodological approaches within the organization is substantial. This paper also suggests that future researchers validate the suggested framework for scientific replicability and expand the SISP research stream within the entire IS/IT ecosystem.

Measuring Dynamic Capabilities of IT Resources

The concept of Dynamic Capabilities (DC) has been popular for almost two decades. Dynamic capabilities were the ability of an organization to adapt to a changing environment. Dynamic capabilities are organizations that managed resources and competencies, both internally and externally, would survive with environmental changes. Many studies have reviewed the concept of dynamic capabilities. Some studies attempted to investigate how dynamic capabilities impact business, dynamic capabilities, and dynamic capabilities. However, limited research suggests how to measure an organization's dynamic capabilities, especially the capabilities of resources that drive an organization to have dynamic capabilities. Therefore, this study tries to provide a proposed method for measuring organizational resources' dynamic capabilities, especially IT. Information technology was chosen because there was a general belief that IT could strengthen the organization's position in business competition. The model was developed with a conceptual research and case study approach. Conceptual research was carried out to develop a theoretical framework through the study of literature. At the same time, the case study was carried out for model validation. The proposed method was adopted from the IT portfolio management and portfolio mapping. Based on the validation processes, the model proposed was suitable for measuring IT resources' capabilities and describing how IT resources could support dynamic capabilities. The result shows that more dynamic IT resources could improve the dynamic capabilities of an organization.

Information System Strategic Planning using Ward and Peppard Methodology (Case Study: Nusatovel Salatiga)

In the current era of globalization, IS and IT are utilized to be able to compete and increase company productivity. Information system strategic planning is one of the keys in achieving the target expected by the company. NUSATOVEL PT has implemented an information system, but there are still some parts that have not implemented the information system. The information system strategy planning model uses the Ward and Peppard method with SWOT analysis, Value Chain analysis, and Mc Farlan's Strategic Grid. By using this method various factors that affect the company, both internal and external are analyzed to get a formula that is the basis for preparing a new IS / IT strategy in the form of an IS / IT portfolio, which can then be used as a strategic plan. Research using this method makes strategic planning for IS / IT that can provide recommendations or solutions to the development and implementation of IS / IT that is more effective and efficient for the company. The proposed information system strategy, namely Graphic Design SI, Customer Relations Manager SI, SI Services, can be implemented within the next 3 (three) years.

Information technology governance model for a low resource institution with fragmented IT portfolio

The emergence of information technology governance in higher education has emerged as important for aligning information technology goals with that of institutions in order to achieve the mission and vision of institutions. Even though higher education institutions in South Africa have some form of information technology governance or information technology strategic committee in place, they are still struggling to operationalize their mandate effectively in order to achieve their objectives. The struggle is even more in settings that are low on resources and where the information technology portfolio is highly fragmented. In this article, an information technology governance model suitable for low resource settings and fragmented information technology portfolios is proposed to assist institutions having this type of setting achieve successful strategic information technology alignment. Case study research was used to: 1) understand information technology challenges that an institution with this type of setting faces and; 2) understand how other similar institutions have implemented their information technolgy governance. The findings from the case studies contributed to the development of an effective information technology governance model suited to these institutions with low resource settings and having fragmented information technology portifolios. Initial evaluation of the model using existing literature review, existing information technology governance frameworks and case studies used in the study indicate the validity of the model.

Exploring “high tech” and “high touch” interaction capabilities: aligning the IT portfolio with customer and supplier relationships

PurposeTo explore the emergent characteristics of IT portfolios in business-to-business (B2B) firms. The goal is to develop a model that clarifies what interaction capabilities B2B firms develop and to what form of IT this corresponds to.Design/methodology/approachWe apply an a priori conceptual framework that is based on the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group's theoretical focus on business relationships. The framework depicts the business relationship as dealing with uncertainty and equivocality as well as building and upholding reliance and trust. We utilize a case study approach involving a focal firm and ten of its customers and suppliers. Building on 60 interviews, field observations and archival data, we analyze interviewee responses and the complementary data to evaluate the role of IT in supporting or automated various aspects of organizational relationships.FindingsResults show how “high tech” and “high touch” relate to different interaction capabilities, which firms develop based on the characteristics of their business relationships. Although IT is associated with “high tech” and “high touch” interaction capabilities, some forms of IT are deployed to support the former, while other forms support the later. Both forms of technology-enabled interaction capabilities require investment, and firms must balance investment costs against the value created by improved interaction capabilities.Originality/valueOur findings emphasize the interorganizational perspective (dyadic or network) rather than a solely organizational perspective for understanding IT portfolio development. This perspective is presented through an emergent tech–touch interaction capability model that shows how B2B firms can align their IT portfolio based on the specific characteristics of their business relationships.

Candidate diversity and granularity in IT portfolio construction

The construction of a superior IT portfolio remains an open research question in prior literature. For addressing this gap, we investigate two unique characteristics of IT investment projects that may make it more or less likely to construct a superior IT portfolio in this study. We are mainly grounded on the modern portfolio theory to develop propositions regarding the relationships among such characteristics and their impacts on IT portfolio construction performance. Our methodology combines optimization modeling, real-world data, numerical simulation (Monte Carlo), and computational experiment. One main finding shows that, for any set of candidate IT investment projects, their attribute diversity and investment granularity could jointly influence the resultant IT portfolio construction performance. Even when a very tight budget is provided, a set of candidate IT investment projects with higher diversity and granularity would still generate a superior IT portfolio. In other words, the diversity and granularity of IT portfolio construction candidates can positively affect portfolio performance, although budget limits can impose a negative impact on the performance.

Selecting the Most Desirable IT Portfolio Under Various Risk Tolerance Levels

To better assist decision-makers (e.g., enterprise executives) in selecting the most desirable IT portfolio, this study proposes a new IT Portfolio Efficient Frontier model that incorporates the decision-maker's risk tolerance levels. The proposed model, built on portfolio optimization along with experimental design and simulation data, considers three IT portfolio scenarios: even distribution-based IT portfolios, uneven distribution-based IT portfolios, and dominant IT portfolios. Our findings show that the IT portfolio efficient frontiers derived from both an even distribution-based IT portfolio and an uneven distribution-based IT portfolio have a relatively positive relationship between IT portfolio risk and return. Our findings also indicate that if IT investments are part of a dominant IT portfolio, an inflection point of the IT portfolio efficient frontier appears under the decision-maker's medium risk tolerance level, and the most desirable IT portfolio is generated when a decision maker's risk tolerance level is medium or higher.

Assessing the resilience of an IT portfolio

One of the goals of the business impact analysis (BIA) process is to establish recovery objectives. Having established recovery objectives, the next step is to assess whether one’s IT portfolio can actually meet those objectives. Unfortunately, there is no well-defined and prescriptive process for this. This article describes a model that can be customised and applied in any organisation to take an IT-centric view to assessing resilience capabilities. The first stage of this process is to gather IT-specific data, either through a questionnaire or by querying the configuration management database directly. The next step is to leverage a set of scoring rubrics in order to assess the capabilities of each application with respect to meeting recovery point objectives, recovery time objectives and service-level targets, as well as the strength of staffing, documentation and disaster recovery plans. The output of the model is a composite score for each application (based upon an aggregate capability score and a weighting factor) that identifies those services in the IT portfolio with the greatest gaps in their capabilities (ie those services in greatest need of remediation). The logic of the model can either be built with spreadsheets or automated through business continuity management planning platforms.

Enterprise Architecture in Hospitals: Resolving Incongruence Issues.

Enterprise Architecture allows addressing technologies and processes in a holistic way and mirrors choices related to process standardization and data integration. It has the potential to address long-standing problems in health information systems related to fragmented IT portfolios, immature IT infrastructures, and silo-structured organizing. Nevertheless, uptake of Enterprise Architecture in hospitals has been slow. To understand the issues related to this slow uptake we have undertaken an interview study with architects and managers. The issues identified reveal a level of incongruence between healthcare as a domain and the practice of EA. Specifically, by analyzing the experiences of architects and managers we identified four different areas of such incongruence that create the need to reconcile a) Bottom-up vs. Top-down Planning b) Clinical vs. Systems' Knowledge, c) Local vs. Global Arrangements and d) Patient Safety vs. Patient Privacy. Building on prior related research we propose ways for resolving the incongruence issues identified.

Integrating COBIT with a hybrid group decision-making approach for a business-aligned IT roadmap formulation

An IT roadmap is a critical investment that can significantly affect future competitiveness and performance of a firm. This study presents a comprehensive framework for determining the predecessors and successors of each activity of a roadmap to manage and govern the IT. This paper discusses the result of integrating the COBIT as a well-known IT standard with a hybrid group decision-making method, which has not been yet extensively studied to prioritize the potential actions of an IT roadmap, in a real-world case in Iran to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed framework. The proposed framework can systematically construct the objectives of IT portfolio building to support business goals and strategies of a firm, identify the proper attributes, and set up a consistent evaluation standard for facilitating a group decision process.The study findings will be interesting for academics, chief information officers, and IT planning practitioners and consultants.

Information system planning strategy on higher education institution based computer: a case study of a STIKOM yos sudarso purwokerto Indonesia

The study aims to describe planning strategies of information technology and information system on higher education based computer, especially College of Computer Science Yos Sudarso Purwokerto or “Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Komputer Yos Sudarso Purwokerto” (STIKOM Yos Sudarso Purwokerto) Indonesia. The method was Enterprise Architecture Framework, in which each components of framework must utilities some analysis like SWOT analysis, IT Balanced Scorecard and Portfolio Application Framework. The result from Enterprise Architecture Framework documentation, can give a description to institution about development strategy of information system which is compatible with higher education institution vision and mission, as well as give input related to technology infrastructure condition and resource of institution. It is hoped that the blueprint can be implemented as a manual for developing institution.

The President's Page: Reinventing ComSoc's IT Portfolio

The President's Page: Reinventing ComSoc's IT Portfolio

Formation and bases of the analysis of the investment portfolio of the enterprise

This article discusses several methods for project design and analysis. After all, they are the key ones in creating a new IT portfolio of the enterprise, according to the standards for the formation and management of projects, which is especially important in investment analysis. Considering these stages, we touch topics from the beginning of an enterprise to its formation, as a working business. After all, every enterprise begins its life with a choice of methods, stopping at one, it chooses a plan and sets tasks. Attraction of investments will be one of the main points in this task. For today, investments are the cause for the consequences of economic processes and various phenomena in the economy. This view will be of interest to specialists in the field of information technology and economic sciences. The idea is substantiated that the analysis of such results gives a good assessment in order to further identify weaknesses, build business processes and solutions from the point of view of forming a new portfolio of the enterprise and tools that allow determining the profitability of the module or the project as a whole in terms of money and technical equivalents. The article helps to reveal the topic and the main problem that is interesting and relevant for today, what method of attracting investors and implementing / shaping the IT portfolio of the project, choose which innovative portfolio management systems should be used and how they differ from traditional ones and how to properly link them with architecture of the enterprise. The key stages of investment analysis will be: increase in profits, accumulation of resources, proper portfolio formation and diversification.

Gaining Insight into IT Investment in the Agriculture Industry : Comparison of IT Portfolios by Type of Crops

Gaining Insight into IT Investment in the Agriculture Industry : Comparison of IT Portfolios by Type of Crops

Examining Real Options Exercise Decisions in Information Technology Investments

Researchers have advocated real options thinking (ROT) for evaluating and managing risky IT investments to account for managerial decision flexibility. Effective ROT is a three-step process that requires managers to recognize, value, and exercise options embedded in IT projects. Prior research has illustrated the existence of managerial bias in the recognizing and valuing real options. However, little research has examined real options exercise decisions. Hence, we use prospect theory to examine whether IT managers demonstrate systematic biases while exercising real options in IT projects and portfolios. We also study whether one can control or mitigate such biases. We found evidence of biased (suboptimal) real option exercise decisions in IT projects and in IT portfolios. However, we found differences in biased decision making between a single project and a portfolio scenario. We also found that project scale and real option type influenced vulnerability of a project to biased decision making. In addition, simplifying the presentation of the net effects of real options exercise decisions can help reduce bias, especially for large project portfolios. We discuss the implications of these results on theory and practice.

ProSight: New Millennium Financial Technology Portfolio Management

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are often very complex management endeavors. Analyzes the IT component of M&A for two financial institutions. Students are tasked with assisting Mike Farrell, the CIO of New Millennium Financial (NMF), a new company created through the merger of FinStar Financial and D&L Bank, in determining the optimal combined IT portfolio. To accomplish this task the strategic business objectives of the firm must be clearly understood and the IT projects in the pipelines of both institutions analyzed. Students must make an IT portfolio management decision and answer the question: What is the optimal IT strategy and project portfolio for NMF?To apply a framework to manage a company's IT portfolio, i.e., understand the company's strategic context, develop business objectives that align with its strategy, assess IT investments, and develop a portfolio of IT projects that support the objectives. The framework is iterative, i.e., IT investments are assessed on a regular basis based on their performance and risk/return tradeoffs. Also to introduce a leading Web-based tool, ProSight, that helps managers organize IT portfolios.

MDCM, Inc. (B): Strategic IT Portfolio Management

“MDCM, Inc. (B): Strategic IT Portfolio Management” examines the steps involved in developing a portfolio of IT projects aligned with a company's strategic objectives. Specifically, the case describes a situation where a firm has launched a transformation strategy but has yet to develop a complementary IT strategy. Students must select the optimal portfolio of projects aligned with the strategic objectives and define the global project execution strategy. The projects have both risks and dependencies. U.S.-based MDCM, Inc. specializes in medical device contract manufacturing and assembly. For the past five years, MDCM had grown by making more than twenty acquisitions of companies based outside the United States. This growth strategy enabled MDCM to better match its services to its customers, who had become larger and more global. In MDCM (A), the CIO of MDCM needed to determine the company's IT strategy and objectives. In doing so, he needed to ensure that they were properly aligned with the company's overall strategy and the new organization developed under an initiative called Horizon 2000. In a lecture prior to the cases, students should be introduced to the framework of IT portfolio management and how it can help focus IT efforts. In MDCM (B), the CIO has performed an audit of MDCM's IT and found twelve projects that are potential investment candidates for the next three years. The challenge for the IT Portfolio Management team is to identify the priority and appropriate sequence of investments to be made. The case assumes that students have knowledge of corporate IT. More specifically, the case is targeted for those who are or plan to become executives who would manage IT strategy and IT investment decisions either directly or in an oversight role. This case is the second in a series; the first is the case “MDCM, Inc. (A): IT Strategy Synchronization.”For this case, students create a portfolio management process and apply it to the IT project portfolio of a global manufacturing company. Students will learn how to balance risk and return of projects and short-term vs. long-term wins. They also create an activity network diagram, stressing the importance of understanding global resource constraints and execution timing. Students also learn the nuances of portfolio selection, e.g., outsourcing decision making and build vs. buy for a global firm.