Stop hawking software that doesn't force data integrity on investment projections
We are yet to see an IT or project portfolio management tool which
uses driver-based models to develop the cost-benefit analyses which
should underly an investment. Instead of having some amount of
consistency and rigor by which ROI, profit, revenue, NPV, etc are
derived, the tools generally let you hardcode these fields. What good
is trying to optimize on a portfolio when someone can enter an ROI of
1000%. There has to be some consistency in how the data is created to
enable comparison across investments, business units, etc and truly
balance the portfolio.
Actually, let expanding on #2 - stop hawking software altogether
The entire IT and project portfolio management space has become
synonymous with "solutions", but having built a portfolio management
discipline at a massive organization, that the
tool is actually quite irrelevant. Instead, these
vendors should tell their clients that IT and proejct portfolio
management have more to do with (1) a process to value investments
(applying modern portfolio theory and its valuation techniques to a
corporate setting) along with (2) efforts to change the culture and
behavior so that people will provide resources to the best ideas. At
some point, a software might be useful, but until the process and
culture/behavior are where they need to be, the software is a nice way
to make software companies wealthy.
Stop oversimplifying portfolio optimization
How many times have we heard a consultant or vendor say, "Our PPM (or
IT Portfolio Management) framework, software, etc lets you identify,
select and focus on those investments with the best ROI." The
portfolio cannot be optimized on one dimension and ROI, while useful,
fails to consider strategic, risk, cash flow timing, innovation, and
other important investment parameters. Portfolio optimization is a bit
like enlightenment. You can aspire to achieve it, but you actually can
never optimize a portfolio. Advocating that it can be done on the
basis of a single metric is dream-weaving at its best.
Refrain from sending out jargon-laden press releases which say absolutely nothing
We're glad to know that you have an on-demand, best-in-class solution
that enables transparency, agility, compatibility, portability and that
it has endless possibilities, abilities and capabilities, but do you
really think anyone is buying this cr^p? Sure you've been recognized
by some random IT research organization, but how about actually saying
something in your press release that demonstrates some understanding of
IT or project portfolio management?
Don't make up idiotic titles for people in your organization like "Portfolio Management Evangelist"
Given the recent trend in many large organizations to appoint meaningless Chief (anything)
Officers, It sounds a
lot better to be an evangelist than a boring old product manager or
something more conventional and perhaps even descriptive of your role,
but please stop calling folks evangelists.