How Product-Centric IT Disrupts Portfolio Management

One of the key functions of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) in IT is that of allocating finite funds to a subset of projects that vie for funding. When it works well, PPM becomes an effective agent of capital allocation within enterprise IT by funding promising projects and terminating underperforming ones. In principle, this is not very different to how a venture capitalist might manage their portfolio by investing in promising ventures and freezing funding or writing off investments in ventures that don’t show promise. But in practice, PPM tends to work very differently in a typical setup. Read more

Does Product-Centric IT Need Projects and Programs?

Product-centric IT differs from conventional, project-centric IT in significant ways.

Product-Centric	Project-Centric
Stable long-lived teams	Temporary teams
Teams aligned to long-term business capabilities	Teams aligned to scope of project
Cross-functional teams are the norm	Functional specialty teams are common
Focus is value (actual benefits realization)	Focus is plan compliance

But projects and programs are a staple of enterprise IT. Doesn't Product-Centric IT need projects and programs? And what does it mean for the roles of project and program managers? Read it here.