Managing Competing IT Priorities

CIO —

By Maya Townsend

Alpha Corporation depends on IT to drive revenues through technology enhancements. Yet the CIO is in a difficult position. She has six lines of business clamoring for attention and arguing over whose project comes first. To make matters worse, IT staffing levels remain constant while expectations rise.

The pressure to perform, along with the competing demands from customers, creates a stressful and confused environment. Project managers are pulled in multiple directions, fitting in projects for their favorite customers, ignoring other projects and working long hours. Nothing seems to get done properly and staff is on the verge of burnout.

Luckily, there are ways to manage multiple priorities effectively. Here four of the most effective actions you can take to manage your organization’s priorities.

1. Clarify the Organization’s Value Proposition
The organization’s value proposition is its reason for existence. It describes how IT adds value to the larger organization. Is IT expected to drive cost savings, improve customer satisfaction, create new revenue streams or increase revenue in existing streams? Perhaps all of the above? If so, then what are the priorities within those expectations? Does customer satisfaction trump revenue? Or are cost savings what’s really important these days?

The value proposition serves as your anchor amidst the tumult of organizational life. Once you have clarity with your operating committee on the true value of IT for the enterprise, you can identify whether a proposed initiative or project fits. Some will clearly match. These are the high value projects that go on top of the priority list.

Other projects won’t align with the value proposition. Deciding how to handle these projects can be tough, especially if their sponsors are particularly committed to them. However, if CIOs have done their groundwork and gained consensus with the operating committee on the value proposition, telling a customer, “Next quarter,” ”Next year,” or even, “No” becomes much easier.

This is exactly what happened with Alpha Corporation’s CIO. She confirmed with the operating committee that the value of the IT division was to drive revenue through technology enhancements. With their agreement and support, she renegotiated, dropping some of the internal improvement projects clogging her portfolio.

2. Create Logical, Fact-Based, Prioritization Processes for IT Investments
Unless you’re lucky enough to be in an organization with unlimited resources, there will always be tension between who gets what they want and who doesn’t. The best organizations prevent destructive politicking by creating logical, fact-based prioritization processes for IT investments.

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