If you're doing a good job at portfolio management, you'll choose IT investments that help achieve corporate goals, even if they don't have the largest ROI. The fundamental principle of portfolio management is that you first choose the goals for your portfolio and then select the investments that will achieve them. For investments in change, these goals are expressed as the results you want to accomplish (with corresponding measures and milestones) and the shape of the enterprise that the investments must deliver. You can use these signs to assess whether your enterprise manages its investments in change as a portfolio: As your goals change—for example, from efficiency to growth—so does your portfolio. You select projects based on their contributions to the portfolio, rather than their standalone merits. This means turning down proposals that have positive ROI individually but don’t fit the goals of the portfolio. You explore what each proposal would mean for the shape of the enterprise, considering factors other than cost. This can mean investing in projects—such as redesigning a pivotal process—that have a low or negative return but are key to the enterprise’s future. It can also mean rejecting projects that would undermine the organization’s direction. Better Investment Decisions It’s common for enterprises to treat the cost of a portfolio as the primary constraint when making decisions. But this approach can conceal other, possibly more significant, factors that drive the portfolio’s success. These include the overall value that the portfolio is expected to deliver and the enterprise’s capacity to make and exploit the changes that the portfolio represents. Exploring other prioritization criteria can result in a more productive and efficient portfolio and a higher project success rate. Chris Potts is corporate IT strategist and CIO futurist with Dominic Barrow. Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe