Prioritizing IT Initiatives Using Business Architecture
In turbulent times, budget pressures increase and IT spending is scrutinized. We will describe a technique that Microsoft architects around the world use every day to ensure that IT projects have both a clear alignment with the strategic goals of the organization and a strong demonstrable impact. This is used to prioritize the project portfolio to maximize return on investment (ROI) and determine the projects that should receive budget and resource allocation.
Methods include Microsoft Services Business Architecture (MSBA) to identify what to change and the Benefits Dependency Network (BDN) to understand fully whythe changes must be made. This leads to a clear alignment withhow the projects will make those changes. By using these methods, we identify the people, processes, and technology that are to be changed and provide clear alignment with organizational goals so as to achieve both financial and nonfinancial benefits. Many organizations have subsequently incorporated these methods into their project management and portfolio-prioritization processes.
Martin Sykes
Brad Clayton
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/aa902621.aspx
200908 architecture