Modern Information Technology Portfolio Management Improvement Initiative
NCMS Project #: 140817
Problem: Just as investors have portfolios of financial assets to address their investment objectives, industry and Department of Defense (DoD) organizations require portfolios to manage their information technology (IT) investments to their IT objectives. And just like any other investment portfolio, the IT portfolio must be balanced to achieve alignment with the organization’s strategy and the desired combination of short and long term financial and operational requirements. Many firms have adopted IT portfolio management (PFM) as a means to manage and prioritize their IT investments as it provides a strong business-oriented lens familiar to most executives.
It has been proven over and over again that COTS (commercial off the shelf) developed IT systems work best in private industry. Realizing this, the DoD has continually strived towards incorporating COTS technology into government owned and operated systems. Yet in order to do so, both government and private industry must work together to ensure sound IT PFM practices are employed while managing budget constraints. Given the current fiscal realities and understanding how these impact future capital outlays are key components that need to be leveraged to lean out redundant or unnecessary costs and processes. Additionally, gaining a better understanding of IT PMF practices both in industry and DoD will facilitate streamlined business activities and more stringent data security.
Best practices in IT PFM are continuously being refined. However a number of challenges remain. For example, there is continuous debate on what metrics to use when measuring the performance of an IT portfolio. Also, there is no accepted best practice of displaying those metrics in a way that is visually appealing, informative and easy to digest.
Benefit: The roadmap effort will provide government and industry with innovative ways to display IT information as well as with new ways to display IT portfolio management performance measures. This collaborative process will also allow for a greater commonality for sharing critical data and lay the foundation for accelerating new business opportunities in the areas of IT utilization, cloud computing approaches and privatization.
Solution/Approach: This initiative will address critical IT portfolio management issues faced by industry and the Navy. The effort will focus on performing tasks that result in an enterprise strategy that will serve as a long term IT portfolio management solution for the Navy and leveraged by industry.
The objectives of this project are to: 1) create and depict in a visually appealing manner, a streamlined IT Strategic Roadmap that promotes consensus regarding Navy IT requirements and the technologies needed to satisfy those requirements 2) provide a mechanism to help forecast IT developments and 3) provide a framework to help plan and coordinate technology developments.
Impact on Warfighter:
- Reduced sustainment costs
- Improved weapon systems readiness and reliability
- Enhanced reporting capabilities
- Greater data compatibilities and utility between industry and government
DOD Participation:
- U.S. Navy, DUSN (M)
- U.S. Navy, OPNAV (N40, N2/N6)
- HQMC (FAMs)
Industry Participation:
- Troika Solutions, LLC
- RGS Associations, Inc.
- NCMS
Benefit Area(s):
- Cost savings
- Obsolescence management and continued maintenance capability
- Improved readiness
Focus Area:
- Business processes/partnerships