IT project and portfolio management

Using PPM software to bring financial accountability into IT

The CIO, as the liaison between business and IT, needs to know exactly what’s going on in IT and then translate it into something the business side understands: dollars and cents. To do that, the project and portfolio management (PPM) discipline — and software — is becoming increasingly important, midmarket included.

At the 2009 HP Software Universe conference this week, I came across an attendee who stressed just that. Introducing himself as a “turnaround CIO” (who turns around failing businesses), this particular gentleman had a lot to say about the IT culture.

“It can be really difficult to get a data center manager, for example, to tell you exactly what he’s doing and when he’s doing it,” he said. “They turn to you like you have three heads — ‘I’m doing my job, what else would I be doing?’” Continued »