Authors:
Gustavo Taveira
;
Antonio Juarez Alencar
and
Eber Assis Schmitz
Affiliation:
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Keyword(s):
Portfolio management, Incremental funding method, Minimum marketable features, Principles of choice, Decision theory.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Information Engineering Methodologies
;
Information Systems Analysis and Specification
;
Methodologies, Processes and Platforms
;
Model-Driven Software Development
;
Software Engineering
;
Systems Engineering
Abstract:
In today’s very competitive business environment, making the best possible use of limited resources is crucial to achieve success and gain competitive advantage. To accomplish such a goal organizations have to maximize the return provided by their portfolio of future investments, choosing very carefully the IT projects they undertake and the risks they are willing to accept, otherwise they are bound to waste time and money, and still be likely to fail. This article introduces a method that enables managers to better evaluate the investment to be made in a portfolio of IT projects. The method favors the identification of common parts, avoiding the duplication of work efforts, and the selection of the implementation order that yields the highest payoff considering a given risk exposure policy. Moreover, it extends Denne and Cleland-Huang’s ideas on minimum marketable feature modules and uses both Decision Theory and the Principles of Choice to guide the decisions made under uncertainty.