C suite constantly struggle with justifying value of initiatives undertaken. This is clearly the case for Human resources, Marketing and Information technology where the value extraction is not directly correlated to bottom line performance. Various standards and framework exist to successfully elaborate and communicate the means, such as PMBOK , COBIT etc., but few have concentrated on the ends. IT Governance Institute’s (ITGI’s) Val IT™ framework can be utilized by management to monitor, optimize and realize business value from IT. Even though the framework is specifically created keeping IT in mind, it can be used by other areas of business too.
Val IT framework provides management practices and processed for three organizational domains:
1. Value Governance – Overall governing body to ensure that value management practices are embedded in every aspect of the enterprise. This will ensure that optimum value is extracted from IT investment throughout the full economic lifecycle.
2. Portfolio Management – Portfolio management in terms of Val IT is the practice of securing most optimal value across all its IT investment. This requires portfolio managers to Define, Evaluate, Prioritize, Manage and Monitor investment portfolio. IT enabled programs need to managed similar to any other investment program and as part of the overall investment portfolio.
3. Investment Management – Investment management ensure that optimal value is extracted out of each program within the portfolio. By extracting optimum value from each program, investment management leads to a successful portfolio management. Investment management comprises of three essential components: Business case, program management and benefit realization.
Val IT framework provides processes within each of these domains. The processes are integrated with each other and provide interrelation between domains. Below is the process and domain schema as per ITGI.
Executives across different business function can look at this framework for optimizing and monitoring value extraction. An in-depth detail on the framework can be found at itgi.org or isaca.org.
