I’ve lived in my house for a long time and it’s time for a refresh. Over the last several months, I planned what needed significant investment and what only needed a cosmetic update. A couple of things were evident: new windows, for one. I was confident that the rest could be handled with some spackle and a new coat of paint, especially a pesky crack in the ceiling in my kitchen. Easy repair. It looked good, but shortly the crack appeared again. Maybe it was the spackle, or maybe I painted too soon. So, I bought different spackle and a nifty new spatula to try it again. A couple of weeks later, the same crack reappeared. In the meantime, I called my contractor and asked him to give me an estimate for new windows. He did and told me I could fix them for far less than I’d budgeted. I was thrilled. On his way out, I asked him about the crack in the ceiling. After poking it, he immediately went up to the bathroom that sat over the kitchen. When he returned, he held an old elbow pipe that had corroded. Climbing back up, he pushed a little harder on the crack and a small but steady stream of water flowed out. What I thought was a quick and easy fix turned into a significant repair. I lacked visibility into the real problem and it cost me more in the long run. We see this in organizations every day. They plan strategically, but execute in a “get it done” manner that may cost them a lot more than the value it brings.

Companies Need New Insight Into An Old Problem

Delivering on the strategic plan successfully is an age-old problem. As companies increase their efforts in mobile, eCommerce, and digital business, their ability to reach more customers and win greater market share through these additional channels increases the complexity of planning; the need for speed in execution compounds. Leaders now must factor in sourcing strategies, and different deployment options while trying to optimize critical constrained resources. Doing this successfully requires greater visibility into planning and establishing strong feedback loops to measure performance. Organizations are realizing that portfolio management is a critical business process and that they need to build an ecosystem of practices and tools to help them get better value while managing the constraints of capacity and time to market. Join us at Forrester’s Forum for Application Development and Delivery Professionals on October 17 and 18 in Indianapolis, where I’ll be discussing deploying next-generation portfolio management and hopefully provide answers to the following questions:

  • How do we link strategy with execution to focus on the right initiatives and deliver them when the business needs them?
  • How can we use portfolio management to manage both Agile and traditional initiatives?
  • How can portfolio management tools help us without slowing us down?

The Forum will showcase the top technologies, skills, and practices you need to take a leadership role in helping your company develop world-class customer experiences. And I promise not to discuss the complexities of spackle.