Application Complexity - A Drain on the IT Budget

Delivering applications to business users is the key function of IT, yet the full cost of specific applications is not readily visible in typical IT budgets at large organizations. In comparison to IT infrastructure and labor costs, application costs are not easy to benchmark across organizations and the factors that influence the efficiency of an IT application portfolio are not readily measured. This paper discusses practical approaches to application portfolio rationalization with particular emphasis on achieving operational cost savings.

Program Management Design: A Viable System Perspective

Projects are getting larger in size and heterogeneous in characteristics. Thus, Program Management (PM) is being recognized as a domain that needs design clarity with an added degree of standardization. Understanding the design of PM requires dealing with aspects of structure, governance, processes, and competencies. Therefore, understanding PM design can be taken from various perspectives, with each throwing distinct light on its design elements.The focus of this white paper is to understand PM design from the perspective of the cybernetic theory of organization structure, namely the Viable System Model. This adds an interesting perspective in understanding the abstractions and inter-dynamics in PM function, and therefore, provides us with a conceptualization of how the PM functions can be defined and made adaptive.

Quality Improvement – The Six Sigma Way

Six Sigma provides an effective mechanism to focus on customer requirements, through improvement of process quality. Also on the improvement card are issues of time delivery, product quality, and in-process quality. This paper describes application of the Six Sigma methodology comprising five phases – Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control, by taking the example of a project, and demonstrates the benefits attained.