Hurdles to Portfolio Management

Yes, portfolio management is a good thing. But getting to nirvana requires a serious commitment from both the business and IS sides, as well as a whole lot of sweat equity. Here are some of the pitfalls and ways to overcome them.

Democracy ain't easy. Taking power away from business leaders accustomed to calling the shots will not always go smoothly.

"Business leaders who didn't have decisions scrutinized previously now are [having] decisions decided by group consensus," says DHL's Kifer. But Kifer says that quickly "people realize it does work and that 12 people can make better decisions than one or two making unilateral decisions."

There's no single software that does everything. "There are really good budget packages, resource management packages and fairly good portfolio management packages, but no package that ties it all together," says Gordon Steele, CIO and vice president of IT at Nike, who is in the process of implementing portfolio management. Steele is currently exploring a partnership with a portfolio management vendor to see if such a software tool can be developed.

Do you need to buy portfolio software? There's no right answer. Some say it's a necessity. "It's a better investment now to buy rather than build," says Meta Group's Rubin. Gopal Kapur, founder and president of the Center for Project Management, begs to differ. "Far too often people get the software and say they have portfolio management. But they don't - they don't have the foundation for portfolio management," he says. Microsoft Excel and Project are commonly used by companies to track and manage projects; some companies build their own tools.