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IT Performance management initiatives are often implemented by organizations that want to fundamentally shift the focus of management decision-making from a preoccupation with staffing levels and costs to a balanced focus including key "outcomes". Outcomes are results expressed in terms of the real difference that an organization’s work makes on the way business is conducted and what the organization achieves.

To accomplish this, organizations sometimes undertake a radically different approach to planning and management. This can include development of:

• Strategic Plans, containing (1) a mission statement, (2) a set of strategic goals covering the organization’s major business areas / programs and functions that are linked to the responsibility / program activity structure in the budget, and (3) a description of how the organization intends to achieve these goals.
   
• Annual Performance Plans that link the strategic goals and business objectives with the day-to-day activities. These plans are developed as part of the budget preparation process, become key factors in making budget decisions, and are adjusted to reflect budget decisions (e.g., if the IT organization planned and proposed to implement 5,000 NT workstations and senior management decided to provide funding for only 2,500, the plan would be reduced to 2,500).
   
• Performance Reports, accompanying the annual budget request, to senior management. This tells management what was actually accomplished during the preceding fiscal period.
   
• An IT Investment Management Approach is adopted to assure the "best" IT decisions are made. (See our tutorial, "The IT Investment Management Approach", for more information on this topic.)

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Introduction To IT Performance Management And Measurement, Lesson 9 of 13

 

 

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