Best Practices for IT Improvement Initiatives

A.

The MOST useful approach for prioritizing IT improvement initiatives to achieve desired business outcomes would be portfolio management.

Portfolio management is a disciplined approach to selecting, prioritizing, and managing a portfolio of IT projects and initiatives to achieve specific business goals and objectives. It involves evaluating the portfolio of IT projects and initiatives in terms of their potential benefits, risks, costs, and alignment with business strategy.

By using portfolio management, organizations can ensure that IT improvement initiatives are prioritized based on their potential to deliver the greatest value to the business. It enables them to make data-driven decisions about where to invest their IT resources, ensuring that the initiatives with the greatest potential to achieve desired business outcomes are prioritized over others.

Budget variance analysis is a useful tool for monitoring and controlling IT costs, but it may not provide the necessary insight into which initiatives will deliver the most value. Similarly, an IT skills matrix can help identify skills gaps and training needs, but it does not provide the necessary information for prioritizing IT improvement initiatives.

Enterprise architecture (EA) can provide a comprehensive view of an organization's IT systems, processes, and data, but it may not be directly applicable for prioritizing IT improvement initiatives. EA can help identify areas of duplication, inefficiency, or inconsistency in the IT environment, which can inform decisions about where to prioritize improvement initiatives. However, it is still necessary to use a portfolio management approach to select and prioritize specific initiatives.

In summary, portfolio management is the MOST useful approach for prioritizing IT improvement initiatives to achieve desired business outcomes.