Method and apparatus for facilitating management of information technology investment

• US 20030236732A1
• Filed: 06/10/2003
• Published: 12/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Prosight Limited
• Inventors: Ofer, Amir, Cimral, John, Lawler, Mark S., Yokoyama, Doug, Tzur, Avrami
• Granted Patent: US 7,158,940 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/36.00R
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

A method and apparatus to facilitate management of IT investment includes storing data associated with performance metrics of a number of information technology (IT) projects, and generating a number of“scorecards” for a number of IT portfolios, using the stored data, with each scorecard indicating status of the IT projects of an IT portfolio relative to performance metrics, each IT portfolio having a subset of the IT projects. The method/apparatus further includes generating a number of “dashboards” for the IT projects, using also the stored data, with each dashboard graphically illustrating one or more aspects of at least one IT project, and facilitating navigation from a scorecard to a corresponding one of the dashboards for a selected IT project by a user of the scorecard through selection of a representation of the IT project.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing data associated with performance metrics of a plurality of information technology (IT) projects;

generating a plurality of scorecards for a plurality of IT portfolios, using said stored data, with each scorecard showing where IT projects of an IT portfolio stand on said performance metrics, each IT portfolio having a subset of said IT projects;

generating one or more investment maps of said IT portfolios, using also said stored data, showing where said IT portfolios stand on a plurality of performance metrics; and

facilitating navigation from a selected one of said one or more investment maps to a corresponding one of said scorecards for a selected IT portfolio by a user of the selected investment map through selection of a representation of the IT portfolio.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said storing comprises storing data associated with performance metrics that include selected ones of budget metrics, staffing metrics, project size and quality metrics, and progress metrics.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said storing comprises storing data associated with performance metrics that include expense to budget ratios for a plurality of expense categories.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said storing comprises storing data associated with performance metrics that include staffing to staffing requirement ratios for a plurality of staffing categories.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said storing comprises storing data associated with performance metrics that include selected ones of code defect, code defect per a quantity of code, documentation defect and documentation defect per a quantity of documentation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said storing comprises storing data associated with performance metrics that include a plurality of task completion to schedule milestone indicators for a plurality of project phases.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating of scorecards comprises generating a plurality of rows and columns for each of said scorecards, and populating measures of the performance metrics of each IT project in columns of a row.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said populating of measures of the performance metrics of each IT project in columns of a row comprises populating selected ones of metric values and graphical indicators of the performance metrics of each IT project in columns of a row.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a storage medium having stored therein

data associated with performance metrics of a plurality of information technology (IT) projects,

first programming instructions to generate a plurality of scorecards for a plurality of IT portfolios, using said stored data, with each scorecard showing where IT projects of an IT portfolio stand on said performance metrics, each IT portfolio having a subset of said IT projects,

second programming instructions to generate one or more investment maps of said IT portfolios, using also said stored data, showing where said IT portfolios stand on a plurality of performance metrics,

third programming instructions to facilitate navigation from a selected one of said investment maps to a corresponding one of said scorecards for a selected IT portfolio by a user of the investment map through selection of a representation of the IT portfolio; and

at least one processor coupled to the storage medium to execute said first, second and third programming instructions.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein said data associated with performance metrics include selected ones of budget metrics, staffing metrics, project size and quality metrics, and progress metrics.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein said first programming instructions generate a plurality of rows and columns for each of said scorecards, and populate measures of the performance metrics of each IT project in columns of a row.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said first programming instructions populate selected ones of metric values and graphical indicators of the performance metrics of each IT project in columns of a row.