Information technology project assessment method, system and program product

• US 6,675,149 B1
• Filed: 08/30/1999
• Issued: 01/06/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Temple, Joseph L. III, Morrison, Timothy I., Ruffin, Michael, Yan, Eva L., Preston, Allen H., Ordonez, Carlos A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dixon, Thomas A.
• Application Number:
  US09/385,936
• Time in Patent Office: 1,590 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/8, 705/10, 705/400, 705/29, 707/4, 706/51
• US Class Current: 705/7.12
• 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 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A method, system and program product for matching the an information technology enhancement project with the resource and priorities of an enterprise is presented herein. A set of objectives for the information technology resources is defined and prioritized as to their importance to the enterprise. The information technology resources for the enterprise are partitioned into segments along a predetermined common property such as geography or skill-base. Each segment is compared to a set of desire information technology characteristics and a score for each characteristic is assigned to each segment and summed providing a total characteristic score for each segment. The total characteristic score is weighted in light of the prioritized objects by virtue of a correlation created between the objectives and the characteristics. The weighted scores are ranked and then classified in accordance with a set of potential information technology enhancement projects to facilitate the selection of one or more of the projects.

Claims

1. A system for matching an information technology enhancement to the information technology resources and priorities of an enterprise wherein said information technology resources of said enterprise may be partitioned into segments, the system comprising:

a memory for storing data;

means for defining in said memory, a set of objectives for said information technology resources of said enterprise;

means for assigning in said memory, a priority value to said defined objectives;

means for establishing a set of information resource characteristics and for each partitioned segment, assigning a score to each of said characteristics for the information technology resources therein to produce a total information technology characteristic score for each of said defined segments;

means for weighting the total information technology characteristic score for each segment using the assigned priority values for each of said defined objectives to determine if an information technology enhancement should be pursued;

means for ranking each of said segments based upon said weighted total scores;

means for classifying the ranked segments as relating to at least one information technology enhancement for the information technology resources of the ranked segment for identifying potential enhancements to be undertaken; and

means for identifying required tools for planning the implementation of said information technology enhancement for said classified ranked segments.

2. A system for matching an information technology enhancement to the information technology resources and priorities of an enterprise wherein said information technology resources of said enterprise may be partitioned into segments, the system comprising:

a memory in said system for storing data;

a dataset in said memory defining a set of objectives for said information technology resources of said enterprise;

a second dataset in said memory having data representing a priority value for each of said defined objectives;

a first process executable by said system establishing a set of information resource characteristics and for each partitioned segment, assigning a score to each of said characteristics for the information technology resources therein to produce a total information technology characteristic score for each of said defined segments;

a second process executable by said system weighting the total information technology characteristic score for each segment using the assigned priority values for each of said defined objectives to determine if an information technology enhancement should be pursued;

a third process executable by said system ranking each of said segments based upon said weighted total scores;

a forth process executable by said system classifying the ranked segments as relating to at least one information technology enhancement for the information technology resources of the ranked segment for identifying potential enhancements to be undertaken; and

a fifth process executable by said system identifying required tools for planning the implementation of said information technology enhancement for said classified ranked segments.

3. A program product for matching an information technology enhancement to the information technology resources and priorities of an enterprise wherein said information technology resources of said enterprise may be partitioned into segments, said program product comprising:

a program storage device readable by a digital processing apparatus and tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the digital processing apparatus to perform the method steps comprising;

defining a set of objectives for said information technology resources of said enterprise;

assigning a priority value to said defined objectives;

establishing a set of information resource characteristics and for each partitioned segment, assigning a score to each of said characteristics for the information technology resources therein to produce a total information technology characteristic score for each of said defined segments;

weighting the total information technology characteristic score for each segment using the assigned priority values for each of said defined objectives to determine if an information technology enhancement should be pursued;

ranking each of said segments based upon said weighted total scores;

classifying the ranked segments as relating to at least one information technology enhancement for the information technology resources of the ranked segment for identifying potential enhancements to be undertaken; and

identifying required tools for planning the implementation of said information technology enhancement for said classified ranked segments.

4. A program storage device according to claim 3 wherein each of said partitioned segments possesses at least one common property, said common property facilitating the analysis of the segment independent from said other segments.

5. A program storage device according to claim 3 wherein said objectives include cost reduction, availability and data integrity.

6. A program storage device according to claim 3 wherein said scored information resource characteristics represent the extent to which certain desirable information processing attributes exist within each of said partitioned segments.

7. A program storage device according to claim 6 wherein said attributes include information technology skills, number of servers, and system availability.

8. A program storage device according to claim 3 wherein said weighing method step further includes the method step of establishing a correlation between at least one of said scored characteristics and at least one of said prioritized defined objectives.

9. A program storage device according to claim 3 wherein the method steps further include:

analyzing the classified ranked segments to assess any qualitative issues involved in the implementation of the associated information technology enhancement for each of said ranked segments.

10. A program storage device according to claim 9 wherein said analyzing method step includes determining required activities for the implementation of said information technology enhancement within said ranked segment.

11. A program storage device according to claim 9 wherein said analyzing method step includes comparing said classified ranked segments to classifications from previous instances of said method.