Open Group IT4IT Reference Architecture Proposal Component

​Purpose

Manage the portfolio of IT proposals that are proposed, approved, active, deferred, or rejected. This is the authoritative source for the list of IT proposals requested over a given time period that may result in the creation of Scope Agreements for projects.

Main Functions

• Shall create a Scope Agreement from rationalized Portfolio Backlog Items in the data object repository. A Scope Agreement can follow an expedited analysis and approval for high priority urgent items or agile development proposals. A Scope Agreement can also follow a structured analysis and approval via IT annual planning activities.
• Activities for Scope Agreements requiring an expedited analysis and approval:
• Proposal created from a rationalized backlog item where the item requires high urgency due to business impact on an existing service.
• Quickly evaluate the proposal and decide on the approval. If rejected, then notify the Portfolio Demand functional component.
• Is there an existing IT Initiative that can be associated with the approved proposal? If yes, then create an updated Scope Agreement and update corresponding in-flight IT Initiative data object in the R2D Value Stream. In the context of the IT4IT Reference Architecture, an IT Initiative is any one of the class of temporary endeavors such as projects or programs with a defined beginning and end, undertaken to achieve an objective or outcome, at a specified cost.
• Create a new Scope Agreement. A new IT Initiative data object is created in the R2D Value Stream.
• Activities for proposals requiring structured analysis and approval:
• Proposals are created from rationalized Portfolio Backlog Items in the Portfolio Backlog Item data object repository. Rationalized items are grouped based on priority and themes for a proposal creation purpose. Not all rationalized items will be grouped within proposals as priority and cut-off must be decided.
• Proposals are created periodically throughout the year or once a year during annual planning activities.
• Create a high-level labor consumption model for a proposal (for example, one project manager, five developers, and two QAs for the proposal). Validate labor consumption model against available internal and external labor pools.
• Create a high-level asset (non-labor) consumption model for a proposal. Validate asset consumption model against available internal and external assets (for example, traditional/private cloud/managed cloud/public cloud).
• Model ongoing labor and non-labor budget for annual and future operations.
• Define tangible and intangible benefits for each proposal. Tangible benefit may be cost savings or revenue growth, whereas intangible benefit may be strategic initiative support, competitive advantage, or compliance achieved. Work with a finance organization to validate tangible benefits. This can involve utilizing industry-specific methods of measuring the value of business processes and estimating the impact of the proposal on performance metrics.
• Ensure proposal meets the technology policies.
• Rank proposals based on benefits and risks, labor and non-labor consumption models, and ROI or other defined evaluation criteria.
• Build proposal portfolio scenarios using proposals, conduct “what if” analysis on the proposal scenarios, and approve the optimal proposal scenario and its proposals.
• Create resulting Scope Agreement(s). Retain Scope Agreement information to compare approved baseline and actual resulting benefits derived from completing the IT Initiatives.
  

• Shall review the Scope Agreement change request from the R2D Value Stream. The IT Initiative team working to deliver on the approved Scope Agreement may ask for change requests related to budget, resource, or timeline. Evaluate the change request and take action to update the existing Scope Agreement.
• The R2D Value Stream project portfolio is the authoritative source for the list of IT deliverables or services that will be rendered during a project lifecycle. The project portfolio views can be created for specific organizations like line of business portfolio or functions like financial views. The project portfolio is used for rationalizing and tracking resources across projects to best deliver on all projects. The project portfolio entries are actuated through a Project Management system. The project portfolio reports back to the investment portfolio in order to accurately track progress and outcomes for a given Scope Agreement.
• Shall identify security controls necessary for protecting the various classifications of data.