Improve Your PPM Maturity Holistically Across IT/OT

Become more effective in realizing change while removing organizational silos as IT/OT convergence occurs.

Analyst Perspective

See a golden opportunity as an industry trend collides with an important business process need.

Business transformation and technological advancement continue to bring information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) together across a variety of business dimensions within utility businesses. One of the key areas where this can be seen is the domain of project portfolio management (PPM), where organizations are incentivized to converge not just technology and tools, but the processes they use.

Having repeatable processes in place for selecting the right projects at the right time and maintaining their projected value through project execution is critical to an organization's ability to adapt and transform. IT/OT convergence has provided an incentive to not only reevaluate the processes that support planned preventative maintenance, but to do so in a way that breaks through the silos that exist between how IT and OT operate. By identifying opportunities to unify IT and OT PPM operations under a single governance framework, we can magnify the value of making improvements beyond what would be possible by pursuing maturity separately.

Info-Tech’s methodology can guide you in understanding what your PPM capabilities currently are, where investing in process improvements will yield the most value, and how you may even have existing capabilities that can accelerate the process of achieving your target maturity.

Evan Garland
Research Analyst
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Overarching insight
Your PPM processes and their maturity will drive both your accuracy in constructing the most valuable portfolio mix and your ability to maintain that value through project execution. The IT/OT convergence trend presents an opportunity to do so outside of business unit silos, allowing for a holistic view of all project activities within the organization under one umbrella while promoting collaboration and unifying priorities across departments as convergence continues.

Process convergence is key in IT/OT PPM

Historically, IT and OT have operated as separate domains within utilities. However, technological advancements and the need for greater operational efficiency continue to drive them closer together.

Most initiatives could be classified within the scope of technology convergence, which broadly concerns how technological advances have made it possible for communication and data transfer between IT and OT assets.

When looking to expand PPM capabilities across the IT/OT boundary, we mainly deal with process convergence. This pertains to adopting new processes or adapting existing ones for use across the IT and OT domains.

Converging processes makes communication between IT and OT personnel easier while also allowing better visibility into overall operations and the pooling of resources and expertise. All of this is necessary to maximize the effectiveness of your PPM strategy.

Information Technology (IT)
IT systems are typically used for commercial operation of the business. They support business functions such as managing financials and human resources, enterprise asset management, and customer relations management.

Operational Technology (OT)
OT systems are typically real-time systems used to control assets for the generation and distribution of the utility services. This includes systems such as SCADA, DMS, GIS, OMS and EMS.

Source: T&D World – IT/OT Convergence, 2016

Selecting strategically aligned projects is the first step in effective PPM

Project demand will always outpace capacity. Selecting only the best projects for investment is crucial.

Align projects among competing priorities. Your organization will always have competing priorities for business maintenance, growth, and transformation, each of which will fulfill different strategic needs and carry different risk profiles.

Determining which priorities provide value in the short, medium, and long term allows you to get the most out of your approved projects

Understand your available capacity and match it effectively with an organized list of properly scoped projects to avoid overbooking resources and leading to delays, budget variance, and cancellations.

Keep strategic alignment in focus. The maximum value is realized when organizations remain focused on the priorities that organize their project pipeline, which allows for flexibility as changes occur in your business and competitive environment. Mature PPM processes can maintain this alignment to allow for the greatest potential portfolio value.

Sixty-two percent of projects in organizations effective in PPM meet or exceed expected ROI. (“Pulse of the Profession,” PMI, 2017)

Projects that are aligned to strategy are fifty-seven percent more likely to achieve their stated business goals (TransparentChoice).

Eighty-three percent of the high-maturity organizations say portfolio management allows their organization to be more agile when unforeseen market conditions and competitive situations arise (“Winning Through Project Portfolio Management,” PMI, 2015).