Technology Portfolio Management (TPM) Best Practices

Overview

A technology that the organization cannot support because no team member has the required skills is a technology governance risk regardless of its technical fitness score. Skill coverage — the degree to which the organization maintains sufficient human capability to implement, operate, troubleshoot, and evolve each technology — is a material input to technology lifecycle and disposition decisions that is entirely invisible without the connection between the Technologies Inventory and the People, Skills, Roles, and Responsibilities Inventories.

Best Practice

For every technology record in the Technologies Inventory family, maintain a connection to the People, Skills, Roles, and Responsibilities Inventory records for team members with documented expertise in that technology. Use the connected data to assess skill coverage for each technology: how many team members have proficiency; whether that number is sufficient for the organization’s current usage level; and whether the Strategic Disposition for the technology is supportable by the current skill profile. Technologies with a Move-To Strategic Disposition and insufficient skill coverage require workforce development investment to close the gap. Technologies with a Move-Away Strategic Disposition require a skills sunset plan that manages the transition of team members to the replacement technology. Identify key-person risk for technologies where only one or two individuals have sufficient expertise.

Benefit(s)

The People and Skills connection bridges the common gap between technology portfolio strategy and workforce reality. Strategic disposition declarations are grounded in an honest assessment of the organization’s ability to execute them. Technology modernization roadmaps include the workforce development investments they require. Key-person risk is governed before it creates operational crises rather than discovered when a critical individual departs.