Technology Portfolio Management (TPM) Best Practices

Overview

A technology capability gap exists when the organization’s strategic direction or business operating requirements demand a technology capability that the current Technologies Inventory family does not provide, or does not provide at the quality, scale, or governance maturity required. Capability gaps may be identified through strategic planning — new business capabilities planned in the strategy roadmap that require technology platforms the portfolio does not currently include. They may be identified through competitive intelligence — technology capabilities that competitors are deploying that the organization lacks and that are material to competitive differentiation. They may be identified through operational experience — recurring operational failures or limitations that the current technology portfolio is unable to address. And they may be identified through the technology assessment framework — technologies in the portfolio whose current capability is inadequate for the requirements placed on them and for which no currently approved alternative exists.

Best Practice

Conduct a technology capability gap analysis as a standard output of the annual technology portfolio review, comparing the technology capabilities the current Technologies Inventory family provides against the technology capabilities the enterprise strategy, the enterprise architecture target state, and the current operational requirements demand. For each identified gap, assess: the business impact of the gap — the specific strategic, operational, or competitive consequences of the capability not being available; the urgency of closing the gap — whether the gap is already constraining current operations, will constrain near-term strategic initiatives, or represents a longer-term strategic risk; the investment required to close the gap — the technology acquisition cost, the implementation investment, the integration cost, and the skills development required to bring the capability to production readiness; and the options for closing the gap — the available technologies that could address the capability gap, their relative fitness assessment scores, and their alignment with the organization’s strategic direction and architectural standards. Build a capability gap closure investment plan that sequences gap closure programs by urgency and strategic impact, and present it to leadership as part of the annual technology investment planning process.

Benefit(s)

Technology capability gap analysis ensures that strategic planning and investment decisions are grounded in a current, accurate understanding of what the technology portfolio can and cannot support, rather than in assumptions about portfolio capabilities that may not reflect organizational reality. Strategic initiatives that require technology capabilities the portfolio does not yet provide are identified early enough to build the capability before the initiative depends on it rather than discovering the gap during execution. And the capability gap investment plan provides the technology investment roadmap that connects technology portfolio governance to the strategic and operational outcomes the organization expects technology to enable.