Choosing the right projects - A Lean-inspired process for IT project portfolio selection.

Abstract: Large and strongly growing organizations tackle the issue of finding a way to decide which business requirements to fulfill and which projects to move forward but often forget the strategic. Once a strategy has been developed, its implementation appears to be seen as a matter of operational detail and tactical adjustment. As efforts and resources risk to be put on the wrong projects, how do you make sure that the project portfolio is in line with the strategy? The purpose is to investigate how an organization can make sure that the IT project portfolio is in line with the strategy and that decisions are based on balanced prioritization criterions The process involved continuous movement between the empirical world where the purpose was addressed through a case study conducted at Scania CV´s IT Area R&D department. Also, four minor case studies at Astra Zeneca, ICA Sweden, Perstorp and SEB were performed. A theoretical frame was conducted around the presented keywords in this abstract. By standardizing the process with recurrent feedback loops it decreases the so called political play, as projects are evaluated and validated against preset criterions and capabilities. The mapping of actual strategic capabilities enables a stronger strategic fit and decreases the risk of allocating resources into the wrong projects.