Task: Authorize and Assign Components |
Authorize and assign work within the portfolio that can be successfully executed by the organization.
Disciplines: Portfolio Management Tasks
Purpose
To provide a control gateway for work that is authorized and released to the organization for execution.
Main Description
Provide sufficient control and governance over the process that releases work to the operational teams. One key notion to respect at this stage of managing a portfolio is to ensure that the total estimated work authorized for release correlates with the organization’s ability and capacity to execute that work. One portfolio target frequently used to accomplish this task is the strategic consumption target, which provides an indication of the proportion of total capacity that the executives expect to see used for each work category. The following is an example of strategic consumption targets: 55% of capacity applied toward support work category 25% of capacity applied toward enhancements to existing systems 20% of capacity applied toward strategic projects (or products) The benefits of an effective authorization and assignment of components are two-fold: First, it guarantees an orderly release of work to the operational teams, thus promoting efficient execution and increasing probability of meeting schedule deadlines. Second, it promotes a recognition from the teams that management understands the state of the business at the ground level and is prioritizing work accordingly.
Key Considerations
Numerous studies and lessons-learned indicate that overloading resources with large work backlogs directly impacts their productivity, which in turn negatively impacts timelines and production deadlines.
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