Abstract
Information technology (IT) portfolios are reported to be failing, thus exposing their
parent organisations to dire consequences that can affect their competitiveness, their
ability to achieve their strategic objectives, and in some cases and depending on the
extent of the organisation’s reliance on IT, their ability to remain in business. The
failure of the components of an IT portfolio, which would naturally cumulate in the
failure of the portfolio, have also been reported over decades.
In contrast to the deplored performance of traditional methods of managing IT
initiatives, the advent of agile methods has provided a new dawn on which
organisations are capitalising, as these methods have proven to be successful in small
and collocated teams in the specific context of IT projects. These methods have
revolutionised the way IT initiatives are managed by providing flexibility, embracing
change and uncertainties and using evolutionary, iterative and incremental processes,
which are necessary to succeed in the current complex and dynamic business
environment.
However, researchers have not succeeded in taking advantage of these methods to
provide a comprehensive and practical framework that enables organisations to
manage a portfolio of agile initiatives successfully in a dynamic and complex
environment. The application of traditional portfolio management practices to a set of
agile initiatives or the use of scaled agile frameworks to account for portfolio
management have been found wanting, thus leaving a gap at agile portfolio level. This
research sought to fill this gap with an empirical conceptual framework for agile
portfolio management.
From a pragmatic paradigm, a comprehensive narrative review was conducted to
identify and conceptualise the domains and subdomains of portfolio management.
These conceptual domains and subdomains were then used to analyse current
portfolio management and scaled agile practices to populate them with activities
relevant to the management of agile initiatives in a complex and dynamic environment.
Using the populated domains and subdomains as the starting point, a modified Delphi
method was followed to refine and validate the conceptual framework. A panel of 24
international experts from across the globe and various industries contributed to the
development and validation of specific activities of the framework in two rounds of the
Delphi method. The final framework provides 9 portfolio management domains, 14
subdomains and 80 specific activities for agile portfolio management to foster both
deliberate and emergent strategy in a dynamic and complex environment.
Key words: Agile portfolio management, dynamic and complex environment,
organisational strategy, emergent strategy, deliberate strategy, Delphi methods
Overall consideration: Agile portfolio management is essential for the successful
formulation and implementation of organisational strategy in a dynamic and complex
environment.