We are pleased to announce the next installment in our series of management summaries of the TBM eBook (Technology Business Management: How Innovative Technology Leaders Apply Business Acumen to Drive Value). Written for business technology executives and managers responsible for building or running a technology business office (or TBM program office), chapter two describes how to build the right foundation, from how you define your value proposition to the roles and responsibilities that are necessary for managing your portfolios.
Due to the richness of chapter two, we’ve created two separate management summaries for the single chapter. By reading the first of these two, readers will discover how to:
- Define a unique value proposition. The TBM Framework is built on a foundation that defines our technology business model, the services we provide, and the roles and responsibilities essential to optimizing value. But to define any of these, we must first define our value proposition. This is essential because the value we promise to deliver drives our technology business model and how we define our services, refines what we should expect from our TBM-related decision making, and determines what constitutes success or failure for our organizations.
- Deliver services aligned to that value proposition. All of the “appropriate” technology business models covered by the TBM Framework dictate a services-based approach, which begins with carefully defining a portfolio of services. This is important because the services we provide and the way we deliver and support them determine our value to the business, drive our resource and skillset requirements, and dictate our cost structure.
- Manage our investments as a portfolio. To invest in each of our technologies, services, and projects based on their contribution to business strategy, we must manage them as an investment portfolio. This requires deciding how to invest and how much to invest in each one, which is accomplished by working with business partners and other stakeholders to assess our portfolios, ask the right questions, and ultimately drive investment decisions.
Use the management summary to share these lessons with others in your organization. The summary is useful for the office of the CIO (OCIO) as well as your strategists, service managers, portfolio managers, IT and corporate finance officers, and others who have a stake in the effectiveness of your business management processes. Finally, keep an eye out for our next executive summary, covering the second part of chapter two, which dives deeper into the supply-side and demand-side roles of Technology Business Management.