IT departments and business units in financial services firms do
not understand each other enough to ensure that projects are
managed appropriately.
Businesses should create a management layer above both groups to
ensure all
projects are managed well.
According to research from
Cass Business School and
ea Consulting Group, IT is the only division of financial services
firms that can see all the projects in the pipeline and is
therefore the only company unit that can make decisions on
priorities.
As a result business units, which see their own projects as the
most important priority, are at odds with IT.
Chris Storey of Cass Business School said, "While IT departments
and business units are supposedly working together toward a common
goal, we found the two are failing to work together
effectively."
He said this means resources are being wasted.
The research said systems need to be implemented by top-level
management to oversee project portfolios and the allocation of
resources.
"Given their visibility of the entire project portfolio, IT
departments should be collating project information to provide
senior management with portfolio wide visibility and not being
relied upon to make decisions according to the value of projects or
their priority," said the report.