Portal Program Management

Portal solutions are having an expanding impact and touching more and more enterprise people and processes. Portal program management has become an indispensable part of the portal implementation process.

As Websites evolve from early stage, dissociated sites to intelligent and scalable enterprise portals, a significant shift in management techniques and competencies must occur. A mature enterprise portal initiative requires best practices-based program management rather than traditional project management. The more strategic the portal, the more critical the non-IT aspects of the program become. These aspects usually require a level of negotiation and consulting skills with a broad business perspective not usually found on corporate IT teams.

At LDS portal program management is characterized by equally important and, at times, competing priorities across two main fronts:

• Management of a Portfolio of Projects that fall under the umbrella of the portal program, in which the success of the program is largely based on the synchronized success of these individual efforts. Managing multiple initiatives running at the same time, with nonaligned schedules and differing dependencies requires a broad perspective that facilitates best practices, including common tools and processes for tracking, managing, and reporting on these projects at an aggregate level.
• Strategic Portal Program Management responsibilities are both strategic and portal-centric and sit above individual projects. In larger implementations, this may require a Program Management Office that guides areas such as goal management, planning and execution, portal asset management, governance and application of portal technology across all projects.

An enterprise portal solution is most likely to realize its potential when its business owners fully recognize and understand the transforming qualities that it possesses. Effectively harnessing these qualities requires portal program management that can identify and address every aspect of a full portal solution.

This holistic, active approach to portal program management is a hallmark of LDS' methodology and an integral part of every assignment we take on. Find out more about how LDS applies effective program management to its business solutions.