Abstract:
A method, product and system are disclosed for generating and facilitating user navigation among one or more investment maps and corresponding scorecards generated using stored data associated with performance metrics of a several information technology (IT) projects.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/459,113, filed Jun. 10, 2003, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/560,670, filed Apr. 27, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,578,004, all incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     COPYRIGHT NOTICE  
       [0002]     ©2003-2005 ProSight, Ltd. A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 37 CFR § 1.71(d).  
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     The present invention relates to the field of information management. More specifically, the present invention relates to management of Information Technology (IT) investments.  
       BACKGROUND INFORMATION  
       [0004]     Ever since the invention of computer, enterprises, business or otherwise, have used computers to improve the productivity of their workers and efficiency of their business operations. In the beginning, enterprises tended to focus in a handful of high priority operation areas, such as financial management, general ledger, payroll and so forth. While these projects were often important, and the investments were not insignificant, the investment often represented only a small portion of the enterprises&#39; investment in infrastructure or research and development, and the overall success of the enterprises was not perceived to be critically dependent on these projects. Accordingly, except perhaps for periodic briefing for management of the organizational units that were directly impacted, senior management were seldom involved, and management of these projects were typically relegated to data processing professionals, and managed in an ad hoc manner.  
         [0005]     Over time, continuing advances in computer and other related technology, such as networking and telecommunication, have made it economically as well as technically feasible to make available computing power to virtually every single worker of an enterprise, and support virtually every aspect of an enterprise&#39;s operations. As a result, the number as well as the type of applications have broaden, from individual worker productivity, such as word processing, email, and the like, to mission critical operations, such as reservation and flight scheduling in the case of the airline industry. The typical size and scope of many of these applications have also increased. In fact, not only the success of increasing number of conventional business enterprises are increasingly dependent on the success of their IT projects, we have new business enterprises, such as Internet access providers, Internet portals, e-Commerce companies, emerging that are made possible by information technology, which otherwise would not have existed.  
         [0006]     With the increase in significance as well as in amount of investment, increasingly senior management of these enterprises are actively involved in the management of their enterprises&#39; investment in IT. Unfortunately, while the significance and the investment in IT have skyrocketed in recent years, little advances have been made in the area of managing IT. Project managers, mid-level managers as well as senior executives continue to rely on a hodgepodge of non-integrated or poorly integrated individual software applications such as spreadsheet and project management applications.  
         [0007]     Thus, increasingly there are interest and desire in having automated tools to assist management of all levels to manage these ever more critical IT projects.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]     A method and apparatus to facilitate management of IT investments includes, in one embodiment, storing data associated with performance metrics of a number of information technology (IT) projects, generating a number of scorecards for a number of IT portfolios, using the stored data, with each scorecard showing where IT projects of an IT portfolio stand on the performance metrics, and each IT portfolio having a subset of the IT projects. The method/apparatus further includes generating one or more investment maps of the IT portfolios, using also the stored data, with each investment map showing at least where a subset of the IT portfolios stand on a number of performance metrics. The method/apparatus further includes facilitating navigation from an investment map to a corresponding one of the scorecards for a selected IT portfolio by a user of the investment map through selection of a representation of the IT portfolio.  
         [0009]     In another embodiment, the method/apparatus further includes generating a number of dashboards for the IT projects, using also the stored data, with each dashboard graphically illustrating one or more aspects of at least one IT project. The method/apparatus further includes facilitating navigation from a scorecard to a corresponding one of the dashboards for a selected IT project by a user of the scorecard through selection of a representation of the IT project.  
         [0010]     Additional aspects and advantages will be apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0011]     The present invention will be described by way of exemplary embodiments, but not limitations, illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like references denote similar elements, and in which:  
         [0012]      FIG. 1  illustrates an overview of the present invention, in accordance with one embodiment;  
         [0013]      FIG. 2  illustrates an organization of project data of  FIG. 1 , in accordance with one embodiment;  
         [0014]      FIGS. 3   a - 3   c  illustrate the dashboard, the scorecard and the investment map of  FIG. 1 , in accordance with one embodiment each;  
         [0015]      FIGS. 4   a - 4   c  illustrate the relevant operational flows of the dashboard generator/viewer, the scorecard generator/viewer, and the investment map generator/viewer of  FIG. 1 , in accordance with one embodiment each;  
         [0016]      FIGS. 5   a - 5   b  illustrate additional relevant operational flows of the investment map generator/viewer and the scorecard generator/viewer of  FIG. 1 , in accordance with one embodiment each;  
         [0017]      FIG. 6  illustrates a networking environment suitable for practicing the facilitation of IT management of the present invention, in accordance with one embodiment; and  
         [0018]      FIG. 7  illustrates a computer system suitable for use as an IT executive, a portfolio manager or a project manager&#39;s computing device or a server of  FIG. 6 , in accordance with one embodiment. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0019]     In the following description, various aspects of the present invention will be described. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced with only some or all aspects of the present invention. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will also be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well known features are omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the present invention.  
         [0020]     Parts of the description will be presented in terms of operations performed by a computer system, using terms such as data, flags, bits, values, characters, strings, numbers and the like, consistent with the manner commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. As well understood by those skilled in the art, these quantities take the form of electrical, magnetic, or optical signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, and otherwise manipulated through mechanical and electrical components of the computer system; and the term computer system include general purpose as well as special purpose data processing machines, systems, and the like, that are standalone, adjunct or embedded.  
         [0021]     Various operations will be described as multiple discrete steps in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the present invention, however, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation.  
         [0022]     Referring now  FIG. 1 , wherein a block diagram illustrating the integrated facilitation of IT management of the present invention, in accordance with one embodiment, is shown. As illustrated, in accordance with the present invention, data associated with IT projects  102  are collected and stored. More particularly, as will described in more detail below, project data  102  are associated with a number of performance metrics of IT projects. Also illustrated, in accordance with the present invention, “integrated” dashboard generator/viewer  112 , scorecard generator/viewer  114  and investment map generator/viewer  116  are provided to generate IT project dashboards  122 , IT portfolio scorecards  124  and IT investment mapsmap  126  respectively. IT project dashboards  122  are designed to assist IT project managers to manage their respective projects, whereas IT portfolio scorecards  124  are designed to assist “mid-level” IT portfolio mangers to manage their respective IT portfolios. IT investment map  126  in turn are designed to assist an IT executive (or its business partners) to manage the entire IT investment of his/her enterprise. More particularly, project dashboards  122 , portfolio scoreboards  124  and investment maps  126  are logically integrated (as denoted by arrows  132  and  134 ) to facilitate more in-depth understanding of issues surfaced by investment maps  126  and by scorecards  124 .  
         [0023]      FIG. 2  illustrates an organization of project data  102  in accordance with one embodiment. As alluded to earlier, in accordance with the present invention, project data  102  are associated with performance metrics designed to show where IT projects stand. In one embodiment, the performance metrics are key performance categories (KPC). In one embodiment, these performance metrics (or KPC) include budget metrics, staffing metrics, project size and quality metrics, and progress metrics. In one embodiment, the budget metrics include expense to budget ratios for a number of expense categories, such as personnel expenses, overhead expenses and the like. In another embodiment, the staffing metrics include current staffing level to staffing requirement ratios for a number of staffing categories, such as senior analysts, software engineers with web design skills, software engineers with C++ programming skills, engineers with networking skills and the like. In yet another embodiment, project size and quality metrics include metrics measuring the quantity of code and documentation being developed, the amount of defects encountered or removed from these code and documentation. In yet another embodiment, the progress metrics includes metrics measuring a number of task completion to schedule milestone indicators for a number of project phases, e.g. feasibility phase, design phase, unit test phase, functional test phase and system test phase. In alternate embodiments, data may also be stored for other performance metrics (or KPC) in addition to or in lieu of some or all of the above enumerated example metrics/categories.  
         [0024]     For the illustrated embodiment, project data  102  are stored in tables  202  of a relational database, with each table storing a subset of the data (in columns) for a subset of the projects (in rows). The data may be organized into the various tables in any one of a number of application dependent manner, taking into consideration the number projects, the number of performance metrics as well as other factors. In alternate embodiments, project data  102  may also be stored employing other data organization techniques, including but limited to flat files, hierarchical databases and the like. In one embodiment, historic data are also stored and maintained for some or all of the metrics for which data are being stored. In one embodiment, user annotations for all or selected ones of the metrics are also stored.  
         [0025]     In one embodiment, the data to be stored, and whether historical and/or annotations are to be stored, are user defined. The user definition may be provided through any one of a number of “input dialogues” known in the art.  
         [0026]      FIGS. 3   a - 3   c  illustrate a dashboard, a scorecard, and an investment map of  FIG. 1  in further detail, in accordance with one embodiment each. As described earlier, dashboard  122  is designed to assist a project manager in managing a project. As shown in  FIG. 3   a , for the illustrated embodiment, dashboard  122  includes a number of graphical depictions  302   a - 302   d  for a number of aspects of a project (as indicated by one or more of the earlier described performance metrics). The graphical depictions  302   a - 302   d  may include the illustrated non-linear graph  302   a , histogram  302   b , pie chart  302   c , linear graphs  302   d , as well as other depictions. The various graphical depictions  302   a - 302   d  are “tiled” in the illustrated presentation. In other embodiments, the graphical depictions  302   a - 302   d  are arranged in a cascaded overlapping manner instead. Further, a dashboard  122  may present graphical depictions for multiple projects instead.  
         [0027]     In a preferred one of the embodiments, a project manager may select the subject matters (i.e. the projects and their performance metrics/categories) to be graphically depicted, the graphical depictions to be employed, as well as the manner in which the graphical depictions are to be presented. These selections may be specified by the project manager through any one of a number of “selection dialogues” known in the art.  
         [0028]     As described earlier, scorecard  124  is designed to assist a portfolio manager in managing the portfolio of IT projects he/she is responsible for. As shown in  FIG. 3   b , for the illustrated embodiment, each scorecard  124  is a tabular presentation of where the projects of a portfolio stand on various performance indicators, with measurements of the various performance indicators of the projects occupying columns  306  of corresponding rows  304 . Each performance indicator may correspond to a performance metric or may be an aggregate, weighted or otherwise, of a number of performance metrics (which may or may not be individually depicted in the subject scorecard). Additionally, in lieu of conventional numerical and/or textual presentation, the measurements may be advantageously depicted in symbols  308  (in color or otherwise) to enable the current standing of a performance indicator of a project to be easily highlighted for a portfolio manager. Furthermore, for selected ones of the performance indicators, corresponding cross project composite measures are automatically computed and presented in columns of a cross project row (the top row, for the illustrated embodiment). Likewise, the cross project composite measures may be “aggregated” in a weighted or non-weighted manner, as well as presented in symbolic fashion (color or otherwise). Similarly, the contributing projects for the computation of the cross project composite measures may or may not be part of the subject scorecard. Most importantly, the presented projects are logically linked to their dashboards  122 , to facilitate a portfolio manager to drill down or focus on a project if necessary.  
         [0029]     In one embodiment, scorecards  124  may be used to present the status of portfolios of portfolios (as opposed to projects) instead. But, for ease of understanding, the remaining description will primarily focus on scorecards  124  being used to present the status of portfolios of projects.  
         [0030]     Similar to dashboard  122 , in a preferred one of the embodiments, a portfolio manager may select the projects of a portfolio and the performance indicators of the projects to be included, the manner the performance indicators are to be “aggregated”, whether any cross project composite measures are to be computed, the manner in which the cross project composite measures are to be computed, as well as the manner in which the measurements are to be presented. These selections may too be specified by the portfolio manager through any one of a number of “selection dialogues” known in the art.  
         [0031]     As also described earlier, investment maps  126  are designed to assist an IT executive in managing IT investments of his/her enterprise. As shown in  FIG. 3   c , for the illustrated embodiment, an investment map  126  graphically depicts a selected subset of the IT portfolios in accordance with risk, technology type, their size and their soundness. Each IT portfolio is graphically represented by a “bubble”. In alternate embodiments, other graphical representations may be employed instead. The size and soundness of a portfolio are depicted by the size and color of the “bubble”. The risk and technology type of the portfolio determines the placement of the “bubble”, e.g. with risk determining the y-axis value and the technology type determining the x-axis value. In alternate embodiments, the technology type, risk, size and soundness may be conveyed through other visual attributes instead. Again, most importantly, the portfolios are logically linked to their scorecards  124  to facilitate an IT executive to drill down or focus on a portfolio if necessary.  
         [0032]     In one embodiment, the technology type of each portfolio is characterized by the portfolio manager as being evolutionary in nature, or instrumental in establishing a new computing platform or technologically transforming in nature. In one embodiment, the characterization may be accomplished through quantified indices (which in turn are employed to generate the normalized x-coordinates). Similarly, the risk of each portfolio is characterized by the portfolio manager as being high, medium or low. In one embodiment, the characterization may also be accomplished through quantified indices (which in turn are employed to generate the normalized y-coordinates). In like manner, a portfolio manager also specifies how the size of a portfolio is to be measured, e.g. in terms of total dollars budgeted, total staffing, total number of lines of code to be written and so forth, as well as how “soundness” of a portfolio is to be measured, e.g. by the number of critical performance indicators in an “alert” state, or by the number of projects having at least one critical performance indicators in the “alert” state, or both. These specifications may too be made by the portfolio managers through any one of a number of “selection dialogues” known in the art.  
         [0033]     In alternate embodiments, investment maps  126  may depict the status of a selection of IT portfolios relative to other performance metrics/categories (as opposed to risk, technology type etc.). Again, the performance metrics/categories to be referenced in the depiction of the status of IT portfolios may be user specified, through any one of a number of known “specification dialogues” known in the art.  
         [0034]      FIGS. 4   a - 4   c  illustrate the relevant generation operational flows of the dashboard generator/viewer, the scorecard generator/viewer, and investment map generator/viewer of  FIG. 1 , in accordance with one embodiment each. As illustrated by  FIG. 4   a , for dashboard generator/viewer  112 , upon start of the dashboard generation process for a project, at  402 , dashboard generator/viewer  122  selects one of the specified graphs for generation. At  404 , dashboard generator/viewer  122  generates the selected graph for the specified performance metrics. The manner of generation is graph dependent, i.e. whether it is a histogram or a pie chart and so forth, to be generated. The generation of these types of graphs are known in the art, accordingly will not be further described. At  406 , upon generation of the selected graph, dashboard generator/viewer  122  determines if additional graphs are to be generated. If so, dashboard generator/viewer  122  returns to  402 , otherwise, dashboard generator/viewer  122  continues at  408 , where it arranges the graphs for presentation. For the earlier described embodiment, dashboard generator/viewer  122  places and tiles the generated graphs.  
         [0035]     As illustrated by  FIG. 4   b , for scorecard generator/viewer  114 , upon start of the scorecard generation process for a portfolio, at  412 , scorecard generator/viewer  124  selects one of the project of the portfolio for generation. At  414 , scorecard generator/viewer  124  selects one of the specified performance indicators. At  416 , scorecard generator/viewer  124  determines the measurement value of the selected performance indicator for the selected project. The manner of determination is performance indicator dependent. For some performance indicators, the determination may simply involve determining whether a performance metric is higher or lower than a threshold value, for others, the determination may involve any one of a number of intermediate computations such as additions, subtractions, multiplications or divisions known in the art. At  418 , upon determining the measurement value of a performance indicator for a project, scorecard generator/viewer  124  determines if measurement values for additional performance indicators are to be determined. If so, scorecard generator/viewer  124  returns to  414 , otherwise, scorecard generator/viewer  124  continues at  420 . At  420 , scorecard generator/viewer  124  determines if the portfolio has additional projects to be processed. If so, scorecard generator/viewer  124  returns to  412 , otherwise, scorecard generator/viewer  124  continues at  422 . At  422 , scorecard generator/viewer  124  determines the cross project measure values for applicable ones of the performance indicators. Finally, at  424 , scorecard generator/viewer  124  displays the generated scorecard.  
         [0036]     As illustrated by  FIG. 4   c , for investment map generator/viewer  114 , upon start of the map generation process, at  432 , map generator/viewer  126  selects one of the portfolios for generation. At  434 , map generator/viewer  126  selects a project of the selected portfolio. At  436 , map generator/viewer  126  “aggregates” the performance metric values for the selected project. The manner of “aggregation” is performance metrics dependent. For some performance metrics, the “aggregation” may simply involve summation of performance metric values, for others, the “aggregation” may involve a number of intermediate transformation or normalization operations known in the art. At  438 , upon aggregating the performance metrics for a project, map generator/viewer  126  determines if the selected portfolio has more projects to be processed. If so, map generator/viewer  126  returns to  434 , otherwise, map generator/viewer  126  continues at  440 . At  440 , map generator/viewer  126  determines color of the bubble representation, to appropriately represent the soundness of the portfolio. Additionally, map generator/viewer  126  determines the size of the bubble representation, to appropriately represent the total investment of the portfolio, as well as the proper placement of the bubble representation, to appropriately depict the technology type and risk associated with the portfolio. At  442 , map generator/viewer  126  determines if additional portfolios are to be processed. If so, map generator/viewer  126  returns to  432 , otherwise map generator/viewer  126  continues at  444 , and displays the generated map.  
         [0037]      FIGS. 5   a - 5   b  illustrate the relevant viewing operational flows of the scorecard generator/viewer and investment map generator/viewer of  FIG. 1 , in accordance with one embodiment each. As illustrated by  FIG. 5   a , for map generator/viewer  116 , upon being notified of the selection of a portfolio by a user (e.g. by way of clicking on the bubble representation using a cursor control device such as a mouse), map generator/viewer  116  determines the identity of the selected portfolio,  502 . Upon determining the identity of the selected portfolio, at  504 , map generator/viewer  116  invokes scorecard generator/viewer  114  to display the scorecard for the selected portfolio, thereby facilitating an IT executive in drilling down and focusing on a portfolio of interest.  
         [0038]     As illustrated by  FIG. 5   b , for scorecard generator/viewer  114 , upon being notified of the selection of a project by a user (e.g. by way of clicking on the row of a project using a cursor control device such as a mouse), scorecard generator/viewer  114  determines the identity of the selected project,  512 . Upon determining the identity of the selected project, at  514 , scorecard generator/viewer  114  invokes dashboard generator/viewer  112  to display the dashboard for the selected project, thereby facilitating an IT executive/a portfolio manager in drilling down and focusing on a project of interest.  
         [0039]      FIG. 6  illustrates a network environment suitable for practicing the present invention, in accordance with one embodiment. As illustrated, network environment  600  includes data server  602 , IT executive computing device  604 , portfolio manager computing devices  606 , and project manager computing devices  608 . Server  602  and computing devices  604 - 608  are coupled to each other via networking fabric  610 . Further, server  602  and computing devices  604 - 608  are incorporated with the earlier described teachings of the present invention. More particularly, server  602  is employed to store project data  102 , and provided with dashboard, scorecard and investment map generator/viewer  112 - 116  to facilitate generation and viewing of the earlier described dashboards, scorecards and investment map for an enterprise, by IT executives, portfolio managers, and project managers as described earlier, using computing devices  604 - 608 .  
         [0040]     Server  602  is intended to represent one or more servers coupled to each other through a local or a wide area network. In one embodiment, dashboard, scorecard and investment map generator/viewer  112 - 116  may execute exclusively on server  602  with the results transmitted to display on computing devices  604 - 608  through networking fabric  610 . In other embodiments, part or all of dashboard, scorecard and investment map generator/viewer  112 - 116  may be executed on computing devices  604 - 608  instead. Further, there may be more than one executive computing device  604 , as well as having computing devices that serve as a computing device with more than one role, e.g. for an IT executive as well as a portfolio manager or a project manager. Networking fabric  610  is intended to represent a wide range of interconnected private and public networks, each constituted with networking equipment such as gateways, switches, routers and the like, such as the Internet.  
         [0041]      FIG. 7  illustrates a computer system suitable for use as either server  602  or computing devices  604 - 608  of  FIG. 6  in accordance with one embodiment. As shown, computer system  700  includes one or more processors  702  (typically depending on whether it is used as server  602  or one of computing devices  604 - 608 ) and system memory  704 . Additionally, computer system  700  includes mass storage devices  706  (such as diskette, hard drive, CDROM and so forth), input/output devices  708  (such as keyboard, cursor control and so forth) and communication interfaces  710  (such as network interface cards, modems and so forth). The elements are coupled to each other via system bus  712 , which represents one or more buses. In the case of multiple buses, they are bridged by one or more bus bridges (not shown). Each of these elements perform its conventional functions known in the art. In particular, system memory  704  and mass storage  706  are employed to store a working copy and a permanent copy of the programming instructions implementing the teachings of the present invention. The permanent copy of the programming instructions may be loaded into mass storage  706  in the factory, or in the field, as described earlier, through a distribution medium (not shown) or through communication interface  710  (from a distribution server (not shown). The constitution of these elements  702 - 712  are known, and accordingly will not be further described.  
         [0042]     Thus, a novel method and apparatus for facilitating management of IT investment has been described. While the present invention has been described in terms of the above illustrated embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described. The present invention can be practiced with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. For example, in addition to the above described dashboard, scorecard and investment map, the present invention may also be practiced with a “management notebook” encapsulating the various project data for a project manager, and navigationally coupling e.g. the dashboards to these “management notebooks”. The description is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of restrictive on the present invention.  
         [0043]     It will be obvious to those having skill in the art that many changes may be made to the details of the above-described embodiments without departing from the underlying principles of the invention. The scope of the present invention should, therefore, be determined only by the following claims.