10 Strategic IT portfolio

 

This chapter covers

  • Viewing architecture as a portfolio
  • Classifying utility and strategic IT
  • Using Core Domain Charts to map out the portfolio of core, supporting, and generic subdomains
  • Investing optimally in each subdomain: financially, organizationally, and technically

A key challenge for modernization leaders is ensuring that modernization efforts deliver the greatest business impact, which means avoiding underinvesting in high-priority areas and overinvesting in areas with limited return on investment. A bad decision could result in thousands of people-hours wasted modernizing low-value capabilities and missed opportunity costs of moving the business forward in key strategic areas. For technologists, it’s crucial to discern that a brilliant technical architecture using the latest technologies and patterns in an area where a simple CRUD interface would suffice is a bad decision, regardless of the technical brilliance. One of the goals of architecture modernization is to enable fine-grained business investments, which requires a value-driven, portfolio-based approach.

10.1 Utility vs. strategic IT dichotomy

10.1.1 Tailored operating model

10.1.2 Identifying strategic IT

10.2 Core Domain Charts

10.2.1 Example Core Domain Chart

10.2.2 Assessing model complexity

10.2.3 Core domain evolution

10.2.4 Industry example: Events industry scale-up

10.2.5 Comparisons with Wardley Mapping

10.3 Core Domain Chart patterns

10.3.1 Decisive core

10.3.2 Indefensible core