Portfolio and program management takes an enterprisewide focus on defining, gathering, categorizing, analyzing and monitoring information on corporate assets and activities to achieve business objectives.

Taking an effective portfolio and program management approach can unite an organization’s efforts at every level. Comparable to financial portfolio management, PPM is a completely different way of seeing, assessing and planning the business.

It’s really no surprise that alignment is still a top priority for CIOs. The simple truth is that it hasn’t happened at most companies. But who’s to blame: IT or the business?

This just in: Successfully aligning IT with the business is hard to do.

A business-driven technology strategy articulates the capabilities required for the success of an organization. To align your business-technology investments with your business strategy, you should focus on the type of value you want to create.

The development of business requirements and project parameters can make or break an IT project.

The data in this slideshow comes from an IAG Consulting report called Business Analysis Benchmark, which was culled from a survey of over 100 organizations which carried out IT development projects with an average budget of around $3 million.

A key takeway: mixed project-planning teams that include business and IT people tend to get the best results.

In this installment of Getting the Best Out of Geeks, we spoke with project management guru Dr. Steve Flannes to get the scoop on the ten biggest people-related mistakes that IT project managers can make. As the principal of the consultancy Flannes & Associates, he specializes in managing people through projects and is the author of Essential People Skills for Project Managers.

Many of your valuable geeks are most at home while working on big projects. Because these IT projects can make or break managers, it is critical that you consider how to best utilize the people who carry them out.

Recession-related IT budget slashing and layoffs are taking their toll on IT project success rates, according to the results of the latest CHAOS Summary 2009 report from The Standish Group.

To ensure that the executives in its brands and business units understand and are responsible for their IT costs, 1-800-Flowers implemented a chargeback system in which everyone benefits.