The governor of the state, the UMT client, had recently chartered a central IT agency with rationalizing close to $650 million in spending by the IT departments of 70+ agencies comprised of over 2000 IT workers. Of particular interest to the governor was finding an approach to foster transparency and increase control over agency IT budgets. One of the key issues was that the formerly autonomous agency IT departments already felt strained by the seemingly constant research requests from the state CIO’s central planners. To overcome this, the state CIO decided she needed an approach that would respect each agency’s application management goals and process, and provide them with a clear understanding of their effort’s value not only to state management but also to their individual agency.

1. Challenge
The governor of the state, the UMT client, had recently chartered a central IT agency with rationalizing close to $650
million in spending by the IT departments of 70+ agencies comprised of over 2000 IT workers. Of particular interest to
the governor was finding an approach to foster transparency and increase control over agency IT budgets.
One of the key issues was that the formerly autonomous agency IT departments already felt strained by the seemingly
constant research requests from the state CIO’s central planners. To overcome this, the state CIO decided she needed
an approach that would respect each agency’s application management goals and process, and provide them with a
clear understanding of their effort’s value not only to state management but also to their individual agency.
Solution
UMT was asked to provide an approach to support the CIO in increasing budg-
etary transparency and control across all state agencies. The approach was de-
veloped with the senior IT leaders in the state. It included a phased implemen-
tation which covered application portfolio management and project portfolio
management. The project was initiated with the development of a statewide
inventory of applications. The UMT consultants used a combination of proac-
tive communication and consensus building to communicate the application
portfolio management (APM) concept to all stakeholders at the 70 agencies.
The consultant conducted a road show of almost 30 presentations covering not
only the portfolio management software, the Microsoft Project Server, but also
APM theory and practice. Microsoft Project Server demonstrations also ex-
plained the linkage to project portfolio management, a hot button for many IT
managers.
State Government Establishes Portfolio Practice
in Application Management
Increases visibility with creation of state-wide application inventory
for over 40 agencies
A UMT Case Study
Shareholder participation

2. Based on feedback from a steering committee of agency representatives, the UMT consultant refined a strawman
configuration model based on UMT’s industry best practices into a consensus framework that incorporated the voice
of agency stakeholders.
Four “beta” agencies piloted the consensus configuration of descriptive application attributes, risk and performance
questionnaires and enterprise drivers of architectural fit. They articulated their agency strategy in terms of business
drivers and quantified each application’s contribution to the business. Three “early adopter” agencies followed and
together with the beta agencies, they finalized the statewide standards for the application inventory. With consen-
sus established, the state quickly compiled the statewide application inventory with participation from nearly all ma-
jor agencies.
Results
The State CIO now enjoys a scorecard view of the state’s application inventory. Seven agencies have been trained on
APM analysis techniques and nearly 40 agencies have entered their application inventories into the repository. With
training and support materials, the central IT agency can implement APM in all interested agencies and can centrally
support the repository. UMT is working with the central IT agency on the next phase of the effort, establishment of a
core configuration of Microsoft Project Server for PPM that will enable centralized visibility and be extensible for
each agency’s configuration specifications.
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