Assessing the Criticality of IT Projects in a Portfolio Context using Centrality Measures

Abstract. Recent technological developments associated with changes in customer expectations have required continuous innovation from companies all over the world, thereby driving these companies' IT portfolios towards increasing complexity and interdependency. Simultaneously, existing methods of IT portfolio management are not able to cope with this interconnectedness of IT projects, and too little research has been performed on appropriate risk assessments of dependency structures. By considering such dependency structures as IT project networks, we draw on centrality measures to assess the risk associated with inherent project dependencies. We examine different kinds of centrality measures, whether and to what extent they are able to depict characteristics specific to IT project networks. Based on the most appropriate measure, we derive criticality values indicating projects crucial to the IT portfolio's success. These criticality values should empower companies to successfully manage their IT portfolio. Keywords: IT Projects, IT Portfolio, Dependencies, Centrality, Criticality Introduction Information technology (IT) has become a critical success factor in many industries. However, despite various planning techniques, there is still a huge number of failed IT projects. In this context, the "chaos report" is often quoted, which states that 80% of all IT projects are only partly implemented or even fail completel