What is cross-portfolio governance?

The software development priorities for the next fiscal year have been set by our senior associate deans thanks to Dave Roberts efforts leading the Cross-portfolio Governance exercise.  There is also a proposal to expand the software development team to meet the needs of the new curriculum which is being delivered by our senior business stakeholders.

The cross-portfolio review is a series of meetings held leading up to a priority discussion with our senior associate deans.  In preparation discussions we plan and prioritize the work that needs to be done in each of the domains software development supports including medical education, research and faculty affairs.  We finish with the senior associate deans agreeing to the allocation of work across those domains.

This is the second round of cross-portfolio review meetings that have really risen out of the need to better focus the software development team on what the Medical School needs most.  As the Medical School looked to improve the curriculum, technology was seen as a core part of the successful rollout which mean that some hard decisions needed to be made about either expanding the team or putting other parts of the mission on hold.  The cross-portfolio review allows the software development team to set expectations about what we can realistically accomplish within the year but more importantly what we know we will not get done so that our senior leadership can make informed decisions about what we work.

From the software development perspective this is a huge step forward because we know we are working on what is most important but more importantly we were able to inform the prioritization decisions.  Now we are not pretending that none of the priorities will change over the next year but we have a roadmap that lays out the current plan, so when we do get request that are different we can have a conversation with our senior leadership about what the impact will be and adjust priorities as necessary.

This year the cross-portfolio review only covered the software development projects but there really could be value to other teams going through the exercise as well.  It is a chance to drive informed decisions by making the Medical School’s senior leadership aware of what you are doing and realistically what you won’t be able to get to.