© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 J. Zdravkovic et al. (Eds.): CAiSE 2015, LNCS 9097, pp. 453–467, 2015. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-19069-3_28 Empirical Challenges in the Implementation of IT Portfolio Management: A Survey in Three Companies Lucy Ellen Lwakatare () , Pasi Kuvaja, Harri Haapasalo, and Arto Tolonen Department of Information Processing Science, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland {lucy.lwakatare,pasi.kuvaja, harri.haapasalo,arto.tolonen}@oulu.fi Abstract. The study explores the implementation challenges of Information Technology (IT) portfolio management in three companies. The portfolio ap- proach to IT assets is significant for enabling organisations to make effective use of limited resources by prioritising IT initiatives and also for monitoring and evaluating their performance. In practice, the process facilitates the provi- sion of necessary information for decision makers, allowing them to make ra- tional decisions about IT investments. We found that there is a significant gap between IT portfolio management as discussed in the literature and its actual practice. The analysis showed that there was high flexibility when specifying IT projects, which caused companies to implement IT portfolios that were too broad. As a consequence, resources were not effectively utilised, and IT portfo- lio evaluations post implementation were rarely conducted. Our research con- tribution identifies important gaps to be filled in the literature and presents case studies related to IT portfolio management. Keywords: IT portfolio management · IT governance · IT project portfolio 1 Introduction Information Technology (IT) has, in many cases, proven to be a useful enabler in achieving the strategic mission of an organisation, though it is often constrained by various factors such as high costs. For companies, yearly increases in expenditure on IT shows a relationship between the strategic implementation of IT and the ability to achieve corporate objectives and goals [1]. Conversely, some studies have argued that the causal relationship between IT investments and business value has remained partially unexplained [2, 3]. The notion here is that large investments in IT do not guarantee long-term success, but rather appropriate governance of IT investments is crucial if an organisation is creating value through IT investments [4]. Applying appropriate governance to IT investments includes adopting suitable methods and practices for selecting and evaluating IT initiatives. Generally, IT constitutes a com- pany’s total investments in computing and communication technologies that facilitate information sharing and help to support a variety of business processes, such as R&D, in achieving its goals. Typically, companies have a dedicated or separate IT function that is responsible for acquiring IT products and services.