The BRM role clarity is not a new topic. Everyone who has ever been involved with a BRM in one way or another, understands that often the role boundaries fall into a grey zone. However, in each organization the role clarity, or lack of it, manifests itself in different ways and it depends on whether the BRM is positioned strategically or tactically, on organizational culture, industry, size of the organization, and many other factors. Join to hear the success and challenges of BRM and Service Owners in the Harvard Business School and how they team up to optimize the business value. In today’s reality of volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environments and the age of accelerated digital transformation where service organizations invariably struggle to keep up with the velocity of demand, it has become even more imperative that the roles of the BRM and Service Owner, both connective tissues between various parts of the organization with its partners, be lock stepped in the maximization of value and co-creation of transformation.

1. The
Tweedledee
and
Tweedledum
of Portfolio
Management
BRMs & Service Owners Story
Based on Harvard Business
School IT’s Case Study

2. Svetlana Sidenko, Master of Business Relationship
Management (MBRM® ), PMP® , ITIL® Strategic Leader
and Management Professional, ITIL® Expert, CGEIT®
BRM Leadership Coach and President of IT Chapter
• Experience: 20 years of experience in Digital
Technology
• Expertise: BRM, ITSM, IT Governance, Business
Transformation, Continual Improvement, General
Management
Speakers Introduction
Xolani Ngwenya, ITIL® Strategic Leader and
Management Professional, ITIL® Expert
Director of IT Service Delivery, Harvard Business School
• Experience: 20 years in Digital Technology, including 15
years in the Higher Ed industry
• Expertise: IT Governance & Operations, ITSM, Business
Transformation, Continual Improvement
2

3. q The Business Problem
q Effective Portfolio Management
q The HBS Journey in BRM & Service Owner Role Clarity
Outline
3
3

4. What is the Business Problem?
Ever-increasing demand limited
by inflexible budgets and
capacity causes organizations
to overpromise and
underdeliver.
Dynamic business environment
causes high demand for
continuous delivery while
priorities need to be adjusted to
optimize value for strategic
objectives.
Unrealized business outcomes
and unmet strategic objectives
due to disconnect between
stakeholders that define
strategy and those required to
deliver the required initiatives.
Unrealized business outcomes
and unmet strategic objectives
due to a lack of integrated
portfolio management.
4

5. Effective Strategic Portfolio Management
Drives Business Outcomes
Gartner , Leadership Vision for 2022: Program and Portfolio Management , August 2021
“Complacency with portfolio management increases the chances of failing to deliver business
value”
”Based on the available data, we predict that, by 2025, 70% of digital investments will fail to
deliver their expected business outcomes in the absence of a strategic portfolio management
approach”
5

6. Purpose & Definition
6
Portfolio is a collection of assets into which an organization
chooses to invest its resources in order to receive the best
return.
The purpose of the Portfolio Management practice is to ensure
that the organization has the right mix of programmes,
projects, products, and services to execute the organization’s
strategy within its funding and resource constraints.
Source: ITIL4® c

7. Portfolio
management
encompasses
several portfolios
7
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Customer
portfolio
Programme
and project
portfolio
Product
and service
portfolio

8. Achieving Optimal Return on Investment
From a Holistic System of Assets
Demand
and
Opportunities
Return on investment
Enable
& limit
Enable
& limit
Enables
& limits
Enables
& limits
Enables
& limits
Enable
& limit
Sets objectives for
Sets objectives for
Sets objectives for
Sets objectives for
Sets objectives for Sets objectives for
8
Source: ITIL4® c

9. The Harvard Business School Journey in BRM and Service
Owners Role Clarity
How the Business Relationship Manager and Service Owner team
up to deliver value and enable business strategy and objectives.
9
9

10. Our Portfolio Management “Iron Triangle"
Siloed work & practices
Competing priorities
Disconnect from strategic priorities
10

11. Desired Outcomes
Be the trusted
innovator for
1
Raise the bar
on
governance
at work love
3
Optimize
practices &
processes
2
Sharpen
decision-
making tools
11

12. Streamline & optimize
practices and processes
Raise the bar on
governance
Sharpen decision-making
with tools
Increase transparency across the
leadership team on the work Information
and Technology teams undertake
12

13. Optimize processes Raise the bar on
governance
Sharpen decision-making
with tools
• Organization-wide demand prioritization
• Budget and resourcing decisions informed
by strategy and priorities
• Ensure effective measurements and
metrics to support decision-making
Increase transparency across the
leadership team on the work Information
and Technology teams undertake
13

14. Raise the bar on
governance
Optimize processes Sharpen decision-making
with tools
Adopt new governance models and
practices; bringing streams of work
together, ensuring continual monitoring,
review, and optimization.
• Organization-wide demand
prioritization
• Budget and resourcing decisions
informed by strategy and priorities
• Ensure effective measurements and
metrics to support decision-making
Increase transparency across the
leadership team on the work Information
and Technology teams undertake
14

15. Building Block # 1: Our Strategic Priorities
15
“We educate leaders who make a
difference in the world” - HBS
Mission

16. Building Block # 2: Capability Map
16
Core Technology
Strategy
Relationship
Management
Business
Intelligence
Customer Support
Customer & Partner Engagement
Talent
Acquisition
Talent
Development
People
Performance
Management
People
Management
Service
Management
Product
Management
Product, Service & Quality Management
Digital Strategy
(Build, Buy,
Integrate)
Research
Computing
Data
Management
Endpoint
Management
Core Technology
Management
Infrastructure
Operations
Audiovisual
Management
Security Portfolio
Strategy
Information &
Data Security
Risk &
Compliance
Management
Security
Operations
Research &
Development
Enterprise
Architecture
Strategic
Planning &
Enterprise
Governance
Financial & Asset
Management
Organizational Strategy,
Performance Management &
Governance
Program &
Project
Management
Vendor &
Contract
Management
Knowledge
Management
Organizational
Change
Management
Quality
Management
Business
Solutioning &
Advisory

17. Demand Management
• Governance / Demand
Linkage
• Strategy & Finance / Demand
Linkage
• Many to Many Partner
Relationships
Plan (and Governance) Activities
Ensure a shared understanding of the vision, current status, and improvement direction for all four dimensions and all products and services across an organization.
Improve Activities
Ensure continual improvement of products, services, and practices across all value chain activities and the four dimensions of service management.
Delivery (Engage => Transition)
• Service Design focus on full delivery
• Net New delivery (Maintenance, Capacity
& Operational Plans)
• Project Management consistency across
projects
• Business Requirements (BA) skills
• Solutioning
• Agile
• Dev Ops
• Ops is not included in the Dev Process
Plan
• Prioritization Lacks Good Process
• Lack of Maintenance Plans across the
organization
• Operational Plan Gaps (AWS, ESS & ~QA)
• Capacity Planning at Enterprise level
• Buy vs. Build Process & Decision Framework
Support / Transition Processes
• Change & Release Mgmt
• Problem Identification and Management
• Incident Tracking through Completion
(Tier 2 Support Gaps)
• Problem Management Process (aka
"Defect Process") is lacking
Operating Model Wide Improvement
• Knowledge Management
• Continual Improvement
• Metrics
• Roles & Decision Making
• Infrastructure
• Communication tools and processes are not standardized
• Management Structure
Demand
Opportunity
Engage Design
Obtain / Build /
Update
Transition Deliver & Support
Service / Value
to Customer
Building Block # 3: Identifying Our Pain Points
17

18. Our Service Delivery Operating Model
18
Our Service Delivery Operating Model
Demand
Opportunity
Engage Design
Obtain / Build /
Update
Transition
Deliver &
Support
Service / Value
to Customer
Partner Requests
Faculty Requests
HBS IT Requests
• Operational IT
Demand
Operational Needs
Maintenance Needs
• Across Portfolio
Net New Needs
• Across Portfolio
Business Rqmnts
Service Design
Data Integration
Service Level
Agreements
Operating Level
Agreements
Supplier
Performance
Feedback/Reviews
Customer Feedback
Buy vs. Build
Change & Release Management
Knowledge Management
- Partner Roadmaps
- Financial Roadmaps
- Service/App Roadmaps
- PRB
- Quarterly Planning
- ITPC
- Maintenance Plans
- Capacity Planning
- Project Charter and Scope
- Backlog Grooming
(Defects & Enhancements)
- Operational Plans
- Service Transition
Process
PLAN & GOVERNANCE ACTIVITIES
- After Action Reports
NEW INPUTS FOR IMPROVEMENT
IMPROVE ACTIVITIES
- Portfolios: Customer /
Financial / Service
DEV OPS FRAMEWORK
Plan - Code - Build - Test - Release - Deploy - Operate
• Continuous Integration
• Continuous Deployment / Delivery
• Continuous Automated Testing
• Infrastructure as Code
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
• AGILE Software Development
• All Other Projects
- Incident
- Major Incident
- Problem
- Request
- Access
- Event
Manage Risk
- Director on Call
Defect
Problem
Enhancements
Turning the “What” into “How” and “Where” to support value co-creation with our partners

19. The Role Clarity Project
Key Roles
Driving Principles
qEnd-to-end ownership of
services.
qCulture of shared
responsibility and
collaboration
qMulti-disciplinary teams
⎻ (T-Shaped, Pi-Shaped,
Comb-Shaped
professionals)
qRe-thinking roles -
engagement of ALL roles
as early as possible in the
value chain.
Service
Owner
BRM TOL
Service Owner is empowered to shape and
direct the development and continual
improvement of a service in a way that
maximizes business value.
Business Relationship Manager owns the
strategic relationships with business partners.
The “connective tissue” between the IT
provider and partner, helping align IT strategy
with Partner demand.
Tech Oversight Lead is a member
of a technical function with
extensive technical experience in
their domain; tasked with ensuring
consistency across the technology
stack.
Tier 2 Technical Specialists administer and
troubleshoot the Service Component,
typically within its admin interface.
Tier 3 Specialists implement the solution,
troubleshoots, and maintain Service
Component health (full stack responsibility).
Technical Management
19

20. Role Clarity
Artifacts
20
Decision Matrix
Role Coverage Model
Identify people for
each role, for each
service and
component
Service A Service B
Technical Management
Identify gaps
Updated Role
descriptions
Decision Matrix Supporting document

21. BRM and Service Owners in the Value
Chain
21
Demand
Opportunity
Engage Design
Obtain / Build /
Update
Transition
Service / Value
to Customer
Deliver & Support
• Business
case/value
proposition
• Partner
strategy
roadmaps
• Review
funding and
governance
body
options • Confirm
costs,
funding and
charging
models
• Represent
partner’s
interests
• Escalate if
necessary
• Meeting
partner
strategic
objectives
• Manage
Partner
feedback
BRM
• Ensure appropriate partner
engagement and
ownership
• Request intake
(operational /
maintenance)
• Service plans
• Confirm
support
needs
• Continual
improvement
and
feedback
reviews
• Capture
knowledge
across the
value chain
• Budget& costs
• Contracts and
agreements
reviews
• Service support
models
• Sign-off on
service
acceptance
• Ensure
delivery to
SLA
• Handle
Major
Incidents
• Service
Performance
Reviews
• Vendor
performance
evaluation
• Ensure
appropriate
provider
engagement
and
ownership
Service
Owner

22. BRMs & Service Owners in Action
22
Portfolio Management (Service, Project)
Continual improvement
Service
Owner
BRM
New products
and technologies
New student markets
and opportunities
Net New Partner
demand
Risk Optimization
Value Optimization
Compliance
Cost/asset optimization
Rationalize
&
Prioritize
IT Financial Management
Funded &
prioritized
projects
Value
to
Partners
Portfolio Backlog
Strategic
Priorities

23. Conclusion
Portfolio Management ensures that the right
investment decisions are made and that results are
reviewed against their expected outcomes in order
to minimize investing in underperforming effort. BRMs
and Service Owners partnering in tandem ensure:
q Sound investment decisions for programmes,
projects, products, and services within the
organization's resource constraints are made.
q Continual monitoring, review, and optimization
of the organization's portfolios occurs.
23