Visualizing IT budget to improve stakeholder communication in the decision making process

Abstract

Traditionally in large enterprises, budget cuts are a treat for IT departments. One way to guard IT budget is visualizing the impacts in IT services of such cuts. Data visualization tools are capable of bridging the gap between increased data availability and human cognitive capabilities. In this paper, we present a budget visualization tool that allows enterprise wide data-driven decision-making. Our proposal was developed in the context of a large multi-industry state-owned company, with rigid control structures and external pressures for cost reduction and investment optimization. Our tool promotes visualization as the main mechanism to justify IT budget requests and to defend from budget amendments and cuts. We propose a generic tool that might manage different perceptions from many parts of an organization. However, to evaluate our tool’s effectiveness we incorporated four stakeholder’s perspectives: financial, technical, business’ clients and supply chain. In our efforts, we developed a data model that encapsulates these four perspectives and improves communication capabilities between stakeholders.