"Different parts of the business should be linked, like IT portfolio management and IT enterprise architecture."

Bittenger said that in such an environment an IT department could present a coherent plan to business on how an application portfolio will evolve over time.

"I know of one organization that has developed an application planning cycle that extended as far as 2015," he said.

Westpac's practice leader for project management, Andrew Gorvin-White, said the bank had just implemented a roadmap that drives the future use of toolsets and applications.

The project, known as the Towards One Methodology, its goal is to capture intellectual property (IP) and drive IT innovation within Westpac's IT business unit, Gorvin said.