The crucial first steps on the road to IT organizational success
BLOG: The eight (8) essential elements of IT Strategy and Planning must be done to ensure IT organizational success. Ignore these steps and you risk program and project failure.
In the eyes of senior executives, the number one cause of organizational failure, especially for newly minted leadership, is a lack of an intentional, cohesive, and coherent strategy that is sufficiently planned, maintained, and communicated. Paradoxically, these steps are the least costly of any IT initiative and provide the most value for advancing your organizational goals, objectives, funding, resources, branding, visibility, and most importantly, credibility!
Your team will benefit significantly from having an IT Strategy and Plan in place prior to undertaking its IT initiative. Whether you are the new person in charge, or you have missed this step, never contemplated it, and/or your roadmap has grown stale and become unkempt… the 8 elements of IT Strategy and Planning described below are for you.
The process of developing an IT Strategy and Plan will validate the business value your team has to the organization, help to coalesce stakeholder support, and lay down a roadmap for success. Notably, it will ensure the alignment of business and IT goals, improve decision-making, enforce rigorous prioritization and efficiently allocate resources to attain and maintain a competitive advantage. A comprehensive IT Strategy and plan will clearly establish you as the leader, not just you as the manager and/or the VP. It will give you an effective rally point.
Regrettably, too many leaders truncate the IT Strategy and Planning process under the pressures of (1) rapid technological change, (2) the desire, as a new employee, to quickly impact the organization, (3) internal business pressure to maintain a competitive edge, and/or (4) an overwhelming amount of operational duties. Even worse, some leaders rely on informal communications to guide their Zen-like decision-making and prioritization which leaves their team(s) rudderless, without a shared vision, and lacking an understanding of how what they do fits into the BIG picture.
Why a Formal IT Strategy and Plan Makes Sense (The 8 Essentials)
01. Business and IT Goals Alignment
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“High-performance IT demands superior and relentless alignment between business and IT” Forrester |
A well-executed IT Strategy and Planning activity harmonizes business goals with IT. It clearly defines your goals and objectives; providing the necessary connective tissue between your business goals and how your IT objectives will support the business to achieve real business value. Baseline key performance indicators (KPIs) should be carefully defined up front and measured throughout the plan’s execution against specific objectives. These goals and objectives must be concrete enough in order to assign a measurable result. As the leader, you will need to clearly articulate what success looks like. As you develop the goals and objectives, each assumption should be challenged, clarified, and communicated.
02. Current State Analysis and Benchmarking
| “If you are working on a project/initiative and you cannot tie it back to a key objective or goal … maybe you should not be doing it.” |
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A careful analysis of the current state of IT systems, infrastructure, and processes will uncover IT and business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis), which thereafter become the baseline for improvement. Often, this baseline establishes the benchmarks upon which your success and KPIs will be measured and by which your strategic and tactical initiatives are created. If you are working on a project/initiative and you cannot tie it back to a key objective or goal … maybe you should not be doing it.
03. Innovation Unleashed
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“…your team will be energized, think creatively, and buy into the roadmap… “ |
Your IT Strategy and Planning activities will foster a culture of innovation if they are carefully facilitated, collaboratively developed and effectively communicated. Whether exploring an innovative process or examining an emerging technology, your team will be energized, think creatively, and buy into the roadmap you are developing together. Bringing your team with you; don’t leave them behind.
04. Stakeholder Support and Collaboration
| “Team branding is essential for gathering support, showing progress and maintaining excitement.” |
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Involving external IT and business stakeholders in strategy development and planning mitigates the risk of lukewarm support, poor collaboration, or outright resistance. Well-defined roles and responsibilities hold team members accountable. Great plans leverage communication tactics that keep the team, both internal and external, apprised of progress and celebrate milestones as they are achieved. Team branding is essential for gathering support, showing progress and maintaining excitement.
05. Requirements Definition
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“As part of the IT Strategy, requirements must be aligned with the business goals and objectives, rigorously prioritized…” |
The definition of requirements sets the tone, functionality, capabilities and scope of an IT initiative. Organizing and prioritizing requirements creates project guardrails and helps prevent runaway projects that exceed budget boundaries, scuttle schedules, and stunt career growth. If requirements are added, it is critical that the project timeline and budget are refactored and that all stakeholders agree to the change. As part of the IT Strategy, requirements must be aligned with the business goals and objectives, rigorously prioritized based on business value, and regularly reviewed.
06. Cost Containment
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“Understanding velocity as compared to project completion percentages is key in calculating the health of any project by considering time and cost. “ |
Strategically planning the development of IT systems, purchases of new systems and infrastructure while systematically decommissioning systems, which are no longer either viable or necessary, can help justify an IT project’s investment. Closely working with product and financial owners while leveraging value streams for agile implementation and Earned Value (EV) for traditional and larger-scale programs helps to ensure financial success. Understanding velocity as compared to project completion percentages is key in calculating the health of any project by considering time and cost. The creation of a Value Realization Office (VRO) is critical to successfully recognizing the value of strategic initiatives.
07. Risk Mitigation from Day One
| “Threats from cybersecurity, data breaches, blackout windows, and system outages should be considered and categorized with response plans proactively contemplated and documented. “ |
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Proactive planning enables thorough risk and barrier evaluation as well as their associated mitigation(s). Threats from cybersecurity, data breaches, blackout windows, and system outages should be considered and categorized with response plans proactively contemplated and documented. This approach will result in the development of preventive measures and recovery strategies ahead of an event occurring with triggers dictating an appropriate response. This is vastly preferable to spinning your wheels rather than resolving the problem.
08. Technology Roadmap
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It enables everyone to “sled in the same direction”. |
Ultimately, these IT strategy and planning activities produce a visual representation of the implementation of your business’s systems, infrastructure, and processes in support of your IT Strategy and Plan. This artifact, the roadmap, is utilized internally by the team to provide clarity on priorities and the associated orchestration required in order for teams to work synergistically. It enables everyone to “sled in the same direction”. Externally, it should be leveraged to communicate and track progress, give insights to the broader organization, assist in securing funding, and most importantly, gain credibility as you track your successes over time. The example below is an Agile Project Roadmap showing a series of sprints.
Wrapping it up
IT Strategy and Planning initiatives are critical for businesses that use technology to grow and gain a competitive advantage. Creating one is essential to successfully aligning the business goals with IT initiatives and therefore reduces waste – of time, resources, and business capital. Working with an IT consultancy will help accelerate results, provide objectivity and avoid politically motivated pitfalls… No matter how your team creates its IT Strategy and Plan, having one established will minimize risk and give other parties within your organization transparency into what you are doing and how you are prioritizing your activities.
If you need help or assistance with developing your IT Strategy and Plan, or in creating your roadmap. Please feel to reach out to me for a free template that will assist you along your way.
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Kristofer L. Mathisen is a founding member of DKGIT, LLC, an advisory to the C Suite and has spent over 30+ years in the development and delivery of information technology consulting services, leading well over $1B in projects and programs. He is a highly regarded authority on project and program management and digital infrastructure transformations. |