Developing an IT strategy may look as a daunting task for many IT leaders and even a defined IT strategy may not yield the right outcome. Many reason could contribute to a failed IT strategy but some of the main reasons being
- IT leaders being pushed for IT strategies where the business itself may not be having a right strategy with clear vision, mission, goals, and objectives
- A strategy being based on several tactics that keeps changing frequently
- A strategy based on some external consultant with a 200 page document that nobody really follows.
IT strategy should be based on answering one key question,
how will IT helps business success?
So it is imperative that what defines as business success is identified up front. There are many tools in identifying business success, but one simple but yet powerful tool could be using Value Discipline model by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiesemara. The Value Disciple allows an organization to understand what is the one thing that will create a competitive advantage over others and what is it that an organization wants to be famous for. Another great feature about the Value Discipline is that in can be applied at any stage of organizations growth
Strategy
Strategy should define a vision of how the company will succeed, what are the goals to succeed. Basically how will the company win, by focusing on what?
Strategy is long term, will not, and should not change frequently
Strategic plan
Are the short term tactics that will allow us to get to the long term strategy? These are short lived, 3 months – 1 year. Regularly evaluated and changed to meet the current need and environment change.
IT strategy can be broken into three key areas DEMAND , CONTROL , SUPPLY.
Demand encapsulate the business demand to ensure business success and the IT contribution to that success
Control defines how will the organization ensure the strategic design is enforced correctly
Supply is how will IT evolve it’s capabilities to meet the demand
| Demand (How will we win) | Control (How will we ensure strategic design) | Supply (How will IT evolve it’s capabilities) |
| Business Context (Value Discipline) | IT Principles | IT Service |
| Business Success | IT Governance | Architecture |
| Business Capabilities | Finance Management | People |
| IT contribution | Metrics | Sourcing |
The IT strategy document should be an 10 – 15 page document that encapsulate what is needed for the organization from the above table. Not all is needed , but we should pick what we need for our business.
Some highlights from above are
Demand
Business Context (Value Discipline) – What discipline should be our core discipline that we will never compromise for any reason. This is what will make us win the game of business
What will be the measurement of business success?
Business Capabilities – What are our core capabilities we need to have in order ensure that we meet business success (Cycle Time, M&A, Efficiency , Process Improvement, Agility and Change, Transparency, Innovation , etc….)
IT contribution – How will IT contribute for business to win?
Control
Principles – 8 or 10 core principles that will govern all IT decisions which should be catered towards how IT will help business win. Two key questions to ask each time we make a decision (strategy moment)
- How do we succeed as a business
- How will IT help
Governance – What will govern every IT decision in every area?
Metrics – what are the KPI’ s that IT leaders need to monitor in order to ensure that the IT strategy is being followed and IT is delivering it’s promise to support business sucess
Supply
IT Services – what are the IT services that needs to be improved, altered or added to ensure that IT supports the business.
Architecture – How should the application , infrastructure , product architecture improve or will enhance the capabilities of the business.
People – What and where are the skill gaps that needs to fulfilled in order for IT to supply business success
A well laid out IT strategy and strategic plan will ensure that IT delivers on it’s promise to ensure business success.
I hope that above gave some insight to IT leaders on building an IT strategy that will work and has worked for me.