Anatomy of an IT strategic plan in the era of digital disruption
Written by Stephanie Overby, Contributor to CIO Magazine
October 27, 2017 via CIO.com.
IT’s role in the development and execution of business strategy has grown significantly in the era of digital transformation. But as the rate of business and technology change has accelerated, some of the past static, rigid, and disjointed approaches to IT strategic planning fail to keep pace.
That’s not to say CIOs should skip IT strategic planning altogether — quite the contrary. Developing and executing a business-aligned IT roadmap is more important than ever. “Given the growing importance of technology in every business, technology organizations must have clear strategic direction and priorities that are closely linked to the business strategy,” says Brad Strock, CIO of PayPal.
Yet just 29 percent of IT leaders say their organizations are effective or very effective at IT strategy and planning, according to Gartner’s 2017 CIO Survey. Even fewer (23%) rated their organization as effective or very effective at business strategy and planning. “The biggest challenge for IT leadership is whether or not the CIO feels comfortable with business strategy and can lead and shape discussion around that,” says Nigel Fenwick, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. “CIOs must have a strong understanding of the levers of business in order to lead and drive revenue.”
Experts and CIOs agree that effective IT strategy begins with an IT-informed business strategy. CIOs must be intimately involved in the creation of those documents and other artifacts that provide direction about what the enterprise needs to do, why it needs to do it, and how it will accomplish that. Only then can IT leaders build their own functional plans to support business strategy. “The plan is about understanding where to make investments and what capabilities the company will need — the people, partners, processes, and systems required — to do that,” says Fenwick.
When done well, IT strategic planning can be a powerful tool, setting the company up to realize key business goals and outcomes. But CIOs must be willing to embrace new approaches to planning that are more business-driven, flexible, and frequently revisited. Unfortunately, says Fenwick, strategic planning practices tend to evolve slowly. But IT leaders today don’t have time to waste.
Following are some emerging best practices for developing an effective IT strategic plan today.
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