Technology strategy

Assumptions

For this analysis we assume this document is used for a medium-sized IT department of somewhere between 5 and 100 staff members. If your organization does not fall in this range other systems may be employed.

Consensus building and buy-in

One of the principal purposes of creation of a technology strategy is to create consensus and stakeholder buy-in. There are many methods to this process such as the delphi method. Organizations that have the option of using a non-biased outside facilitator frequently build consensus quickly using these processes.

Successful strategies take into the collective knowledge of many levels within an organizations and attempt to remove bias of one or more individuals. The use of anonymous feedback has been shown to prevent highly destructive passive aggressive employee behavior.

Typical structure of a technology strategy

The following are typically sections of a technology strategy:

* Executive Summary - single page summary of the IT strategy

* Internal Capabilities

* External Forces

* Opportunities

* Threats

* Milestones

Audience

A technology strategy document is usually designed to be read by non-technical stakeholders involved in business planning within an organization. It should be free of technical jargon and information technology acronyms.

The IT strategy should also be presented to or read by internal IT staff members. Many organizations circulate prior year versions to internal IT staff members for feedback before new annual IT strategy plans are created.

One critical integration point is the interface with an organizations marketing plan. The marketing plan frequently requires the support of a web site to create an appropriate on-line presence. Large organizations frequently have complex web site requirements such as web content management.

Presentation

The CIO or IT manager frequently creates a high-level overview presentation designed to be presented to stakeholders. Many experienced managers try to summarize the strategy in 5-7 slides and present the plan in under 30 minutes to a board of directors.

It is also common to produce a professionally bound booklet version of the strategy - something physical that I.T. teams can refer to, rather than the more disposable presentation slides.

Scope and size

Although many companies write an overall business plan each year, a technology strategy may cover developments somewhere between three and 5 years into the future.

Copyright 2008 - France BtoB from Wikipédia