IT strategic plan: where to start

What an IT strategic plan is

The IT strategic plan is the document that defines where the company’s technology is heading and how it will get there: which projects will be done, in what order, with what budget, who is responsible and how results will be measured. It is common in the public sector, but it is just as valuable for private companies of any size.

In practice, it replaces decisions made in the heat of an emergency with a plan that has been discussed and approved with the board.

Signs that your company needs one

• IT is always putting out fires and never gets to plan.
• Technology costs keep rising and nobody can explain why.
• Projects start but never finish, or don’t deliver what was promised.
• Each department buys its own system, with no integration.
• The board has no numbers to evaluate IT.

The six steps to build your plan

1. Assess the current situation
   Survey assets, systems, contracts, costs, staff, processes and risks. Listen to the business areas: what their pain points are and what slows their work down.
2. Align with the strategy
   Start from the company’s goals for the coming years (growing, opening new locations, selling online, cutting costs) and translate each one into technology needs.
3. Map the needs
   Turn pain points and goals into a list of initiatives: projects, hires, replacements and process improvements.
4. Prioritize
   Rank each initiative by business impact, effort, cost and the risk of not doing it. What is urgent and important comes first.
5. Roadmap and budget
   Spread the initiatives over time, assign owners and deadlines and set the expected investment, separating one-off and recurring costs.
6. Governance and indicators
   Define how the plan will be tracked: indicators, regular meetings with the board and rules for adding or removing projects.

A simple way to prioritize

Quadrant	Impact × effort	What to do
Quick wins	High impact, low effort	Do these first
Strategic projects	High impact, high effort	Plan them with a budget and a deadline
Tweaks	Low impact, low effort	Fit them in when there is room
Avoid	Low impact, high effort	Drop or rethink

What the document must include

• Summary assessment
  Where IT stands today, with the main risks.
• Objectives and targets
  What you want to achieve, with a deadline and a way to measure it.
• Project portfolio
  A prioritized list, with owners and a schedule.
• Budget
  Investments and recurring costs by period.
• Risks and continuity
  What could go wrong and how operations keep running.
• Indicators
  The numbers the board will track.

The most common mistakes

• Starting with technology instead of the business goals.
• Writing a nice-looking plan that nobody follows up on.
• Leaving the business areas out of the assessment.
• Planning only projects and forgetting contracts, people and security.
• Not setting aside budget for maintenance and the unexpected.

Start small
A first IT strategic plan can cover 12 months and fit in a few pages. A simple plan that is actually followed beats a long document forgotten in a drawer.

Quick checklist to get started

• Company goals for the coming years defined
• Inventory of IT systems, contracts and costs
• Pain points of the business areas mapped
• Prioritized list of initiatives
• Roadmap with owners and deadlines
• Budget approved by the board
• Indicators and a tracking routine