An IT strategy is difficult to set in a vacuum, that is, without a solid understanding of market factors, business challenges and corporate initiatives. Active commitment from business executives ensures that the IT strategy and roadmap are designed to optimize value from IT investments, resources and assets. During this activity, you will identify key executives important to your IT strategy efforts. You will solicit their participation and support. You can use Info-Tech’s "Stakeholder Guidelines and Analysis” tool to document the role of each stakeholder and their expectations of the strategic planning process.

During this activity you will summarize and condense key elements of the company’s strategy that become the anchor of the IT Strategy. Where a company documents a corporate strategy, this activity may be as simple as pulling the critical priorities where IT has a significant role to play. In the event where the company does not have a documented business strategy, do not expect to develop one unilaterally. That is not your responsibility.

• If you are going to develop a successful IT strategy where there is no documented business strategy, you still need your business anchor. Meet with key business stakeholders to understand what their unwritten priorities and strategic initiatives might be. Use Info-Tech’s "Business Executive Interview Guide” to assist in conducting these interviews. Also use Info-Tech’s "Enterprise Strategy and Goals” template to document priorities and objectives.
• Where a Business Strategy document exists, use Info-Tech’s advanced tool, "Assessing Enterprise Strategy," to know how to read the key sections included in many business strategy documents. Also use Info-Tech’s advanced tool, "Key Success Factors Analysis,” to help pull the critical components from the Business Strategy and understand the implications on business operations.

Once you have summarized the company’s business goals and objectives, it is important to articulate what IT must achieve in order for the company to realize them. For each strategic objective, clearly develop one or two sentence statements that describe what IT must do to enable those objectives. Use Info-Tech’s "IT Imperatives" template to document your imperatives.

An IT strategy is difficult to set in a vacuum, that is, without a solid understanding of market factors, business challenges and corporate initiatives. Active commitment from business executives ensures that the IT strategy and roadmap are designed to optimize value from IT investments, resources and assets. During this activity, you will identify key executives important to your IT strategy efforts. You will solicit their participation and support. You can use Info-Tech’s "Stakeholder Guidelines and Analysis” tool to document the role of each stakeholder and their expectations of the strategic planning process.

For most companies, the IT Strategy process is straightforward and revisited on an annual basis. The executive team has frequent interaction and the strategy can be developed over a series of key meetings supported with clear-cut back-room work. However, larger organizations or companies that are geographically dispersed may have infrequent interaction between IT leaders and business executives. For some organizations, this may be the first development of an IT Strategy. In these cases, you should follow a more formal, advanced activity. Use Info-Tech’s "IT Strategy and Roadmap Scope Statement” tool to establish a project charter for your efforts.

For many companies, an explicit launch to the IT Strategy is unnecessary. The strategy will be developed by the core IT leadership team. Interaction with other business executives is informal and frequent. However, as in the previous activity, if a more formal approach is warranted, conduct a kickoff meeting with your stakeholders and your strategy team. Use Info-Tech’s advanced "Kickoff Meeting Template” to help you complete this activity.

Take a deliberate approach to identifying and evaluating how and when emerging technologies can have a strategic impact on the enterprise. Your objective during this activity is to assess whether the company can gain competitive advantage and strategic value by adopting a new technology. During this activity, you should talk to your key vendors to understand their strategic roadmap and innovations. You can also use your professional network to understand how your competitors, customers and suppliers are using advanced technologies and what value they are seeing. Discover which technologies to investigate, deploy, or ignore based on results from using Info-Tech’s "Technology Monitor.”

During this activity you will summarize and condense key elements of the company’s strategy that become the anchor of the IT Strategy. Where a company documents a corporate strategy, this activity may be as simple as pulling the critical priorities where IT has a significant role to play. In the event where the company does not have a documented business strategy, do not expect to develop one unilaterally. That is not your responsibility.

• If you are going to develop a successful IT strategy where there is no documented business strategy, you still need your business anchor. Meet with key business stakeholders to understand what their unwritten priorities and strategic initiatives might be. Use Info-Tech’s "Business Executive Interview Guide” to assist in conducting these interviews. Also use Info-Tech’s "Enterprise Strategy and Goals” template to document priorities and objectives.
• Where a Business Strategy document exists, use Info-Tech’s advanced tool, "Assessing Enterprise Strategy," to know how to read the key sections included in many business strategy documents. Also use Info-Tech’s advanced tool, "Key Success Factors Analysis,” to help pull the critical components from the Business Strategy and understand the implications on business operations.

Once you have summarized the company’s business goals and objectives, it is important to articulate what IT must achieve in order for the company to realize them. For each strategic objective, clearly develop one or two sentence statements that describe what IT must do to enable those objectives. Use Info-Tech’s "IT Imperatives" template to document your imperatives.

Enlist your management team and key business stakeholders in a working meeting to reassess the role of IT and how IT should be contributing value to the enterprise. Use Info-Tech’s "IT Vision Meeting Agenda” to help you structure your session.

Based on your working session and IT Imperatives, develop an overarching Vision and Mission statement for your organization. Use Info-Tech’s "IT Vision and Mission Statements Template” to help you.