Garner Technology

I am a big believer in strategic planning.  Some might suggest this is one of my failings since there are those that feel that strategic planning is simply a navel-gazing exercise; a complete waste of time.  In some respects, the critics of strategic planning are right.  If a strategic plan is developed but not implemented then the effort is, indeed, a waste of time.  A strategic plan though is not a end in itself.  It is, in fact, a beginning.  It is a tool used to keep an organization focused and outlines the measurable components that will indicate whether what it is doing is making a difference.  If it isn’t then we do something else.  In this way, a strategic plan is a living document that requires constant attention otherwise it dies.

Strategic plans are formed through an analysis of an organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (known as SWOT analysis) relating to the mission.  For local government IT the mission is most likely providing the necessary infrastructure and support to assist in provisioning municipal services.  From this analysis comes a list of activities or projects that will be done (strategic goals and objectives) to support doing the things an organization is doing well and address those it isn’t in context of where it sees itself (known as the vision).   Each strategic goal and associated objective will have a measurable target that provides a way of determining how well the organization is doing.  In this way, projects that are in a plan are linked to a rational for why its being done.

Some might argue that strategic planning for IT is too difficult since the technology changes so rapidly that it’s impossible to plan meaningful strategies.  This argument focuses too much on the technology and not enough on the need to use technology to solve business problems.  Focus on the business problem and the technical solution becomes almost secondary.  If you can solve a business problem with today’s technology it’s likely the problem will still have been solved three years from now.

Most IT strategic plans that I have seen are simply technology plans that outline the organizations wish-list of IT projects.  They are not tied to any particular objective other than to satisfy someones need (legitimate or otherwise) for a particular system.  In itself, this may not be bad.  Some good work has been done by people who champion (bully?) a particular IT project into existence.  However, in this approach, those who are not successful at championing projects usually get nothing.  The strategic plan helps to keep the focus at the organization level so that all areas of the business contribute to success of meeting objectives.  It’s all about making the whole organization better not just a single department.

It has been my experience that organizations that embrace strategic planning and do it well are high performance organizations.  They are efficient, well run and, most of all, have developed a culture of excellence that permeates every aspect of the organization.   In IT, strategic planning keeps the focus on the business and not on the technology.  A good IT strategic plan is clear that technology is a tool to make the organization run better.  It’s not about how many IT projects you can cram into your three year plan.  If there is any one department that would benefit most from doing strategic planning well it would be IT.